Los Holsteinos

At the annual livestock convention in Toronto's Royal York Hotel last week, the big talk was about Holsteins. The Holstein-Friesian Association of Canada reported that in 1948, its best year yet, registered sales of purebred Holsteins reached a record total of 61,539 (there were all sorts of guesses on how many more sales went unregistered). Almost half of the animals had been exported, the largest number to the U.S., whose big demand for Holstein and other breeding stock has made Canada a leading exporter in the business. The rest went to 18 different countries, most of them in Latin America.

On the convention floor, breeders buzzed about an export deal that made 1949 look even more promising. Just a few days before, on his first trip to Canada, a Chilean cattleman named Jose Barros had agreed to pay Hays Ltd., Canada's largest exporter of Holsteins to the south, a whopping $79,340 for 15 purebreds, including a $15,000 bull named Sonniwilk Sovereign.

The man most responsible for the hemisphere trade is a Spanish-born (1889), Chilean-raised, U.S.-trained salesman for Hays named Eladio Susaeta. His first employer, a rich Chilean rancher, sent him north to study animal husbandry at the University of California. Susaeta wrote his boss what he learned about milk-rich Holsteins, convinced him that milk could be as profitable as the beef on which Latinos concentrated. Returning with a B.S. in 1917, Susaeta brought several head along with him. He later stocked a ranch of his own with los Holsteinos, began promoting them far & wide. Ultimately he gave up as a breeder, decided to become a broker.

The owners of Hays Ltd., two brothers named Tom and Harry Hays, first met Eladio Susaeta in 1940 when he came to Canada looking for clients. Five years later he was on their payroll. Since then Susaeta has made two trips a year through the hemisphere, has sold Holsteins from Puerto Rico to Argentina. Venezuela and Uruguay are his steadiest customers. Elsewhere sales have increased in direct ratio to urbanization, which has boosted the demand for milk.

Susaeta claims that if it weren't for the dollar shortage he could sell $500,000 worth of Holsteins to Chileans alone. Chile has done as much as it could to help. This year it raised the permissible limit on dollars for purebred imports by 100%. Unfortunately for Salesman Susaeta, he has already almost filled the resulting $100,000 limit, and still has eleven months to go.

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