Strong wool eyes China
China looks set to play a key role in helping the New Zealand wool sector shift away from trading as a commodity supplier.
Scientists with the Northwest A&F University successfully saw the births of three cloned cows with highly desired traits in Northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region recently.
This marks the first successful effort by Chinese scientists to collect, restore and conserve the germplasm resource of “super cows” in China with the somatic cell nuclear transfer method and efficiently reproduce them. These are super cows, capable of producing 18 tons of milk a year and over 100 tons of milk in a lifetime.
The plan is for China to concentrate and preserve in an economically feasible way the very best cows in the country, and it is a success in the country’s efforts to revitalise its agricultural sector with vital seed and breeder animals.
