In what is thought to be the first time semen from an Australian-bred Charolais bull will be exported to Ireland, the Blanch family's Charnelle Panama (P) will soon make his mark on foreign soil.
Selected by the Irish Cattle Breeders Federation to be part of their extensive testing and evaluation program in pedigree and dairy herds within the country, a package of 700 straws will be flown to Ireland alongside genetics from three Angus bulls.
Breeder Graham Blanch said they were excited by the international interest Panama had acquired and the prospect of him putting calves on the ground in Ireland.
"We're very happy; it's taken a year in the process of it all but it looks definitely that they have selected him and he's going," he said.
Sired by Elder's Blackjack 788B (P) and out of US embryo import Charnelle Elle (P), the rising three-year-old ranks very highly for growth, gestation, carcase traits, fertility and low birthweight.
"We saw Blackjack in Canada in 2016 on a visit there looking for some new genetics; his first lot of calves were six-months-old at the time and simply outstanding, so we selected him as a bull that we wanted to use over here in Australia in our own herd," Mr Blanch said.
"Because we only have a small herd, we also wanted to market him Australia-wide and see the benefits Australia-wide by this particular bull and it's just gone from strength to strength."
With the intention of showcasing the impressive young sire to international interests at the Charolais World Congress last year, semen was collected from Panama in early 2020.
"Obviously that (Congress) didn't happen with COVID, but we then got an enquiry from Ireland that they were looking for bulls with a shorter gestation and low birthweight - the Irish Cattle Breeders Federation thoroughly test performance, calving and suitability for markets in both beef cattle over dairy herds and the pedigree herds - and so we sent a lot of information, a lot of photos and videos, everything that we could, and he was selected," Mr Blanch said.
There's also been buzz around Panama on home soil.
"Before all of this, Panama was selected by Semex Australia; they have the Australian rights to him and they've selected him as what they call a CAP sire which is a Charolais acceleration program," Mr Blanch said.
"They bought 500 straws from us at quite a low price for people to use him in Australia and to get performance data.
"We also have negotiations and we feel very certain that we're making a sale to South Africa to a stud breeder over there... and we've had interest in the US and Norway as well.
"In the meantime, he has been sold to a really good stud breeder at Holbrook and he's doing a really great job down there. We have our first few calves by him, but we'll certainly be seeing a lot more I think."
