My trip to Kazakhstan, along with that of an American counterpart, was to add profile and entertainment to a series of 10 seminars held between November 9 and 23 across northern Kazakhstan promoting the expansion of their beef industry. An organization called KazAgroMarketing has been charged with promoting beef cattle production and with providing technical information to assist producers to expand and improve their cow herds. This was the third series and one more will be held in the new year. They had hoped for attendance of about 80 at our seminars but averaged half that.
Kazakhstan used to have a big beef industry but after the collapse of the Soviet System, cows were sold off to generate cash and the numbers plummeted, similar to stories in all the other SSRs. Kazakhstan has 150 million hectares of pasture land (including mountain and desert grazing areas, I think) and grows a lot of grain each year which is a long way from tidewater. They are surrounded by countries that need to import beef including Russia (for now at least), China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq... so it is a no-brainer to support beef industry expansion. And every beef genetics salesman in the world is in Kazakhstan.
On the map below, the black stars are where we stayed - Astana, Kokshetau, Kustanay, Petropavlovsk and Karaganda. The red stars are the locations of the seminars that I could find on Google Maps. Several of the villages were too small to even get honourable mention. We would hit the road at 6 or 7 am and drive to the village, grab breakfast and set up the meeting room. Seminar ran from 10 to 1, then we would have lunch and drive another 30 minutes to a farm. There we would view their Kazakh white head cattle, and the American would demonstrate AI technique and ultrasound pregnancy testing. The American did it because he could else they would have had their own vet do it. We would get back to our hotel anywhere from 6 to 8 pm most days.
Professor Isabekov, fearless leader and excellent speaker
Dr Dan Larson, Minnesota, Nutrition and Reproductive Physiology
Front - Baurzhan, veterinarian and Balzhan, translator. Back - Kadyrzhan, nutritionist and Bayan, administration
MayB refers to all my pictures froom working trips as ABC. Another Bloody Cow. I like cows. I take pictures of cows. Many many pictures of cows. I have pictures of cows from all over the world. Now that I am back on line (railway station in Kyiv) I feel duty bound to share some of them with you.
These are Kazakh White Head cows. Many Many Many years ago the Soviet Union imported a bunch of Herefords from Canada. It would never do in the FSU (hey, that rhymed) just to have Canadian Herefords. They had to be "improved" by crossing with local Kazakh cattle and given a suitable new name so the university professor/institute scientist who invented the new breed could be famous. The "new breed" was recognized officially in 1953.
They are commercial Herefords in my opinion. They look like Hereford range cows maybe with body type from 30 to 40 years ago, with horns from the Kazakh Steppe cattle they were crossed with. They are good hardy productive cattle, too. Enjoy.
Yesterday was one of those 24 hour trips to Kyiv. I was applying for my Kazakhstan visa and hoping to get the Canadian Embassy to certify some true copies of documents I need to take with me.
Either I am getting old or the berths on that night train are getting harder. Not much sleep on the trip. McDonald's at the train station at 7:00 am is packed 12 deep at 12 tills. It took less than 10 minutes to get my breakfast. No complaints there. It is not a good place for s sudden onset of dysentery, though, as the wait for the men's bathroom was 20 minutes. Single stall. Obviously McDonald's adheres to local standards (none) as opposed to setting their own intelligent ones. We did let one guy jump queue as he appeared in a bad way.
Wanted to be at the Canadian Embassy at 9:00 but the line up at the can plus finding a bank machine plus rush hour on the Metro meant it was 9:30. They were able to handle three of my six documents, the others will have to go through the Ukrainian notarizing system. For some reason Kazakhstan want my diplomas to prove I have gone to university. At my age what difference does it make? Further more, I could find a few hundred people who never darkened the hallowed halls who could do a better job than I of describing Canadian beef cattle production in 10 to 15 minutes. So the embassy will do what I told the Kazakhs to do and that is contact the Registrar's Office. The paper diploma is only for decoration. But not in the FSU, I guess, where documents with STAMPS are sacred as the original scrolls of the Pentateuch.
