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Cubans visit Vermont farms
to choose heifers
By Susan Smallheer Rutland
Herald. The
Times Argus, June 14, 2005.
PUTNEY - They came, they saw, they purchased:
Vermont Holstein heifers, the taller and
lankier the better.
Government visitors from Cuba started their
farm tour of the Green Mountain State on
Monday, visiting farms in Windham County
and selecting heifers with impeccable pedigrees
and plenty of promise of milk.
The three-person delegation, a veterinarian,
a businesswoman for the country's import
agency and a cattle expert with a shrewd
eye, were accompanied by state agriculture
and business officials and officials from
the Holstein Association in Brattleboro.
They carried three-ring binders with each
prospective purchase's bovine pedigree.
According to Dr. Gerardo Quaassdorff, a
veterinarian who is the Holstein Association's
executive director of international marketing
and development, the Cubans were looking
for top-notch breeding stock and were very
curious about the animals' pedigree and
genetics. They were willing to pay a good
price as well, about $2,000 per head.
Quaassdorff had vetted the animals in advance,
visiting farms all over the state and lining
up the prospective heifers. The biggest
number of animals is expected to come from
the Roy Homan farm in Chester, which is
expected to sell about 50 heifers to the
Cubans. But there are farms in Addison,
Orleans and Franklin counties selling animals,
as well as Windham and Windsor counties.
Quaassdorff said that while Vermont farmers
aren't selling the Cubans their top breeding
stock, they are selling them some of their
top animals.
Cows and heifers, as well as food, agricultural
products and medical supplies, are exempt
from the 43-year-old U.S. trade embargo
of Fidel Castro's communist regime, according
to Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Steve
Kerr.
The Cubans hope to purchase a total of
about 100 Holstein and Jersey heifers from
Vermont farmers, and another 100 from dairy
farms in Maine, with other heifers coming
from Pennsylvania, Florida and Minnesota.
Cubans have a long-term goal of doubling
the size of their dairy industry, according
to Tatiana Taboada Gonzalez, the only member
of the Cuban group who spoke English.
Taboada said that Cuba currently has about
1.5 million dairy cows, which are insufficient
to provide enough milk and dairy products
for the country of 11.3 million people.
"The first goal is to be self-sufficient,"
she said.
In the 1980s, Cuba had a large dairy industry,
boasting 2.5 million cows, she said.
But with the collapse of the Soviet Union
in the late 1980s, Cuba's main trading partner
stopped supporting the Cuban economy, and
the milk cows were slaughtered for meat
when the country faced real hunger and starvation,
Kerr said.
According to Taboada, Cuba currently imports
about $900 million in food and foodstuffs
to feed its population.
The heifers are actually being purchased
by John Parke Wright IV, a cattle dealer
from Naples, Fla., who is coordinating the
purchase of 500 cows for the Cubans.
Wright, wearing an elegant suit, white
Stetson cowboy hat and clear-plastic booties
over his dress loafers to prevent the transmittal
of disease from farm to farm, did the bargaining
and haggling over the heifers.
The visitors eyed three Holstein heifers
at the Putney School that Peter Stickney,
the farm's manager, had set aside in the
barn for them inspect. Tall and lanky, all
three were "short-bred," that
is they would calve in about five to six
months. They bought one Holstein heifer,
Stickney said.
The talk among the cattle people was about
vaccinations and breeding, with Dr. Ernesto
F. Mendoza Mainegra, Havana provincial director
for the Ministry of Agriculture, asking
about the vaccinations.
Vladimir Martinez Martinez, the cattle
evaluator, kept his eyes on the heifer's
hind quarters and her tiny udder.
Wright and the Cubans wanted animals that
wouldn't give birth for a while, so they
could get through the stressful shipping
process while the calf embryo was small
and give the heifers a chance to get acclimated
to the Cuban climate before joining a milking
herd.
If Monday's weather was any help - hot
and extremely humid with temperatures flirting
with 90 - the cows are ready for Cuba.
Quaassdorff said that the heifers would
probably leave Vermont next week, and would
be shipped to a U.S. Department of Agriculture
quarantine facility in Pennsylvania. After
the two to three-week quarantine, they would
be trucked to Florida and then placed on
a ship bound for Cuba.
The Cuban delegation began their visit
to Vermont with a tour Sunday afternoon
of the Roy and Donna Homan farm in Chester.
The three officials were briefed by the
Homans on the farm's 500-herd operation
- everything from the material used to cover
the dairy barn's roof and embryo development
to the feed and health care of the animals.
The Cubans, who will return to the Homan
farm today to buy up to 50 heifers, were
impressed with what they saw of the 300-acre
farm.
"I think it's very nice," said
Taboada of Alimport, the government import
agency. "I'm pretty impressed with
the cows and the facility as well."
The cow-buying trip is part of a trade
deal arranged last fall by Kerr and others.
The deal included 3,000 metric tons of powdered
milk valued at $6 million at the time, with
as much product as possible coming from
Vermont dairy farms, either through Agri-Mark
or the St. Alban's Co-op.
The Cubans are also buying 4,000 bushels
of Vermont apples this fall - double the
amount they ordered last year.
At the Putney School, there was a gift
as well, as the private school gave the
Cuban government a purebred Jersey from
its herd.
The doe-eyed Jersey, called Little Debbie,
was used to attention: she was a veteran
of the local popular cow parade, The Strolling
of the Heifers, in Brattleboro.
"Little Debbie goes to Havana,"
joked Wright.
The visitors didn't look the gift cow in
the mouth.
"She'll be the friendship cow, the
peace cow," said Wright, eager to please.
"Cows can go where political people
can't."
Contact Susan Smallheer at susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com.
Business reporter Bruce Edwards contributed
to this story.
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