• Українська
  • Русский
  • English
Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

WHY DOES UKRAINIAN BEEF GET CAUGHT IN OUR TEETH Maybe because the Ukrainian government prefers US products?

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

Why do so many Americans prefer cold veal for breakfast? And this considering that they regard what we have on sale in Ukraine inedible.

Starting in 1960 and until 1980, US dairy stock was reduced in a planned manner, while steadily increasing beef cattle, raising it from 15.7 million to 35.4 million head. And beef cattle means specially selected species. Milk cow meat is considered inedible there, and so is that of laying hens. The latter is processed as meat and bone meal. In Ukraine, the dairy stock is considerably larger than beef cattle and the latter leaves much to be desired in terms of purebreds. Here is the answer why Americans do not like our veal.

At the same time we do have good beef species such as Ukrainska, Volynska, and Znamianska. The latter originates from the village of Ivankivtsi in Kirovohrad oblast. Originally it was known as Marzhanivka, from the Turkish word meaning cattleman. The local “collective agricultural enterprise” (the former Shevchenko Kolkhoz) became the basic enterprise breeding this third Ukrainian beef variety. For twenty years experts from the Ukrainian Agrarian Academy’s Animal Husbandry Institute have been cooperating with the collective farm and their work has yielded fruit. Bull-calves put on 2 kilograms every 24 hours. According to the institute’s senior research fellow Halyna Podrezko, the genetic potential has not been fully disclosed, but the veal is precisely the product for the table. It tastes like dietary rabbit, as juicy and tender. The variety is a profit-making one. Even in the hard year of 1996 the farm’s beef cattle brought revenues. This variety does not require special feed or fodder. The cows and bulls graze until well into the winter and do not suffer from summer heat. The cattle requires few herdsmen and are easily kept in the open.

Then why is the Znamianska meat variety not widespread in Ukraine? Do we not deserve good veal for breakfast which is not expensive and ecologically pure?

In Ivankivtsi they replied simply, “We need the government to pay attention to us finally.” I was shocked to learn that the variety has not even been officially certified. People at the livestock research programs department, Kirovohrad Regional Agricultural Administration, were unanimous: a national livestock program is needed. If and when we have it, will we grow fond of cold veal for breakfast?

Photo:

Here are the untapped reserves of domestic stockbreeding

 

Rubric: