Every year we hear more and more complaints on detachment of soviet agrarian educational establishments from day to day realities. Reading matter that corresponds modern requirements is not enough. There are also very little places where students can do practical trainings. As a result young graduates don’t begin their careers in agriculture. But there are exceptions. We talked to Viktor Lisnyy about how Freedom Farm Bacon, Ltd. trains highly qualified specialists and keeps the leading positions on breeding market of Ukraine.

How did you, an aboriginal inhabitant of Kherson city, begin to work in pig production, Mr.Victor?

When I was accepted to the university to become a zootechnician some of the students that came from villages laughed at me. They wondered why young people from the city want to work in agriculture. But when we met couple of years after graduating we found out that only some students from Mykolayiv and Kherson cities devoted them to agriculture. After graduating from the university I began working as a main zootechnician on the state farm. Different branches of agriculture were developed on the farm and pig production was the main one. 10 thousand pigs were kept on the farm and it had the status of the breeding farm. I had pig production at heart those times. When I studied for my PH. D. my thesis advisor told to start working in pig production or poultry production. So I decided to devote myself to pig production.

Did you give up working on the farm in the cause of science?

Not a whit. It is always interesting to combine scientific work with practical work. But I refused to devote my life to science only. I was invited as an adviser to Freedom Farm International to evaluate the predictabilities of the old farms the enterprise wanted to buy. Then I was offered the job as the main zoo technician of the farm and couple of years later I was offered the position of the deputy director general of the enterprise. I had to write my PH. D. thesis those times but the prospect to describe the date of the enterprises based on old technologies didn’t attract me at all. So I accepted an offer without any hesitation.

The company grew grain crops in different districts of Kherson region. The owners showed interest to pig production when after they had grown 25 thousand of grain the third part of which was forage grain. So the development of pig production starred with 200 breeding sows and the reconstruction of the old farm.

Why did the owners decide to separate pig production in 2008?

By that time pig production had become a powerful subdivision of the enterprise with 20 thousand pigs. We used feed stuff of own production but bought them by market price to evaluate the real production efficiency. The owner of the business decided to establish Freedom Farm Bacon when the question about feed stuff arose (whether to buy them or whether the enterprise would sell it by market price).

What difficulties did you face during your work?

During ten years of work we had some different periods each of which was connected with low price for pork. Such periods didn’t last long so we found the way out not slaughtering the whole heard. Sometimes we had to act against our owners’ orders who wanted to give up pig production in crisis moments. To save the enterprise we sometimes used tricks. In 2003 our owners ordered to slaughter the whole heard but we asked them not to do that, because I promised our employees that we would develop. We gad increased the number of gilts up to 600 by that time. We put pressure on them and used different arguments to convince them. Besides we asked Alan Kraft (the adviser of «Right Frank»), Yevheniya Ahapova (the professor of Odesa Agrarian University) and some other scientists for help. So they met with our investors and explained them that it was just a crisis period which would end soon and what we had to do was to increase pig heard.

We were given half a year. I decided to inseminate as much sows as possible. The result didn’t make us wait. In 2005 when all MAS media told about meat crisis our enterprise was flourishing

1. Why is it very important to pay much attention to feeds balancing according to the opinion of Victor Lisnyy?
2. What branches of agriculture are also developed on Freedom Farm Bacon, Ltd.?
3. How do the enterprises of the holding cooperate?
4. What influenced the decision to work with foreign genetics?
5. How is the economics of the genetic program calculated?
6. What will the future of Ukrainian breeding be, considering the changes in EU?
7. How are the gestating sows housed on Freedom Farm Bacon, Ltd.?
8. What plans do of the enterprise expect to embody in the nearest future?
9. What Ukrainian enterprises do Freedom Farm Bacon, Ltd. cooperate with?
10. Based on which principles was the team of the enterprise formed? 
11. What experience did Victor Lisnyy gain from visiting foreign farm for his enterprise?
12. How is the question of manure utilization solved on Freedom Farm Bacon, Ltd.?