'Elite cattle': Heavy cow that's 'closest to perfection' fetches millions at auction, breaking world records
Viatina-19 is twice as heavy as an average adult of her breed
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A Brazilian cow broke records after selling for more than $4 million at an auction, more than three times the last record holder’s price.
Weighing 2,400 pounds, Viatina-19 FIV Mara Movéis is twice as heavy as an average adult of her breed. Viatina-19 is the result of Brazil’s years-long efforts to raise meatier cows so that more people will eat its beef.
Cattle in a corral in Brazil. (Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Per the Guinness World Records, Viatina-19 sold for the equivalent of $4.38 million in Arandú, São Paulo, Brazil.
Prizewinners are sold at high-stakes auctions — so high that wealthy ranchers share ownership. They extract the eggs and semen from champion animals, create embryos and implant them in surrogate cows that they hope will produce the next magnificent specimens.
"We're not slaughtering elite cattle. We're breeding them. And at the end of the line, going to feed the whole world," one of her owners, Ney Pereira, told The Associated Press after arriving by helicopter to his farm in Minas Gerais state. "I think Viatina will provide that."
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Pereira’s daughter, Lorrany Martins, said the hefty price stems from how quickly the cow put on vast amounts of muscle, from her fertility and how often she has passed those characteristics to her offspring.
Viatina-19 belongs to the Nelore breed of cow, like the ones pictured here. (Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Breeders also value posture, hoof solidity, docility, maternal ability and beauty. Those eager to level up their livestock's genetics pay around $250,000 for an opportunity to collect Viatina-19's egg cells.
"She is the closest to perfection that has been attained so far," Martins said. "She's a complete cow, has all the characteristics that all the proprietors are looking for."
A cattle rancher leads Nelore's cattle , near Miranda, Brazil. (Paulo Fridman/Corbis via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Viatina-19's owner, Pereira, said she gets special treatment to boost egg cell production, but would thrive were she put to pasture — where almost all his elite cattle feed.
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Viatina-19 is now pregnant and Pereira's is eyeing expansion. The cow's egg cells have sold to Bolivian buyers and Pereira wants to export to other countries like the United Arab Emirates, India and the US.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.