Fly to Asia for $1,000 per cow

WOODSTOCK — Farmer John Ysselstein has been selling and flying cattle to Kazakhstan in central Asia for several years. He rents a jumbo jet to get the cattle across the ocean. Transportation costs are huge.

Air Charter Service, of Surrey, England, told Farmers Forum that it would rent a B747 to fly from Ottawa to Kazakhstan for $350,000, including pilot, crew, loading and off-loading.

Ysselstein’s shipments averaged 100,000 kg. (or about 340 beef heifers) per plane. That’s a cost of just more than $1,000 per cow.