WESTERN PRODUCER — Kees Huizinga, a large dairy farmer in Ukraine, never envisaged this day would come.
When Vladimir Putin’s Russian army started a war with Ukraine, the entire world felt the aftershocks.
For the past 20 years, Huizinga and his two business partners have run their 37,000-acre farm, called TOV Kischenzi, in the middle of Ukraine in peace.
Agriculture in Ukraine has performed well recently with strong commodity prices. But then on Feb. 24, Russia invaded.
When Huizinga heard the news, he sent his wife Emmeke and their two young daughters home to the Netherlands. One week later, Huizinga followed his family to his original home, and became a voice in the West for Ukrainian farmers, leaving his farm in the hands of the 400 staff there.
The farm is located close to Cherkasy, 200 kilometres south of Kyiv. It runs 2,000 Holstein Friesian dairy cows and 450 sows.
The land is mostly used to grow crops for export, such as wheat, corn and sunflowers, and there also are about 900 acres of vegetables with drip irrigation.
“We started out there with (2,500 acres) and grew that up to (37,000 acres), mostly leased as foreigners cannot own land there,” said Huizinga.
“When I became a farmer, I knew I would have to wage a figurative war against the traditional enemies of food production such as pests, weeds and disease, but I didn’t expect to be in a real war zone with a deadly enemy.”
He said the Ukraine Agrarian Association, with about 1,100 members, asked him to go to the West to serve as their voice.
Huizinga said work on the farm continues and the 2,000 cows still need to be milked, although a review of the cropping program is under way.
“Just before I left, the cows were yielding 34 litres each per day,” said Huizinga. “We milk them in an 80-unit rotary parlour twice per day. Cows are fed a mix of corn silage, alfalfa hay, soybean, sunflowers, sugar beet pulp and the minerals, most of the ingredients we grow ourselves.
“Our milk goes to Molikija, which processes it into liquid milk, butter, cheese and yogurts. We are on a premium with the factory receiving around 43 euro cents per litre, as we produce high quality milk all year round. Thankfully, the trucks collecting the milk are still running for now but I do not know what will happen.
“For the world market we grow corn, wheat, barley and sunflowers that are exported out of the Black Sea ports, but the Russians have closed those ports now.
He said there are a few weeks still before fieldwork must begin, so they have time to adjust their plans if necessary.
“Fuel and fertilizer are in short supply so we have to work around that. We might stop growing sugar beets this year because of the uncertainty that the mills will be operational. Our farm produces 70,000 to 80,000 tonnes of grains per year but right now, the export markets are closed,” he said.
While Huizinga’s farm is located in a relatively quiet area, that could change at any time.
“There are no Russians in our area at the moment and I hope it stays like that,” he said. “Around 25 of our staff have gone to fight the Russians. Some others are working as local security to keep an eye out for saboteurs.
“Our farm, like most farms and local villages, are preparing food and sending it to the Ukrainian army and to Kyiv.”
The war in Ukraine will affect food prices around the world but Huizinga said things could change for the better but only if the war stops now.
“Ukraine is estimated to be able to meet the food needs of 600 million people. That’s pretty good for a country of 44 million people and about 35,000 farms.
“Ukraine produced 90 million tonnes of grains last year and consumes 25 million tonnes per year, so the country has enough food for itself but there will be a shortage across the world. This will push up food prices for everyone.
“But we can save things. The war needs to stop now. Putin needs to go. Everyone is asking what they can do but the best thing they can do is influence their politicians to let the upper powers know Putin has to be stopped.”
