«At 6.30 pm on March 8, the Russians fired over 30 shells at our dairy farm from a rocket launcher. This aimed shelling destroyed our farm warehouses, damaged roofs, destroyed the milking block, parlour, and the milk-cooling tank. They killed many cows and burnt the machinery.

At the time our workers were at the farm and they miraculously survived. Since then we could not operate. The next morning at 9 am the occupants entered our village," he says.

A shell went right through the cattle shed roof killing cows. Photo: Hryhoriy Tkachenko

The Russians blew up the new grain drying facilty on the farm. Photo: Hryhoriy Tkachenko

Hryhoriy and his family were forced to leave the village, which had been under occupation for almost a month. It wasn’t until March 30 that Hryhoriy could return to his farm and investigate the real damage done after the Russians had been driven out of the area by Ukrainian forces.

Most of the machinery on Hryhoriy's farm has been destroyed. Photo: Hryhoriy Tkachenko

The owner believes the Russians continue to bomb and mine farms because they know Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe and they want to destroy the food chain.

«In all the regions of hostilities the Russians bomb farms and machinery. These are civilian, not military objects. There is no doubt they do this on purpose. They know well that Ukraine is an agrarian country, where the share of agriculture in GDP is up to 15%. That is why they are deliberately destroying the bases of our food security and economics,» he says.

Restoration has begun. The sowing campaign started on 20 April. However, the fields are full of mines left behind by the occupiers and de-mining takes a long time. The farm buildings are being repaired, and the DeLaval service team is helping to repair the milking parlour. They have gathered the cows that ran away from the farm during shelling.

Colleagues in the industry helped with an internet connection and electricity. The farmer received StarLink system from Kees Huizinga, of Kischenzi Farm (Cherkasy region). Thanks to that, an internet connection was provided in the building that now substitutes for the farm-office.

Dairy cows and calves were left to wander among the damaged buildings for weeks. Photo: Hryhoriy Tkachenko

«We have a long way before us to restore, but we believe in the victory of Ukraine, and we are not going to quit our agrarian business or stop the farm,» the owner of the farm says.

It should be noted that Naporivske dairy farm, before the Russians occupied and tried to destroy it, had come a long path to becoming: from 6 ha of land and 3 cows to over 1,500 ha and a dairy herd of 326 cows. At first, Simmental cows were bred, then they have been undergoing so called «Holsteinisation'. In 2016, a new DeLaval milking parlour was designed and installed. Last autumn, a new grain drying facilities, most of which have now been destroyed, was completed. In 2021 the farm was achieving over 6,00 0kg of milk per cow per year and were planning to reach at least 7,000 kg by the end of 2022.

Milkua.info