OREANDA-NEWS.On 19 February 2008 Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods OJSC, the leading producer of health and wellness foods in Russia and the CIS, announced the opening of a diary mega-farm just outside St Petersburg. Wimm-Bill-Dann is putting a lot of effort in developing its own farms in order to ensure the high quality of the whole manufacturing chain from raw milk to the final product.

The mega-farm complex was built in Volosovsk District near St Petersburg, on the base of the Trud collective farm, which was acquired by Wimm-Bill-Dann in 2005. The new farm is one of the most advanced livestock facilities not only in Northwest Russia but in the whole of the country. Wimm-Bill-Dann invested more than US$12 million in the construction of the mega-farm, which is designed for 1,200 Holstein milking cows.

The farm is equipped with state-of-the-art Swedish equipment made by the DeLaval company. Due to the innovative method of maintaining cows in free stalls and the constant monitoring of the health of the animals with the aid of computer equipment, Wimm-Bill-Dann’s experts anticipate achieving productivity of 8,500 kilograms of high-quality milk per forage cow.

The construction of the mega-farm was undertaken with the support of the Russian federal and regional governments as part of a national project for the development of the country’s agricultural sector. Wimm-Bill-Dann is an active participant in this program. This is the fourth such major project for the company in developing Russia’s livestock industry. Wimm-Bill-Dann is completing a mega-farm for 2,700 cattle in Krasnodar Region and is carrying out the reconstruction of two livestock farms in the Kuban. The total investment of the company in developing the agricultural sector over the past three years exceeds US$40 million.