It was 10:30 when I finally headed for the Kazakh Embassy to apply for my visa. I got off the Metro and looked for a place to change 400 Hrivna for $50 USD, the cost of the Visa. No luck. ALL the money changing booths in the area were closed up tight. I found a bank finally and was told that because I was a foreigner they couldn't change money for me. Some new currency law I didn't know about. Panic city. The Kazakhstan Embassy takes Visa applications until 12:00 noon. It is now 11:00 and I am running out of time. Call Tanya (who else??). She said try another bank. Some days I wonder about me.
I headed for the Kazakhstan Embassy and looked for a bank along the way. None. I was hoping I could talk Ivan (the guy at the Embassy who speaks English) into letting me pay in Hrivna or waiting to pay until I picked it up next week. I see a bank a few doors past the entrance to the Embassy. A very small branch. One desk, one teller, one security. In my bad Russian and the desk lady's bad English, I explained the problem well enough she understood and was instantly sympathetic. She said one magic word "resident" but I didn't have my Ukrainian Residency Card.
I got Tanya on the phone and she and the lady are having a conversation when I remembered THE STAMP. I had a permanent residency stamp in the back of my passport. Problem solved. The lady smiled and lit up like it was Christmas, took a quick copy of my passport and the stamp and the teller lady gave me my $50 along with two documents to sign for it. It was 11:35 when I got to the Kazakhstan Embassy.
Six people in front of me. I know the routine too well. Every one of them takes TIME and the clock is ticking. The lady at the counter finished as I found a chair. French lady and two of the people in line were her kids. She had driven from France through Europe to Ukraine and was planning on DRIVING through Russia, Kazakhstan, China (Xinjiang and Tibet) to Nepal where she was opening a restaurant ("the food in Nepal is terrible"). I learned all this while the second person in line was finishing at the counter. The other two people were still filling out documents so I was next.
Ivan had a good laugh at my currency adventures and promised my visa would be ready Monday even though I was coming Thursday. Finished at 11:50. Wringing wet, heart pounding and looking and feeling like the wrath of God. Found a Coffee House and had three cups of hot black bitter mud and a wild berry cheesecake to celebrate. This was after I went back and bought a small bouquet of flowers for the folks at that bank.
For five months, hundreds of workers from the oil fields of western Kazakhstan have been on strike demanding better pay and working conditions. Now the country's longest-running industrial dispute, it has led to the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in oil revenue, reports the BBC's Rayhan Demytrie.
Kazakhstan is a rich country. Oil and minerals bring in billions in royalties and profits to the government. Astana is gleaming with new buildings. Out in the harsh desert where the oil is being drilled for and pumped out, it is not as obvious. The oil workers are striking for danger pay they are provided for under law. the courts (government) has declared the strike illegal. Thousands have been fired. Demonstrations have been broken up by police. Activists have been arrested and jailed and one murdered.
1. My step-daughter-in-law. Today is *Lina's birthday. I went to their place for lunch. What a banquet she put on, just for the four of us (her mom and I extra). Tanya joined us on Skype so she wouldn't transfer any germs.
2. Smiles from a happy little girl. Yesterday I gave my old notebook computer to Natasha, Katya and Yuri's youngest daughter, who is 12. I deleted all my files and had MIR computer shop change all the programs to Russian language for her, bought a modem and paid the first months internet fees. It will do to start her off even if it is old and very slow.
3. Home-made ham and split pea soup. Easy internet recipe and tastes wonderful. Will make it again.
4. Tanya helping me manage negotiations for contracts, keeping tabs on all the pieces. My Manager!
5. Cats sleeping in the sun. Kuchma fell asleep in the sun on his little bed . Sun moved. Cat didn't. Tanya put toys beside him. Didn't even flick an ear.
*Sometimes I spell it Lena, sometimes Lina. Her name is pronounced Lee-na, not Len-a and not L-eye-na. The Cyrllic I/i is pronounced ee. Which is why the Ukrainian KKK member got confused when sent to the sheethouse but I digress.
My friend and colleague Al Scholz (A Well Fed World) sent me these pictures and said I could share them with my blog readers.
