OREANDA-NEWS. June 26, 2012. HarvEast has started feeder cattle business with 1,200 heads of cattle in Novoazovsk district of Donetsk Oblast. The company purchased Milk Taxi, special equipment to pasteurize milk and prepare calf milk replacer.

Under the project calves will be taken to the farm on the fourth day after birth while five-month-old calves will be then transferred to commercial dairy farms of the Holding's subsidiary in Novoazovsk.

Commenting on this, Livestock Director of HarvEast Holding Fyodor Kryukovsky said, "This is a pilot project for the Holding, which targets to improve our performance in feeder livestock operations. This specialized farm will help us to strengthen control over technological processes: keeping and feeding cattle and preventing diseases.”

HarvEast Holding is an agricultural holding, which owns and manages assets in Donetsk, Zaporozhye, Cherkassy, Zhytomir Oblasts and the Crimea. The Holding's major areas of focus include: crop raising (wheat, sunflower, barley, permanent grasses and corn) and dairy farming.

HarvEast  Holding was established on 10 March 2011 and evolved from the assets previously owned by Ilyich Steel Plant (Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine). The overall bank of farmland is around 220,000 hectares and total livestock exceeds 25,000 heads.

The shareholders of HarvEast Holding are the SCM Group and Smart Holding.