Monday, November 16, 2009

Most expensive cow-world record set by Missy    

 TORONTO, Canada-- During the Toronto's annual Royal Agricultural Winter Fair , a three-year-old dairy cow, bred in P.E.I. and previously owned by Alberta's Morsan Farms, was sold at auction for $1.2 million-setting the new world record for the Most expensive cow .

 Photo: Missy the Cow, seen on the right, was sold for $1.2 million at the Royal Agricultural Fair in Toronto ( enlarge photo )

  "She's by a very popular sire, the most popular sire in the world right now, which has global demand everywhere," said Bloyce Thompson, the owner of Eastside Holsteins at Frenchfort, Prince Edward Island, who bred the 3-year-old cow.

   "She sold with contracts for embryos and calves and sons so there will be a great impact in world genetics with Missy in a lot of years to come" said Thompson, who added that makes Missy's offspring "priceless.

   Chris Parry, Morsan Farms' marketing manager, said that the buyers will have the rights to Missy's embryos. Over the course of her life, Missy could have as many as 75 youngsters.

 The sale, to two buyers from the U.S. and Denmark, makes Missy only the second cow in Canada to crack the million dollar mark.

    Morsan Farms marketing manager Chris Parry says while the buyers have the rights to the genetically-superior Missy's embryos, she won't be leaving Canada. Instead, she'll remain in Ponoka, Alta., where she's been for nearly two years.

   "She's quite a character. She has the personality that she knows people like her," says Parry. "She likes to show herself off."

   The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair -the world’s largest indoor agricultural and international equestrian competition- has been home to the rodeo show, hundreds of exhibits, and competitions since its inception in 1922.

   Prince Charles and his wife Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall opened the 2009 fair with 10,000 visitors there to greet them.