The founder of a pioneering project that helps families in rural Ukraine create and improve small-scale dairy farms visited Olds College of Agriculture & Technology to explore how it could assist the country’s producers.
“The objective of the Family Dairy Farms project for this period was 5,000 farms until 2030, but because of the war, we slowed down,” said Mykhailo Korylkevych, head of the Ukrainian Cooperative Federation.
“Now, we are increasing because we are getting used to the war. Of course, it’s unacceptable because every day, they are bombing. We do not know what happens tomorrow with this war because every day, we just hope that it finishes.”
He toured Olds College after visiting two Alberta dairy farms to learn first-hand how producers operate in Canada. He was in the province to attend the recent Rotary International Convention, which brought delegates from around the world to Calgary.
Korylkevych spearheaded the Family Dairy Farms project, which is Ukraine’s first-ever investment initiative for family dairy farms. It aims to promote rural entrepreneurship by supplying high-quality milk through the creation of networks of small farms, which typically have 15 to 50 cows.
More than 760 private investors, mostly Ukrainians, have joined the project, investing a total of US$2.7 million, said Korylkevych. “Ukrainians have chosen our project to support the Ukrainian village and small farmers, and through them the development of the country’s agricultural sector.”
The project seeks to promote dairy-related agribusiness clusters ranging from milk collection and farm construction to fodder production and veterinary services. Korylkevych said dairy production in rural Ukraine is recovering from the effect of Soviet-era Communist policies, which replaced small private producers with large collective farms.
Partly inspired by Quebec-headquartered Agropur, the Canadian model of dairy cooperatives has been promoted and adapted for family farms in Ukraine with Canadian support. It includes a $3-million dairy plant in western Ukraine funded by Global Affairs Canada to process milk from local dairy co-ops.
“We have dairy farms starting from 500 to 2,000 cows, but less than that, we have no farms, so we decided if we have cooperation with the families, we can reduce the payback period of each farm,” said Korylkevych. “It’s also a social impact project because if you help families to build their own business, they will have jobs. We learned a lot from the Canadian government.”
There is a deep connection between the two countries, said David Fullerton, Director of Applied Research at Olds College Centre for Innovation (OCCI). Many Albertans are descendents of pioneers from Ukraine who settled in the province in the early 20th century, he told Korylkevych.
As one of the top 50 research colleges in Canada, Olds College has a strong international presence that includes students from 36 countries. The campus hosted a tour last year by 29 ambassadors from nations around the world, who learned about digital agriculture and technology.
Visitors have included representatives from Uzbekistan, who signed an agreement April 29 to promote education in sustainable agriculture and environmental practices in their country.
“We provide a wide range of research and training that could potentially be adapted to help Ukrainian dairy farmers,” said Fullerton. “We welcome the opportunity to work with them.”
He guided Korylkevych and a small group of Ukrainians on a tour of the campus. Fullerton was assisted by Dr. Atul Nayyar, Senior Development Partner at OCCI and the Smart Farm, which is a high-tech, living laboratory for crop, livestock and agricultural equipment research totaling over 3,000 acres.
The start of full-scale war with Russia in 2022 forced the Family Dairy Farms project to halt its expansion to the eastern regions of Ukraine, said Korylkevych. The project’s team instead proposed a new strategy – to focus on strengthening family farms in the western part of the country where no active fighting is taking place, he said.
A professional veterinary centre was also created, and a mini-cheese factory business model was launched, allowing Ukrainian farmers to generate more profit from every litre of milk.
Korylkevych said a feed centre was also established to help meet farmers’ need for quality feed because feed accounts for up to 60 per cent of the cost of milk production. “It is a significant problem for dairy farmers in Ukraine,” he said following the tour.
“If you understand how to do this in a better way, that’s interesting to me. We’re currently preparing to sign a memorandum of cooperation with Olds College and are open to various forms of collaboration. Ukrainian small farmers work hard every day, doing a lot of manual labour, and we do our best to support them in every way that we can.”
Korylkevych watched as researchers explained cutting-edge equipment that tests livestock as part of studies to promote feed efficiency. The Vytelle SENSE system, formerly GrowSafe, monitors individual animal feed intake and body weight to assess Residual Feed Intake, a key measure of feed efficiency, said Dr. Yaogeng Lei, Research Scientist at the College’s Technology Access Centre for Livestock Production (TACLP).
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag readers at each bunk identify individual animals, linking their feed consumption to their unique ID. An in-pen weighing system allows for daily weight measurements.
“Our work here primarily focuses on three areas: improving production efficiency, animal health and welfare, and environmental sustainability,” explained Dr. Desiree Gellatly, Senior Research Scientist at TACLP. “We conduct studies with producers in these areas, or we collaborate with companies to test new technologies they’re developing.”
Canada provided $19.7 million to the Société de coopération pour le développement international (SOCODEVI) in 2015 to bolster small and medium-sized dairy businesses in Ukraine, with a special emphasis on those led by women.
It aimed to assist 10,000 dairy farmers in four key dairy producing regions in Ukraine by helping them establish cooperatives based on Canadian best practices. Its goal was to boost producer incomes by enhancing milk quality and quantity.
The project also sought to create 270 new family dairy farms, along with supporting 50 businesses within the dairy sector. An additional $20 million was announced in 2025 for a seven-year project in Ukraine.
It will boost the income of rural women and address food production deficits by providing training, mentorship, equipment and financial assistance to small-scale rural entrepreneurs. It seeks to improve farming techniques for women farmers, enhance the effectiveness of the cooperative movement, and increase women’s participation in higher-value agriculture and decision-making.
Nayyar said Olds College has helped producers since 1911, when it started as a provincially funded demonstration farm that assisted pioneer settlers. “We have more than a century of experience in research and training that could help Ukraine’s farmers, as well as producers in Canada and around the world.”
The Smart Farm is working towards providing producers with real-life applied research to help them make informed decisions about implementing technology in their own operations.