1000 ha (2500 acre) fields
1980's hoe press drills and tractors are still common in Kazakhstan
Al in the tractor cab much to the dismay of farm Agronomists. Agronomists don't drive tractors
The farm Al worked at had 16 combines, 6 Claas and 10 Russian built
Claas combines could thresh double the Russian built harvesters
Russian built combines hard at work fall 2010
These were built in Kostanai from the name on one of them
Al ran the combine too
They certainly look more modern than the old Don with the strawbuncher built onto the back
Al also wrote the following:
Russian Combines
I didn’t see any new or modern Russian combines close up, although there were some around. There are mostly old Russian combine types used by both large and smaller farmers – from the pre-1990 era – at least 4-5 different makes (and colours) from my recollection.
The large agri-holdings seemed to prefer European (Western) combines but that may be partly due to the marketing and in-field service offered by JD and Class (relatively good service). My opinion is that none of the current Russian equipment is up to par with the European (Western) farm equipment. And, the agri-holding companies have the money to buy expensive western equipment – and my recollection is that Russia was trying to sell Russian equipment at Western prices, which put them out of the picture.
Russian Farm Equipment Manufacturers
I do not know how many Russian companies are producing combines or other large farm equipment. I could find out but it would take a couple of emails with reps in Europe and some Internet search time. My hunch is that there’s many more manufacturers coming on stream these days to capture the expanding wheat production – and catch up to the 20 years of NOT replacing farm equipment. Let me know what you need.
Number of Combines in a 800-1,000 ha field
The two largest fields on the farm I worked on were about 800 ha. (2,000 acres). The managers wanted even larger fields. The average was closer to 300 ha (750 ac) with some smaller and some larger fields. Usually there would be 4 or 5 combines on an average 300 ha (750 ac) field and 3-4 large trucks hauling the grain long distances. It would take about 2-3 days to complete a field, which is seemed to be about normal because there were cook/kitchen trailers with water tanks that followed the combine crews and seemed to “set-up” for about three days for each location.
There seemed to be groups or crews of 25-35 people on shifts to operate 4 or 5 combines and 3-4 trucks along with service people, etc., etc. That appears to be the number that the cook/kitchen trailers could easily serve. These people would move from field to field as a unit group or field crew.
Note that same crews operated the 4-5 Russian seeding units for same fields. It required about the same number of service people to bring seed and fertilizer out to the fields as the harvest scenario’s.
Note that in any given field using Russian seeders or combines, it was rare to see them all moving at the same time. Usually one unit was down for repairs. Part of the reason is the age of the equpment – part was the speed of the repair staff as there were usually no tools and no spare parts – but they were masters at manufacturing their own spare parts – but it was slow and time consuming.
Note that the European/Western combines harvested roughly twice as quickly (twice the capacity) as the older Russian combines. The farm I was on had six Claas combines and only once did I see all six on a single field. It was a flax field. Normally the Claas worked in two groups of three machines – often with a couple of Russian combines with three Claas.
While in Kazakhstan, I visited the President of Grain Union, an organization of 15 farms totaling 3 million ha. (7.5 million acres) out of 16 million ha (40 million acres) of land currently under cultivation in Kazakhstan. The president's own farm had harvested 1 million ha (2.5 million acres) of wheat, the previous fall. My colleague, Al Scholz, had worked the previous summer for one of the members on their 5000 ha (of 300,000) research farm. The president assured us that no one in Grain Union needed the services of a dry land farming agronomist from Canada specializing in minimum tillage technology transfer.
Farm machinery dealers love these guys because they buy in unheard of volumes - dozens of combines or tractors at a time, each worth $250,000 to $350,000. One dealer said to me last year rather scornfully that the really nice couple we had just had lunch with, who ONLY farmed 25,000 ha (63000 acres) really weren't worth his time. They were just too small to bother with.
Yields on these big farms run about 1.5 tonnes/ha (22 bu.) under conditions which in Saskatchewan on smaller farms (1000 to 10,000 ha; 2500 to 25,000 acres) are producing average yields between 2.0 tonnes per ha or 30 bu/acre to 2.3 t/ha or 35 bu per acre on average. The difference isn't technology; it is management. Pure and simple, it is impossible to coordinate people well enough to do the right things at the right times on a local enough scale to get more grain out of the ground with the same inputs.
Land is leased from the state for 50 years at $0.67 per ha. or essentially free. Since there is no land security, banks don't loan money to farms. Their initial cash flow must come from somewhere else such as government business connections. The 15 big owners are all Kazakhs, certainly part of President Nazurbaey's power structure. My guess would be that the next tier down are all Russians or Ukrainians or Germans.
