Originally published February 2000
25 years of Cattle Country means the Manitoba Beef Producers archive is full of unique stories and photos. Each week throughout 2023 MBP will be sharing some of the most interesting content that was published. We hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane!
Teaching farmers in the Ukraine an enriching experience for Dauphin forage specialist
By: Karen EmilsonRemember the days when we used horses and ploughs to break the land? Before hydro, tractors and telephones? Carts were handmade and grains were stooked by hand?
For Pam Iwanchysko, forage specialist with Manitoba Agriculture and Food in Dauphin, a recent trip to the Ukraine was like a step back in time.
Iwanchysko was part of a four member team from Saskatchewan and Manitoba that took part in year one of a fouryear program to help develop agriculture in the Ukraine. Iwanchysko’s responsibility was to teach beef and forage technology to a group of veterinarians, animal scientists, forage agronomists, government extension employees and selected farmers in rural parts of the country.
“We wanted to focus on people who could spread as much information as possible,” said Iwanchysko, during an interview from her office in Dauphin shortly after her return home.
Iwanchysko spent six months in the country after being selected as the forage specialist as part of the CanadaUkraine Beef and Forage development project.
While there, most of her time was spent in the rural area of Periaslav-Khmelnytski. She described the climate as “beautiful” with a long growing season (200 frost free days), tall trees, huge orchards, sandy soils and plenty of sunshine.
“It only rains at night,” she said, adding she arrived in the country in April of 1999 and stayed until October – a full growing season. She spent two months on a communal farm, financed by Semex, to introduce the concepts of rotational grazing. Iwanchysko, who speaks some Ukrainian, delivered her courses in English through an interpreter.
“We taught the basics,” she said. “Things like calving intervals, types of forages, and how to perform a cesarean.” There, private farming is virtually non-existent and very different from what’s done in Canada. The land is owned by the government and farmers are allocated a number of hectares of land to work. It is very difficult to prosper because there is no money to expand or finance equipment.
The country has a new breed called a Volynska. Because farmers can’t afford bulls, most of the cows are bred through artificial insemination. This has resulted in a cross between a local Holstein-type cow that looks like a Limousin.
Iwanchysko said the Ukraine is so far behind in technology that she can’t even estimate how long it will take before that country’s agricultural production standards meet what’s being achieved in Canada.
“At times it was frustrating because of the way technology is there, everything moved so slow,” she said. “But at the same time it was such a wonderful feeling to teach and help.”
She described the students taking part in the program as very ‘keen.’ The people she encountered appeared to want to improve farming conditions – but were limited by a lack of knowledge and money.
Time spent in a small village visiting with members of her husband’s family gave her a true appreciation for what everyday life was like.
“The people were all so poor, but so wonderful. They welcomed me with open arms and news spread fast that I was there,” she said, describing how the village had only one phone. The homes hand no running water, were heated with woodstoves and many didn’t have hydro. They eat what they can grow and sell everything they can.
She said that older people remember Communism as a better way of life. They don’t like the change and worry about the future of their families. They young people, on the other had, see the fall of communism as a sign of opportunity. They are learning English and working at places like McDonald’s – which earns them $500 a month.
“In a country where the average wage is $30 a month, McDonald’s workers are rich,” she said. They city contrasts dramatically with life in the rural areas. The markets bustle with activity, noise and colour. Unfortunately, the darker side of capitalism means there is a tremendous black market and a lot of theft.
Visiting a church in Kiev, a city of approximately 3 million people, helped Iwanchysko put the whole experience into perspective. As she thought about life in Canada and all of the privileges we enjoy and how it contrasts so sharply with the poverty there, the congregation rose and begin singing. Although she couldn’t understand all of the words, goosebumps rose on her skin as she felt both their pain and their strength.
“They are a people with tremendous hope and beauty,” she said. “That’s something I’ll never forget.”