Why an Altai farmer abandoned cows and now breeds sheep

A farmer from the Troitsky district, after six years of work, became disillusioned with dairy farming and decided to breed beef sheep. So far, he does not regret that he changed the direction of his activity, and is making serious plans. 

Unfortunate experience

Alexander Vyatkin is a zoo engineer by education. He registered his farm in 2015 to engage in dairy farming. Then it was a profitable business, recalls a rural entrepreneur. As a novice farmer, he received a grant from the regional budget and purchased several dozen heads of thoroughbred cattle.

Things went well. There were 180 cows in the KFH, of which 80 were dairy cows. MILK went for 24 rubles per liter, and food could be bought inexpensively.

But time passed, costs grew, but production did not. Last year, they bought milk from him for only 19 rubles. Such a price did not cover the costs, and processors strove to underestimate the fat content or announce a shortage.

“They are monopolists, set prices in sync,” complains Vyatkin. Everything has risen in price, except for milk. I can’t get out of loans, I owe Sberbank about 3 million rubles.”

But the main problem is the lack of land for growing fodder. They had to be bought from neighbors, who at one time took possession of the fields and meadows.

“They do not keep livestock themselves, but earn on the sale of grain and feed. I don’t understand how they manage to renew lease agreements for district land without auctions,” the farmer wonders.

Less hassle

This January, Vyatkin got rid of cattle, now he is selling the last calves.

Together with cows and bulls, two cattlemen, two milkmaids and a calf left the peasant farm.

Abandoning the production of beef and milk, the farmer took up sheep breeding. There are only 300 hectares of land in the KFH. But they are enough to feed the flock.

In 2020, the farmer purchased 150 queens of the Edilbaev breed. It belongs to the coarse-haired sheep of the meat-greasy direction. Like all Kazakhstan fat-tailed sheep, these animals are most adapted for nomadic transhumance sheep breeding, they perfectly tolerate extreme cold and heat, and a long absence of water.

In general, there is much less trouble with them than with cows. Only three people are enough for care, electricity is not consumed, milk does not need to be analyzed every day, laying out 800 rubles each.

The flock spends all the warm season on pasture, and in winter it eats hay, which the peasant farm prepares from its fields.

“We have seeded grasses, which make excellent roughage, and after lambing, the sheep also get oats,” says Alexander Vyatkin.

In addition to food, animals need veterinary control. They are treated for insects, examined for infectious diseases, vaccinated and microchipped for control so that not a single kilogram of MEAT is sold without documents. 

In the autumn, a ram is let into the flock to cover the sheep, and in the spring it is taken to a separate paddock.

Lambing is carried out once a year in early spring. Last year, 200 lambs were born. In October, young rams began to be sold. From each you can get 28-30 kg of pure meat, and from an adult sheep - 40-50 kg. The lamb leaves, as they say, in flight. Buyers today are ready to pay 430 rubles per kilogram.

There are no problems with slaughtering, since there are two slaughterhouses in the Troitsky district and a third is being done nearby.

But no one in the Altai Territory needs skins and wool. Last year, the farm workers cut a mountain of it, loaded it into two KamAZ trucks and took it to a landfill. In order not to bother with wool, the farmer decided to buy dorper rams, which shed themselves. One such ram weighs 130 kg and costs about 300 thousand rubles. So far, we have acquired two male dorpers and five females.

It is clear that the rams covered not only their compatriots, but also all the Edilbaev sheep. In March, their lambing began. Crossbred lambs will not shed yet this year, but their daughters, covered with a different dorper, should acquire this trait next year. Thus, it will be possible to get away from the haircut.

Now Vyatkin has about 340 sheep, from which he expects to get 500-550 lambs next year. The task is to expand the breeding stock to 1,000 sheep over the next two years. 

But the farmer was left without working capital, daily coming from the sale of milk. And he needs to hold out for two years to form financial reserves from new business.

“If we could get a grant from the state, then we could buy good animals with this money and start a breeding farm,” Vyatkin dreams. - I called the district administration, was interested in state support. They told me: “We don’t give money for the development of meat animal husbandry, especially for sheep breeding.” For some reason, this industry is not supported by the authorities. But before there were state farms in the region, where they kept 12 thousand heads.

Responsible time

On the farm, where cows mooed not so long ago, sheep now live with newborn lambs, several pigs grunt in the corral, geese and ducks walk along the aisle, several decorative chickens sit on top of the fences. But these living creatures are not for sale, but for their own needs, Alexander Vyatkin explains.

He introduces his best worker, who last year received a diploma for winning the regional labor competition. 

Senior shepherd Aleksey Samodurov has been working on the farm for three years, before that he worked in the fire department. But since he always kept cattle on his personal farmstead, he decided to engage in agriculture professionally.

Now Samodurov has a responsible time. Every hour, even at night, you have to go out to the sheep so as not to overlook the lamb, pick up a newborn, or even two, in time, wipe it off and bring it into a warm room.

“You also need to take the sheep with you, milk the first streams of milk from her, otherwise the lamb will not be able to suck because of the plugs in the nipples,” explains the shepherd. Alexei calls the established opinion about the stupidity of sheep a myth.

“These animals are smarter than some people,” the shepherd laughs.