Oh, and the sole purpose of Grain Union organization? To lobby government.
Kazakhstan's beef cattle numbers halved in the first 10 years after independence as the big state farms got used to the idea of no subsidies from Moscow and frantically sold off cattle as the only liquidity they had. The villagers kept their cattle as they were a means to survive and today 85% of the cattle in Kazakhstan are in herds of one, two or three animals; past of subsistence agriculture.
The government of Kazakhstan has an ambitious plan to eventually double beef cattle numbers again by rebuilding herds on the big corporate farms. To that end there has been a great deal of planning and program development (Yes, Virginia, central planning is alive and well in the FSU). One part of the plan is to import 70,000 purebred cattle from Canada, USA and Australia, establishing herds of 1000 to 3000 cows on a number of qualifying farms. Needless to say, every genetics sales rep from the three countries mentioned is there salivating at the thought of huge sales.
So far, a North Dakota group has the jump, having sold some 1300 head (half of them Hereford, half of them Angus) into a joint venture with the Kazakh government. The cattle are located on a ranch about 3 hours NE from Astana. Sort of a giant demonstration farm. They have survived the first winter, calved out and when I was there, were being bred by AI using estrus synchronization to simplify and speed up the process.
Soviet production systems kept all cattle in barns in winter. Created employment but at huge costs. These cattle are kept outside as we do in North America, with sheds to take shelter in against the wind. A number of people including other North Dakota cattlemen I spoke with felt that the pens were too open and there should have been shelter fences around the perimeter of each pen.
Winter pens and open front sheds
Calving barn, I am guessing
Angus cows and calves, penning made from pipe
The Hereford and Angus cattle will be crossed with Kazakh cattle of which there are three main "breeds". Kazakh Red which is the native beef animal; Kazakh White Head which is a "new" breed developed in 1953 from Hereford and local cattle and another "new" breed Auliekolskaya developed in 1993 based on Charolais. These three breeds are not bad cattle to start a crossbreeding program from, being survivors of terrible management. They are small, rugged and hardy. Getting the villagers to cooperate and breed their cattle to Hereford and Angus and then sell the offspring to big farms will be a challenge. Akin to herding cats.
Kazakh White Head cow, with ND Hereford bulls in the pen behind her
Astana (formerly Tselinograd, then Akmola) has been the capital of Kazakhstan only for the past 13 years. When I was there 20 years ago, a few months before independence, it was a sleepy dusty little city on the southern edge of the great wheat belt of Kazakhstan.
Under the Russian and Soviet Empires, Alma Ati (now Almaty) was the capital of Kazakhstan. Located near the southern border, nestled at the foot of the Tian Shan Mountains, it is a lovely city of a million people and still the business centre of the country.
In 1953, under Khrushchev, the USSR undertook a massive creation of new cultivated land, the Virgin Land program, breaking some 60 million hectares (150 million acres) over a 4 year period in Kazakhstan and Siberia. 25 million of these hectares were in northern Kazakhstan. New state farms were constructed much of them by prison labour, as millions of soldiers and civilians were sentenced to 10 years in prison for being prisoners of war or for being caught on the wrong side of the line and sitting out the war. These state farms were populated with peoples whom Stalin had transported to Siberia and Kazakhstan before, during or after the war as well as with volunteers, looking for a better life than what they had in European Russia.
At independence in Dec 1991, Kazakhstan seemed doomed to nationalistic struggles between certain Russians in the north who would cheerfully have taken northern Kazakhstan into Russia and certain Kazakhs in the south who wanted nothing more than to see ALL Russians out of their country. President Nazarbayev appeared to be walking a tightrope and moving the capital to the north central part of the country was intended to help keep the country together.
Kazakhstan is rich with oil and gas money which Nazarbayev used to build his modern new capital almost instantly. Billions have been spent in construction of highways, lavish apartment blocks, business skyscrapers, parks and bridges. The city is planned for 1 million people though only 750,000 currently live there and there are a lot of empty spaces. And as you drive through the outskirts of the city you can see the poverty ridden communities where prosperity has passed them by. There has not been a lot of "trickle down" to the distant villages, either.
