Brown Caucasian breed of cattle. Breed restoration. Gyumri breeding station. Armenia.

pionerprodukt.by continues to publish videos from the AgroExpedition “Agriculture and agritourism in Armenia”. In this video, we will see how the livestock sector is developing in the Gyumri breeding station.
Until 2019, the station specialized in breeding Holstein and Simmental cattle breeds, but now the focus is shifted to the revival of the brown Caucasian cattle breed, since it is this breed that is most adapted to the landscape and geographical conditions of Armenia.
For these purposes, cows with characteristic features of the brown Caucasian breed were selected from all over Armenia. After that, they were artificially inseminated with frozen semen of well-known brown Caucasian sires, thus restoring the almost extinct population.
The average annual milk yield of cows of this breed is 5.5 thousand liters of milk with a fat content of about 3.9%.
Despite the fact that the cows of the Caucasian brown breed have horns, they are removed at the station so that the cows do not injure each other.
Breeding of the Caucasian brown breed was carried out in the period from 1930 to 1960 by crossing Swedish, Kostroma and endemic aboriginal Caucasian cattle. This is a great work of Soviet scientists, and one of the tasks of restoring this breed is to preserve the memory of the work of specialists involved in this difficult experiment.
The total number of brown Caucasian cattle is about 200 heads, of which 40 heads are broodstock. By the way, over the past year their number has doubled.
The main part of the farm buildings was built in the Soviet years, and repair work is currently underway to expand the area and improve the conditions of detention.
Also on the territory of the station there is a kennel, which is located in a building built in 1949. Armenian Shepherds play an important role at the station - they protect livestock from wolves, which are found in the vicinity in large numbers. At the same time, the management notes that this building with a unique architecture will be rebuilt into a hotel in order to develop agro-tourism in Armenia.