Alex Pelikh is the director of Suvorovo Joint-Stock Company which was founded twenty years ago and produces milk, meat, and grain. Pelikh was not satisfied with milk yields and wanted to learn more about American approaches to dairy herd management. He sought help from USAID’s Farmer to Farmer program which sponsors experts to advise farm groups, agricultural education institutions, and agribusinesses.

In 2003, Damon Szymanski traveled to Krasnodar, Russia to provide Suvorovo with assistance. Szymanski, a dairy farmer from Wisconsin, has traveled to Russia since 1992 as part of USAID’s Farmer to Farmer program administered by ACDI/VOCA. Farmer to Farmer volunteers provide guidance on various agricultural issues such as herd management techniques, feed and protein sources, and sanitation practices, as well as upgrading equipment maintenance, and adopting refrigerated storage and chilling technologies.

At Suvorovo farm, Szymanski helped to improve feed rations by replacing straw and feed-beets with more nutritious mixes, and encouraged the company to adopt better practices for breeding and management. The improved nutrition enabled the cows to produce more milk. As a result, Suvorovo increased total milk production by 14.7% as well as its average annual milk yield per milking cow from 3,500 kg to 4,015 kg, leading to an increase in net revenue for the company.