The Kazakhs have a great sense of humour about these sometimes garish new buildings that have appeared in their midst, all architectural designs approved by the president himself, I have no doubt. Whatever the official names are does not matter, the buildings are known universally by their colloquial names.
Golf ball on a Tee
The Cigarette Lighter. Below is a round park area known as the Ash Tray
Sitting in the boarding lounge by Gate 5, waiting for a bus to haul us out in the rain to the 737 sitting somewhere on the tarmac. The Canadian Embassy has been very very helpful in lining up meetings, recommending translation services and finding a driver. The LogoGuy has put together a decent logo for our new venture. Tomorow I arrive at 6:20 am, get picked up along with four other Canadians who arrive at 6:05 am and go to the hotel. Sleep will be short as I have two meetings possibly three or four that day/evening.
Sat and Sun are taken up with the Crop Conference where I will learn what is going on in grain farming in Kazakhstan. Mon to Thurs noon meetings with interested parties. Then turn myself over to the organizers of the Exhibition and Livestock Forum until the morning of August 1.
My visa is EXACTLY for July 21 to August 1. Makes a person feel welcome. Like Ukraine and Russia, there is a wide gulf between the Politics and the people.
Got my airline ticket to Kazakhstan today, much to our relief. Tanya insisted we phone the event organizing agency so we did. Thank you, skype. The had been purchased but why didn't I have it? They would check and call back. Three hours later we called back. Still checking. An hour later the ticket arrived attached to an email. Bought on July 14.
The email with the ticket attached also informed me they were changing my presentation topic again, back to the one I had done first and sent them two weeks ago. The Kazakhstan Ministry of Agriculture is the organizer and paying the bills so they call the tune, I guess. The research and preparation time on the second topic wasn't wasted as it brought me up to speed on another aspect of the Canadian cattle industry. (Ken, when you read this, I still need your comments).
As I was saying about organizing a drunken party at a brewery...
Sunday morning Victor delivers three liter jar of fresh farm milk. The left over milk from last Sunday is pretty sour but perfect for baking-powder biscuits so I usually throw a couple pans in the oven for brunch. That is when I miss Roger's Golden Syrup (sugar cane syrup).
Today's biscuits were pretty good so I took some to Lena and Roman. Lena's eyes lit up when she saw them. Once their kitchen is renovated and she gets an oven, she wants to learn how to make them. Tanya's Babushka used to make them when Tanya was young and she would eat them with fresh cream.
Since we have fresh green beans from our garden, Tanya stir fried green beans and onions (also from our garden) and then threw in a couple of eggs and scrambled the works. It is good and can be doctored up any way you like. If we have mushrooms they go into the pan. I suppose if we had rice we could make bean friend rice (I don't care if it has BEEN fried rice, what is it NOW?... but I digress).
The revised presentation is finished and emailed to all and sundry. Including a friend of mine in Canada who will read it for accuracy. I called Ken to warn him. He was on his way back from the North American Livestock Auctioneer Championships in Calgary where he finished a respectable "in the top two-thirds". I understood that perfectly and congratulated him for taking a run at it. Next year...
Tanya sorted through all my clothes today and we decided what I needed or don't need to take. My suitcase is semi-packed packed and I still don't have my air ticket. Good thing they aren't organizing a drunken brawl at a brewery or we'd be in real trouble.
Now I can get caught up on all the other stuff that has been left undone. Like read a few blogs from other people. If I haven't left a comment lately on your blog, Don't worry (or worry, whichever) I will catch up eventually.
Five days left until I leave for Kazakhstan. The organizers still have not sent my air ticket. This is not comforting.
They changed my presentation topic while I was in Kyiv earlier this week. Since the whole purpose of the trip is to knock on doors and meet with prospective clients, doing a good job on this new topic is critical. Since I got home Tuesday night, I have been wrestling with the new computer (1 day), wrestling with the new computer and researching the topic (1 day) and researching the topic (1 day). Haven't been outside the house more than 10 minutes. Days like this are why they tell you that the office chair is THE most important investment for small consulting business like mine.
Tanya has had to take taxi to town as I have not had time to drive her. Round trip is $5.00. She wants to learn to drive but not on a standard transmission. A few more days of taxi and she might brave even that.
