We haven't witnessed this level of engagement and intense debate at business conferences in a very long time.

Every Calorie Matters. Every Meal. Everything is for the Cows' Benefit.

EFKO Smart Farm conference one can call a large meeting of nutritionists and people having expertise in cattle feeding. Industry leaders: Experienced specialists and heads of agricultural holdings – and a lot of practice.

“Three hours have already passed, and I didn’t even realize. Time just flew by,” one of the guests shared heading to lunch.

EFKO SMART FARM project consists of several divisions: the effective feed laboratory at Biruch Innovation Centre creates new feed solutions; the dairy farming laboratory conducts the whole range of analyses for livestock farms; the effective feed division scales up production and sells the products.

“At such conferences, we annually gather Smart Farm partners and clients. This year, practice was the main focus. Over half of the speakers are heads of agricultural holdings and feeding departments. Great, practising, real experts in their field,” Marina Gerasimova, General Director of Biruch Innovation Center, shares. “We are glad to expand the range of EFKO effective feed based on comments from industrial leaders. Three years ago we started producing ULTRA FEED F and EXTRA FEED F protective fats. Over the past year and a half, we have learned to produce and, what is not least important, to properly integrate protected proteins and calcium salts into the cattle diet. As we work closely with our partners to improve our products, we keep an eye on how they affect animal health, milk quality, and quantity.”

Viktor Kosintsev, deputy head of the feeding department at EkoNiva-APK Holding, provided specific examples of how to make a diet that is both affordable and high-quality: “Each farm can select individual feed components in its region to make it profitable. We made an effort to structure our report so that conference attendees would get the most out of it practically. We shared how our feeding system is organized in terms of management, how diets have evolved, and what methods of cooperation we use. “We constantly exchange experiences with EFKO. We visited each other’s production sites, including Biruch Innovation Center labs, and use your protected fats in cattle diets.”

Aleksandr Lebedev, General Director of Gatchinskoye JSC, cautioned his colleagues to avoid becoming captives of the same suppliers, otherwise, there is a risk of being hooked: “It is necessary to join together and develop our own feed, with flexible compositions. For example, we have been interacting with EFKO for about two years. The introduction of a feed solution, which we wish to produce on our own, is the next item on the agenda. This requires both monitoring of the animals' health and study of the feed's components. We trusted “Smart Farm” conducting the full range of analyses and act as a kind of arbitration expert for this project.”

Irina Pervykh,
Director of the Effective Feed Division by EFKO

“Cost efficiency is an important aspect of feeding. We definitely consider feed solutions on behalf of the farm owner, who is always forced to choose a cattle diet taking into account every aspect, such as raw milk market value, currency exchange rates, and other considerations. And they are not necessarily favourable. Another important point is a multidisciplinary approach: how to take into account everything that affects the efficiency of the farm? For example: how to build the team? How to distribute feeding tasks and organize a truly optimal chain? All these issues were covered by the agenda of our conference.”

Svetlana Trofimova,
Head of the Dairy and Meat Animal Husbandry Department at Agropromkomplektatsiya Group of Companies

“Our market is highly dependent on exchange rates. Situations differ, both in favour of the supplier or the buyer, but we have been working with Smart Farm for many years and always find a consensus.”