Requirements for exporting dairy heifers to China

All dairy heifers destined for export to China must have an Australian Dairy Breeding Animal Certificate. This certificate contains certain pedigree and identification information to satisfy Chinese Ministry of Agriculture specifications to qualify for its import duty waiver.

Vendors must provide:

• three full generations of the paternal pedigree (i.e. sire, sire’s parents and sire’s grandparents). All sires must be Holstein.
• two generations of the dam’s paternal pedigree (i.e. the dam, her sire and her grandsire). All dams must be Holstein.
• a National Livestock Identification number for each animal.

To be eligible heifers must be visually assessed as meeting the Holstein breed standard. This usually occurs while heifers are in quarantine.

Herd recording centres and Holstein Australia are the only organisations that can enter this information onto the ADHIS database. Holstein Australia will then issue an Australian Dairy Breeding Animal Certificate to the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture for those animals that comply with the requirements.

If you do not herd test or register your animals (or if you purchase and rear export heifers), you will need to obtain this information and record it on a Heifer Information form for entry onto the ADHIS database by a herd recording centre or Holstein Australia. Fees will apply for this service. Note that some of this information may already be contained on the ADHIS database.