A ten to fifteen minute presentation on a subject new to the country is no easy task. My approach is to start with a one hour presentation and then edit, edit, edit. Each word must be not only essential but translatable and understandable. When I say COWS I want it translated COWS, not CATTLE. When I say FORAGE, I want it understood as grass and legumes for grazing or hay or crops grown for grazing, silage or green feed. Took me 12 years to learn that the Russian noun "forage" means feed/food of all kinds, which it can also mean in English.
They wanted a 500 word abstract yesterday. I can't even write an outline until after the paper is written, regardless of what I was taught in school. The outline in my head gets shuffled so often as the presentation progresses that putting it on paper is a waste of time. At least, thanks to word processing, when I am done writing the first draft, it is 99% finished.
They will get the paper and the abstract Monday.
I really like Windows 7. One new feature allows me to change wallpaper every few minutes. I have it set on a folder of Tanya's flowers so am looking at her garden all the time. I do miss the old XP search feature and will have to learn how to use the new version. I used the XP search to look for files when I knew part of the title and Google desktop to look when I knew only words inside the file. Is there some way to refine the search to file names only? Anyone?
A "friend" made a snide remark about my exciting life. Well!! Like I have nothing to do!!! I wrote this report for an NGO to which I belong and though I have blogged about bits and pieces, when you add them all up it does look like I was actually busy these past five months. So there.
January – went to Kazakhstan to “advise” a 150,000 ha farm on developing a beef cattle enterprise. Their government is investing and the farm is wired in solid enough to get BIG dollars. They had 1200 cows mostly in milk under typical FSU mis-management and wanted to hit 30,000 cows and 25,000 fed animals within 4 or 5 years, using sexed embryo transfer and getting 100% conception and 100% heifers . They had 50,000 ha of grazing land 60 km from HQ where they intended to drylot the cows year round (including stabling them in winter) as the grass was “too far away”.
Owner of the big farm company was a Kazakh who felt he was God and the world should revolve around him. I don’t revolve well. His 2IC was a Ukrainian named Victor with whom I could have worked and for whom I felt very badly that he was stuck with such a boss. I convinced them they should maybe go to Canada and see how beef cattle were raised. They did spend five days and got a good education but it was apparently not what they wanted to here as they have since cut off all correspondence with the company that contracted me.
February and March –prepared PowerPoint Presentations for a three day beef school. Scrapped most of my old presentations and started fresh, including new material from internet. Slides were sent for translating and then fancied up and pictures added
March – visited a large corporate farm in northern Ukraine which had been purchasing any and all purebred beef cattle they could find. Want to be a pure breeder of Charolais, Simmental, Limousin and Angus and will consign the “composite” breeds (designed by Ukrainian researchers who seem to think they are useful) to his zoo-park. His cattle were located on three sites. About half the Simmentals were in dreadful condition, the other half not bad, some should have been put down. Vitamin A deficiency and TM deficiency but mostly feed deficiency as they had not planned for so many cattle and were running out of feed. He had just put lick tubs of minerals out for the cattle so that was positive. 60 km away they had two more farms with lots of feed and could have been hauling all winter when the roads were good. I have no idea what their livestock specialists and veterinarians learn in school or actually do on the job. I’d have fired them both at the SM farm.
I gave him a raft of ideas (in English and he said he could find a translator). He buys dairy semen from the company of our friend Volodya so I hope I get more involved with the guy. He is quick to learn but is getting consulting advice from a senior beef cattle research scientist from near Kyiv who doesn’t know a damn thing about raising beef cattle in my opinion. Cattle in barns at night, calves in same pens as cows wintered. Outside pens too small for calving cows. Lots of scours etc etc. But the farm is just starting and anxious to make changes and do it right and two of the farms were pretty good. I can work with them.
March – presented a three day ‘beef school’ at Agro-Soyuz. They provided facilities and translated all my ‘000 of slides and provided an interpreter. The head of the AS consulting arm is new and did a terrible job of advertising for the school. He learned he needs to do more things himself such as follow up. Five of the participants from Chita in eastern Siberia (where the Decembrists were exiled in 1825 for history buffs among you), east of Lake Baikal They were awesome students. Asked the right questions and tough ones to boot.
