Robots for your dairy farm

The robotization and automation of dairy farming, building efficient processes for raising and feeding cows is the way that European milk producers took, and on which the first consulting companies “Chub Agroconcept” and “Effective systems in animal husbandry” help Ukrainian farmers.
The family business of Poltava entrepreneurs Oleg and Svetlana Chub in spreading the achievements of dairy farms in Europe helped to make more progressive and profitable dozens of Ukrainian farms, therefore the company is a real trend setter for agriculture.
“Before us, local farmers didn’t have the concept of“ robots for a dairy farm ”, except for milking robots,” says Oleg Chub, a zoo engineer, veterinarian in the third generation. It so happened that after graduating from the Poltava State Agrarian Academy in 2002, he got an internship at the Weihenstephan Graduate School in the German state of Bavaria. He was so impressed with the level of animal husbandry that he decided to popularize the European approach to milk production in Ukraine.
Until 2011, the young specialist worked as head of sales and consulting at the German firm Schaumann, which imports feed additives for cows and pigs to Ukraine. “Often we, animal nutrition consultants, were like Don Quixote in the fight against windmills. In order for feeds fed to animals to give high efficiency, farm management and appropriate machinery must be at a high level. We still have many farms working in the traditions of the USSR. As a result, the annual milk yield from cows is twice as high in Germany, because calves are properly grown there, high-quality forage is harvested, and the processes of feeding, reproduction, feeding of animals have been automated, ”explains Chub. Therefore, he decided to create his own consulting firm to help domestic farmers to automate technological processes on the farm, minimizing the impact of the negative human factor.
Svetlana's wife, an economist and an accountant by training, became a business partner and financial director at the new company Effective Systems in Livestock.
To begin with, the couple signed exclusive contracts with two innovative German companies, Ahrhoff, which specializes in the production of feed and feed additives for dairy farming, and Urban, which supplies equipment for feeding calves. By the way, to start their business, the spouses were forced to sell their own home, and for half of its value. We decided to take the chance to live in rented accommodation. It was a big stress and a super motivation for the family!

Feed from Chub

At first, three people worked at the new enterprise: Oleg himself was engaged in sales, his wife Svetlana - in finance, logistics and import, and her brother - in equipment service. In the early years, the company focused on the sale of feed additives for pig and dairy farms and Urban equipment for feeding calves. Before the appearance of the Urban brand in Ukraine, there was no such specialized equipment at all!
Later there were attempts to manufacture feed additives "Doctor Chub" on the basis of German components. These were attempts to overcome inflation, which began in 2013. “Imagine the shock of our customers, farmers - for three months, imported products became twice as expensive with a stable price for milk,” recalls Oleg Chub. Over time, the entrepreneur engaged in sales of innovative equipment for dairy and meat farms.
Any feed for cows must be thrown every hour. With a shortage of workers in the countryside, especially during the period of migration crises, robots came to the aid of farm owners in Europe. Therefore, Chubs brought to Ukraine such a useful invention as the Butler Gold feed pusher robot from the Austrian family-owned company Wasserbauer. It works autonomously and around the clock, and its batteries do not require recharging for three days. Such push robots are in demand in 50 countries of the world and are already successfully operating on two Ukrainian farms.
A new strategic direction for the development of the entrepreneur - Austrian feed mills Gruber. They are fully automated, provide accurate formulation and quality of mixing components. Production processes are remotely controlled. “The farm for 1000 heads per year consumes feed for 50 million UAH. Since 95% of feed at the “Soviet” feed mills are manufactured with technological errors and do not meet quality standards, it is more profitable for a farmer to have their own factory. This is how farmers work in all countries with developed animal husbandry, ”explains Chub.
For many farms that grow corn, the problem is its drying, cleaning and storing grain, since the elevator services cost 500-1500 UAH / t. The Austrian resource-saving technology promoted by Chub is different: wet corn brought from the field is ground on special Austrian crushers Gruber Profi without drying and preserved in silos. The cost of a ton of corn paste production using this technology is less than 100 UAH / ton. In Germany, for example, up to 50% of cows eat exactly corn paste. In Ukraine, this technology has already been adopted by 8 farms.

Robomama for calves

Two years ago, entrepreneurs decided to focus on the dairy farms robotization and founded the second company, Chub Agroconcept LLC. The name was taken from spammy, which corresponds to the traditions of Western European business. This helps, Oleg says, because most of the clients know them, the owners, as fans of their work and trust them.
The emergence of a new business coincided with the opening of borders, the outflow of workers from the village. The owners had to think: to close the farm or to automate important processes as much as possible. A good solution for most households will be automation and robotization of production processes, which allows to reduce dependence on human resources. And it is easy if you turn to a professional consultant.
“We accompany the client's business from the choice of the solution to the installation and after-sales service of the equipment. We constantly monitor the processes and accompany the farmer with consultations, ”Chub says.
The most important achievement of progress for dairy farms has become the robotic feeding of calves. “A productive dairy cow grows only from a healthy calf. Care for small calves, their cultivation has always been hard manual labor, which usually involved grandmothers. The human factor greatly influenced the results and the health of animals. To buy adult cows in America for 5 thousand dollars or to grow it yourself - which is cheaper? And if you feed calves yourself, then you need to do it, as on the best German farms. There, the feeding processes are automated, and the best producer of calf feeding robots in the world is Urban, this is how Apple is in the world of technology, and it already works in Ukraine exclusively through our company, ”says Oleg Chub.

