MOSCOW, 15 November (BelTA) – A major dairy farm built with Belarus' assistance in the village of Razdolnoye, Korsakov District, Sakhalin Oblast, Russia has been opened, the press service of the Embassy of Belarus in Russia told BelTA.
According to the source, the best Belarusian practices were used to implement the project such as loafing barns and automated milking. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and President of Russia Vladimir Putin spoke in positive terms about the project in 2017.
The construction of the dairy farm began in 2016. Eight silage pits able to store 2,000 tonnes each had been built before that. The core buildings and structures have been built since then, including a processing building and engineering and transport infrastructure. The total area of the enterprise exceeds 30ha. The total area of the buildings and support structures exceeds 25,000m2.
The dairy farm is designed to produce over 7,000 tonnes of milk and 200 tonnes of meat for Sakhalin Island residents per year. The farm will be home to 1,000 head of cattle as the primary herd. Three cow barns and three calf barns are part of the farm. Optimal microclimate is maintained in all the buildings. The floor is covered with anti-slip mats to prevent animal traumas.
An agrotown designed after Belarusian fashion was commissioned in the village of Razdolnoye in February. It offered 50 one-story three-bedroom cottages with accompanying land plots as housing for the local agricultural company Sovkhoz Korsakovsky. Each house occupies about 100m2. Keys to the new homes were primarily given to young professionals and large families.
Sakhalin Oblast Agriculture Minister Mikhail Kuzmenko welcomed the commissioning of the dairy farm and the agrotown as a leap in the development of the agricultural company, Korsakov District and the entire agriculture of the island. Sakhalin Oblast now demonstrates the fastest growth of agriculture in the Far East region, he noted.