Their Economist (what we would call an accountant) was also very well read up on nutrition. Shock. That impressed me as much as anything. Their vet wouldn’t know Copper from Calcium. Four of them want to go to Canada and that is currently in the works.
They raise beef cattle outside in weather that makes Sask seem like banana belt. Seven months of winter and monthly mean temps from Nov-March are 10 degrees colder than Saskatoon with strong winds. Summers about the same as Sask and rain mostly in June, July, August. Like Mongolia. Tanya and I are both hoping we get the nod to go there and work with them for a while but that will be up to AS.
April – made a presentation about how Canadian research supports the Canadian beef industry at a conference organized by the Institute of Animal Science at Kharkiv. My presentation was well received and I now have an in with the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences. The vice director took me on a tour of their labs and I was pleased not only to see a feed test lab that can do ADF, NDF, ADIN but also people who know what they mean. They have done a pile of feed analysis across Ukraine and have compiled a book of nutritional values ON A DRY MATTER BASIS. There is hope for the world.
The vice director also confirmed that Cobalt and Iodine are both dreadfully lacking in Ukrainian feedstuffs. Which explains my observation of Cobalt deficiencies in cattle in many instances and my understanding that Iodine is in short supply in food and feed except near oceans. (Confirmed o by a WHO report that says 70% of Ukrainians are low in iodine. We are now finding iodized salt on store shelves but most people prefer good old rock salt because they have not the extra 20 cents).
The Vice Director gave me a publication of their research centre in Russian and English which I read and I just shake my head at their research. Much of it appears to be unconnected to anything living or dead. I plan on writing the director a long paper outlining my concerns and getting it professionally translated so they have no excuse to ignore it. If they ignore me I will copy it to the head of UAAS and the Minister of Agrarian Policy, like I did with a letter to the National Agricultural University in Kyiv in 2006.
April – article published in Animal Industry Today (How Canadian Beef Producers Lower Production Costs). I got feedback from a Sumy farmer’s wife who thought they could adapt some of my ideas with their 18 cow herd. Made my day. The paper I wrote for the Kharkiv conference will likely appear in the June or July issue. I plan on keeping one a month if I can find time to write and if they will still publish me.
May – went to a dairy seminar at Agro-Soyuz, sponsored by our friend Volodya and his American genetics company. The American company don’t have much doing in beef but I assured them that I could do dairy nutrition between 2,500 kg and 6,000 kg milk and stuff like quality feed production etc. They may have some work for me in future. Also met Volodya’s counterpart from Belarus who said they were sure interested in beef cattle up there so I am going to chase that too.
Future – MAY have work in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. WILL have another beef school at Agro-Soyuz, dates unconfirmed.
Just as an aside, Volodya called the president of the Ukrainian Beef Producer’s Association (he has been president for at least two decades, I met him 10 years ago) to tell him about the beef school. He was furious that AS dared to hold a beef school when it should be HIS organization and no he wouldn’t tell anyone because he was “organizing a beef seminar for the same week”.
Next beef schools, Tanya will present with me. That makes me very happy.
I stayed at a hotel in Kostanay, northern Kazakhstan which rented by the hour. Now don't get me wrong. It was a perfectly respectable establishment which had rates by the day, half day or hour. There were no "working girls". The hotel was located near the railway station so people would go there between trains or to wait for a train or what ever. Flexible hours meant better service and it was busy. It was fairly new, had a good restaurant, well appointed rooms and for me, most important - wireless internet.
But "by the hour" does lend itself to a certain amount of humour.
Especially the second night, when the sounds from the room overhead, beginning about 9:00 pm indicated the couple were not sleeping. The woman was very vocally appreciative* of the attention shown her. I emailed this information to Tanya who responded that I was a pervert for listening, that I should put the headphones over my ears and go to sleep and further that I should never go anywhere again without her.
I replied that I wished she was with me as we could have given them some competition, though I doubted for the full two hours and it certainly would have been easier to sleep**.
Tanya was telling Roman the next day, that I was staying at a bordello. Roman said "Don't worry, Mom, the Kazakh girls are probably not too expensive".
