[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=“.vc_custom_1697989741631{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}“]Дядо ми гледаше животни цял живот, още си спомням автентичния вкус на млякото и сиренето, което той правеше, разказва 32-годишната Теодора Вълова от плевенското село Писарово. Детската й мечта като малка изобщо не била да гази с гумените ботуши 365 дни в годината из обора с овцете. Животът й обаче така се стекъл, че днес Теодора управлява голямо стопанство за породисти млечни животни.
The farm opened in 2013 with 50 sheep. „It became interesting and we started to develop,” says the young woman. Today, the Valovis raise about 1,000 of the Assaf, Avasi and Pleven Black-headed breeds. Avasi and Assaf were selected in Israel and, because they are resistant to adverse conditions, are suitable for the climate in Northern Bulgaria. The Valovis also chose them for their high milk yield, profitability in farming and excellent taste of the milk. This year, the family is also buying Lacon rams to start producing female lambs for mothers of this highly productive French breed.
The milk is delivered to a dairy, but the prices are very far from the real ones, Teodora believes. . Buyers take it for 1.00-1.35 leva excluding VAT, and the real price is around 1.80-2.00 leva. In the store, a kilo of sheep's cheese starts at 12-13 leva, Teodora points out. The same is true of the purchase prices of live lambs. "We have a person who comes on Easter and St. George's Day, because that's when lamb is consumed the most, and buys the animals. The price is 4.50-5.00 leva per kilo of live weight and falls around the holidays, while in the stores it rises.".
And raising animals is a difficult and complicated job, says Teodora. „When you see them alive and healthy, in the morning you can find 20-30 dead. Modernization and globalization also affect them.” Teodora believes that one of the reasons for the many animal diseases is related to grazing, due to the increasingly aggressive treatment of areas with agrochemicals. That is why the farm produces its own feed – silage and haylage. The goal is to improve the conditions and the way the animals are cared for. „The costs are high – medications, labor, food, and the final price is such that everything comes out zero to zero. That is why we decided to look at dairy breeds,” says the farmer.
She hired five locals to work on the farm, but until she found the right workers, she went through a lot of upheaval. The village is depopulated, the majority of the population is socially disadvantaged, and yet when they hear that it is about working on a farm, people give up. "We have a hard time finding labor, especially in the livestock sector there are almost no motivated people. We work here 365 days a year, 7 days a week. I allow myself one week of rest for the whole year. During the lambing campaign, we are on our feet 24 hours a day. So far, the team is good, there has been no turnover for 2 years," says the farmer.
It's a lot of work, but with a few animals it's pointless to develop livestock farming, she believes. "For people who keep up to 100-200 animals, it makes no sense and is not profitable. They can't cover their food costs, let alone workers, medicines, feed. The subsidies that small livestock farmers receive are not used for their intended purpose, but are taken as money that they spend on their own needs - to pay their bills, send their children to school, buy something to take home. That's why the little ones can't survive," says Valova. She puts every penny of loans and subsidies back into the farm, because she is constantly thinking about how to renovate and further develop it. All of her efforts have been recognized in the "European Young Farmers Award" competition, organized by MEP Vladimir Uruchev and the Association of Agricultural Producers in Bulgaria (AZPB). In this year's competition, Teodora won the "Most Sustainable Project" award and will go to the final in Brussels, where she will be a delegate to the Young Farmers Congress.
Teodora Valova's project dates back to 2015, when she first applied under sub-measure 4.1 "Investments in agricultural holdings". The requested funding for modernization of the farm is worth 508,000 leva. With the funds, Valova purchased a tractor and a front-end loader for servicing the animals, built a modern Delaval SG 2×12 milking parlor with a room for storing milk. The milking installation increases milk efficiency by 25%. With manual milking, the amounts of milk reach 300 l, and with machine milking in early spring, Valova manages to milk about 400 l per day.
”"Now I milk the entire herd in about two hours, the role of human labor is decreasing, and the productivity of the animals and the productivity of the farm as a whole is increasing." Hygiene is impeccable, as the cooling tank has a built-in washing system. It cools the raw milk faster during the bactericidal phase. Milking is computerized, so water and electricity costs are reduced. The project provides new jobs, the farm's income is increasing. Because of all these effects, Teodora is planning to expand the milking parlor. There is indeed a lot of running around in preparing a project, a lot of documentation, but then the work done pays off, she concludes.
”"Animal farming is not an easy job. There are moments of despair, but those who don't take risks don't win. The next step is to close the cycle," says Teodora Valova. And she dreams of a mini dairy in which to produce cheese and milk.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]