Thanks to the “Robomame”, each animal receives as much milk mixture of controlled quality and temperature as it needs. The human factor or negligence is completely absent.
The health management system for calves, installed on the auto drinker, transmits information to the veterinarian’s computer and the remote consultant’s mobile application: they see how much milk the calves drink and can draw conclusions about their health status and schedule treatment for the diseased in time.
“Installing Urban robotic auto-drinkers for calves gives the farmer an increase in income per cow of about 1,000 euros per year (due to the fact that when the cow starts to milk in 24 months, it will give several liters more milk per day already in the first lactation)” - counts Oleg Anatolevich. This means that in 3-4 years the farm owner will have an extra million euros in his account.
It sounds fantastic, but actually purchasing equipment for robotic feeding of calves is an affordable pleasure. So, on a farm for 1000 cows per month about 100 calves are born. The Alma Pro robotic automatic feeder of the latest model for feeding 200 calves costs about 80 thousand euros. This opportunity has already taken advantage of 10 farms of the Poltava, Kharkov and Kiev regions.

Smart sensors for cows

Another revolutionary invention is the Israeli system of neural sensors for remote monitoring of the readiness of cows for fertilization "Khitaym", which allows you to do without the introduction of sex hormones to cows and, accordingly, to produce ecologically pure milk. “When farmers use hormones for animals (most farms now do this), their remains go into milk, which adversely affects the hormonal balance of Ukrainian children, especially during puberty. Because hormones that are used for animals are identical to human ones. Although our state still does not control the hormone levels in milk, conscious farmers should be aware of this and care for the health of the nation, Chub is sure. Information from the “Khitaima” sensors is fed to the central computer at the zootechnician or veterinarian and to the mobile application from the consultant and the farm manager. The sensors also show a change in movements and rumination (chewing intensity) in an animal, which is a signal for the veterinarian to pay attention to the health status of a certain cow. Thanks to Khitaym, in the morning the veterinarian already has a list of 3-8 animals that need to be examined. The system also generates reports on the state of health, time of calving, the effectiveness of treatment, and the like.In Germany, more than 10 thousand farms work with the Khitaym systems. In Ukraine - while a few. Among them - LLC "Hope" in the Kharkiv region. “Having invested several million dollars in the purchase of imported livestock of cows, these wise owners decided to spend money on equipment to preserve their health and produce ecologically pure milk. Here is a real example for others that inspires us, ”says Oleg.

Like a neighbor

Oleh Chub is sure of the usefulness of his work, that automation and robotization of dairy farming, following the example of European farms, the use of modern methods of fodder harvesting will bring benefit and profit to Ukrainian farmers. However, he understands that his customers are far from always innovators. And it takes time to understand and adopt new technologies. He notes that up to 70% of clients are located in the neighboring districts of Poltava and Kharkiv regions. And not only because the largest and most modern dairy farms are concentrated here. But also because the owners are looking at each other: “What did the neighbor do for good? Does it really work? ” However, the number of clients is expanding throughout Ukraine, there are already sub-dealers.
In addition to exhibitions and presentations where farmers and suppliers of goods and services for them traditionally meet, Chuby went online. There is a website http://estw.com.ua/, Youtube channel, Facebook page. During the year, the management consultants of the company, which are now seven, make 5-8 visits to interested farms with presentations. There are image clips and online advertising. Training seminars are often held for farmers from the Association of Milk Producers.
Chub believes that in five years, robotization will cover 20-25% of Ukrainian farms that care about the efficiency of their production. Moreover, the bicycle (robots and automated systems for milk production) has already been invented, you just need to buy it and start using it.

Svetlana Chub, Financial Director of Chub Agroconcept LLC, “Effective Livestock Systems”:

“Serving our two companies at Raiffeisen Bank Aval is an indicator of the reliability and stability of our business in the eyes of our Austrian and German partners. When potential foreign partners find out that we are a customer of the Bank, they immediately treat us with confidence.
They opened an account at the Bank by chance, because they liked the branch manager and attitude towards us, then they were already serviced at another bank. Today, we have transferred all foreign currency accounts for international counterparties to Raiffeisen Bank Aval.
 We constantly use overdraft: first 1000, then 500 000, now a million. This is very helpful, we use the means for customs clearance of equipment. Since Ukrainian clients love deferred payment, they have to attract short-term payments to cover working capital. When foreign counterparties want to receive prepayment, we have the necessary funds due to overdrafts.
We opened a revolving credit line to replenish working capital, paid it off and closed it, because we have increased the overdraft limit and enough funds.

There is a salary project in the Bank. We appreciate the convenient client-bank, quick transactions. Separately, I want to note a very pleasant service, I feel the international level of service.”