*"I got a sweater for Christmas. I was really hoping for a screamer or a moaner" - Stephen Wright.
**"The only thing better than the sleep of the just, is the sleep of the just after". David Frost.
I am sitting in a hotel in Istanbul and will fly home tomorrow to Dnipro. This is the first I have been able to access blogger.com since I left. Media including internet is highly censored in Kazakhstan. Accessing any websites proved to be a pain as one would have to try several times over several minutes before it would clear the filters and come up on Firefox. Standards like BBC or The Economist were first click. Sasktel or CBC took many tries as they were new to their filters.
Blogs are considered mass media in Kazakhstan and subject to all the rules, written and unwritten. Blogger.com is simply blocked permanently. It must be impossible in China where control is really tight.
I do not understand why leaders like Nazarbayev who are popular and doing a relatively good job feel they have to resort to the strong arm stuff. In an honest and open election he would still get 60% of the votes. Instead of 99.3%.
In other news, after I got off the plane this morning in Istanbul, I got on the shuttle bus that takes us from the plane to the terminal. A pretty girl in her 20's smiled at me and got up so I could sit down. Some days I get too much respect.
Left for Dnipropetrovsk this morning at 11:30. Andrei drove through thickening fog and light rain all the way. Arrived airport 1:30. Flight canceled 2:30. Arrived home 5:30. Leave for Kyiv on night train from Pyatikhatki at 12:40 am. Will fly from Kyiv at 11:55 am tomorrow and catch my connecting flight in Istanbul on time, arriving in Astana at 4:00 am Thursday.
I hope.
So instead of spending the night in a quaint little hotel in old Istanbul, I will spend it on a short bunk in an open sleeping car on a rocking, rolling, thumping, pounding train to Kyiv. And instead of a free day to work in my room before my plane leaves Istanbul, I spend four hours in Kyiv airport and three in Istanbul airport. And arrive in Astana just in time to leave for a 400 km drive on ??? roads in the dead of winter in a country that makes the Regina plains seem hilly.
I must be nuts. I am not 40 anymore. Nor am I actually there yet.
When we dropped off my application on Dec 29th, the Consulate people assured us they were open January 8th (the day after Orthodox Christmas) and to come and get my passport and visa then. They are open from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon.
Caught the 12:40 am train from P'yatikhatki. Had my mattress unrolled onto the berth, bed linen laid out and was asleep by 1:00 am. They wake us at 6:00 so everyone can use the washrooms, get ready etc for 7:00 am arrival in Kyiv. People get off the train looking like they just left a hotel room: clothes neat, make-up flawless, hair brushed. I get off the train looking like I just spent the night on a train.
By 7:30 I was sitting in McDonalds having breakfast, just a 20 minute walk from the Kazakhstan Embassy. There was snow everywhere, left over from last week. Packed snow makes for slippery sidewalks, I found when I headed out at 8:40 to walk to the Embassy. But shoveled sidewalks make for black ice. I was tiptoeing carefully thinking how dangerous it was when my feet went out from under me and I slammed my head on the sidewalk. My cap took most of the force; a young man helped me to my feet and I trundled on, arriving at the big orange metal Consulate gate of the Embassy at precisely 9:00 am .
It was quiet. Too quiet. They always attack just before daylight. Sorry, wrong story. I rang the bell. Nothing. Several times. Nothing. 9:15 - phoned Tanya. Tanya reached Security who said hang tight, he might be coming in a bit late. 9:45 - nothing. Call Tanya. Tanya calls Security, who phones the Consulate Officer, who says he is coming in to work.
I am waiting outside all this time. Nice day. 0C, no wind. I am not cold and keep pacing to "relax". 10:15 - phone Tanya. Tanya phones Consulate, speaks to officer, who tells her they are closed, I should come back Monday. Tanya "opens mouth" which is the direct translation from the Russian. Threatens to phone President Nazarbayev if she has to because last week, this same guy told her they would open on Friday 8th.
10:30 - Consulate Officer answers my ring, opens gate, takes $50 USD passport fee and gives me my passport c/w visa. Takes 5 seconds. 11:00 I am back in McDonalds drinking a well deserved cup of coffee. 12:00 noon - am back in Train station lounge, killing 5 hours until train time. Isn't it fun?
