Somewhere in the distance, under the watchful eye of her mounted cowherd, Kateryna’s thirty-five dairy cows graze. The twenty bulls are in the barn. They are happy to have their picture taken with the farmer, but they don’t look at the camera: they are far too busy filling their stomachs with fresh hay. The fifty calves are more curious. With their long tongues they latch onto your finger: if they weren’t in the barn, they would follow you. “The animals keep me going when I feel desperate or exhausted,” says Kateryna.
Impact of the war
The war brought disaster to her dairy farm near Poltava, in eastern Ukraine. From one day to the next, the neighboring dairy stopped taking their milk. Other factories continued working but didn’t pay enough. Fuel costs skyrocketed, as did the prices of parts and equipment. Because the price of milk is regulated in Ukraine, it couldn’t be sold at a higher price. At the same time, her ten employees and the taxes had to be paid. “It was a disaster.”
A different approach
Kateryna gradually started giving away the milk. For example, to the four thousand refugees who arrived in the region. Many other people fled from her region. The vets too. On the first night of the war, one of the cows had a difficult birth, she remembers: after the calf was born, the animal could no longer stand. For the first time, she put in an IV herself. After a few hours of treatment, the cow stood on all fours again. “That moment gave me wings.” Since then, she has treated her animals herself.
Fortunately, Kateryna had bought a generator just before the war started. That turned out to be the best investment ever. In the first few months, the farm had to deal with periods of power outages. At the moment, electricity is still rationed: there is power for two hours, then no power for four hours. If there is shelling, the light can go out completely for two or three days. The refrigerators for storing milk need power; as does the equipment for milking the cows.
Adjusting to the new life
A period of major adjustments began. For example, Kateryna purchased a pasteurizer to keep the milk fresh for longer. It had to be small enough not to use too much power, and it had to have a connection for the car battery: if there was no electricity, the device would run on the car. She also bought a smaller refrigerator for the milk, which uses less power. Before the war, they milked the cows three times a day; now they only do that twice.
This way, they can use the generator for cheese and butter production. Because that is perhaps the biggest adjustment to the business process: Kateryna started making cheese. “That way, the milk didn’t go to waste.” The farmer leads us past a rack full of freshly made cheeses: she sells yellow cheese in all shapes and sizes, and brie-like cheese for drinks. Kateryna proudly lets us taste it. She serves it with coffee with milk she produced herself.
The business is now running properly again — albeit thanks to an enormous talent for improvisation. Kateryna’s husband is responsible for the technology. He buys tractors that have already been scrapped and repairs them into fully-fledged machines. They use them to plough their fields, on which they grow grain, and mow the grass. Both the grain and the hay are used as cattle feed. If necessary, they can even do without a tractor: when there was no petrol at the beginning of the war, they ploughed their land the old-fashioned way with horses.
Helping each other survive
So some help would be welcome. Thanks to a fund, Kateryna now supplies her milk for a fee to refugees, families of soldiers and families with disabled children. But there is still much to be desired. For example, Kateryna’s husband urgently needs a machine to make hay bales, so that storage is easier. He would also like to drill a water well, so that no electricity is needed to provide the animals with water. “Everything is connected. There are always worries.”
They would also like to expand their opportunities to work with children. She regularly invites children with disabilities and refugee children to the farm. “Our children are already reacting so strongly to the war. What does this situation mean for them?” The children pet the calves, help milk the cows, and are allowed to make cheese themselves. “We show them that they can do something themselves. That makes them feel better. And that gives me hope again.”
TGS business supported 60 farmers in 2023. We were involved in an aid project and deliverd seeds. We kept contact with the farmers and talked to them about the situation
Recent Comments