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Fleece, cloth, and full belly

The Crimea hosts the third goat and sheep breeders’ festival

Photo taken from SCIENCENEWSFORKIDS.ORG

Simferopol — A mass celebration was declared in the village of Tsvitkove, Bilohirsk Rayon in the Crimea, on the occasion of the village’s 240th anniversary. The Ukrainian community baked a korovai, a traditional bread, and brought it on embroidered towels to the accompaniment of folk songs. The Crimean Tatars of the village prepared meat for the kebabs, made fires, and danced khaitarma with abandon. The Russians, too, brought in their towels, songs, and dances. The people of Tsvitkove were celebrating the Turkic harvest feast and had invited sheep and goat breeders from all over the Crimea, southern Ukrainian oblasts, Transcarpathia, and Rostov oblast of the Russian Federation.

In the back yard of the local community center sheepfolds were built, where the best goats, rams and ewes of the neighborhood were exhibited. There was also an auction to sell sheepskins, astrakhans, wool and wool clothes, as well as prize animals and equipment, such as milking machines for goats, utensils for making cheese, shears, vet medicines, etc.

The program also included a conference on the industry’s challenges and prospects, as well as a presentation of the project to build the Sheep and Goat Breeding Exhibition and Training Center. It is only now that the experts have seen how sheep breeding has deteriorated over the past decades in the Crimea, although the conditions for sheep breeding here are really superb. Some 20 years ago there were about 1.2 million sheep on the peninsula, while nowadays the figure is just slightly above 300,000. Altogether in the southern steppes of Ukraine there used to be 10 million sheep. Meanwhile, the demand for the products of this industry is huge. Both sheep and goat breeding can be a very lucrative business. As an old Ukrainian proverb goes, it gives you fleece, cloth, and a full belly.

German researchers have proven that lamb depresses the development of tumor cells in people and even destroys them. The components of goat milk make it the closest substitute for human breast milk. This product is widely used in Germany and other EU countries in baby foods. The use of organic, wholesome produce in nurseries, day care centers, and hospitals is a guarantee of the nation’s good health.

Iryna Dmytrieva, a farmer from Simferopol Raion, said that she was prompted to start breeding goats when her husband fell ill, and goat milk helped him recover. Now Oleksandr Dmytriev runs a sheep and goat breeding farm.

The need for improvement of the population’s diet in Ukraine urged the government to pass a decree “On the Development and State Support for Sheep Farming in 2003–10”. In this relation, the Crimean Ministry for Agrarian Policy is preparing a regional program to develop sheep and goat breeding, aiming to improve Ukrainians’ diet. For example, in the Crimea there are 1,058 nurseries and day care centers catering for 236,150 children daily. In order to ensure quality nourishment, these institutions need 118 tons of goat milk and 18 tons of dietetic lamb and goat meat. For the Crimean hospitals, the respective figures are 25 tons of whole milk and 4.5 tons of meat.

According to Liudmyla Semenova, head dietician of the Crimean Ministry for Health Care, at least one third of this amount should be covered by sheep and goat milk and milk products. The daily demand for goat and sheep milk in the Crimea alone is 68,000 liters and for meat, 22.5 tons. The present-day herd could, on condition of efficient production and processing, ensure the yearly production of 2,250 tons of lamb, 300 tons of sheep cheese, and 14 million tons of goat milk.

Mykola Kolisnychenko told The Day that the Crimean government is seeking to revive this industry and double or even triple the number of sheep and goats in the near future. A program is being developed along this line in order provide the nation with quality foods and speed up the renewal of sheep and goat farming in the Crimea.

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