A farmer breeds unique sheep in the Ternopil region

Sixty-year-old Yuriy Zakharchuk, a farmer from the Chortkiv region, breeds karakul sheep. He is the first to breed these sheep in the Ternopil region, writes “Agro-Center” with a reference to “7 days Ukraine”.

Yuriy and his wife are engaged in animal farming. They bought the space of the former collective farm stables, renovated the premises, arranged the territory, determined the basics of production. Today, there are 150 sheep, 40 goats, 2 cows, a couple of donkeys, and poultry on the farm.

“In 1983 I bought my first sheep from Hutsuls. We started industrial production in the ’90s. We bought a broken stable and 17 hectares of land. I traveled to Askania-Nova for tribal rams. Nowadays I work with the karakul breed. There is a demand for both wool and meat,”

says the farmer.

“Shepherds from Bukovina taught me to make cheese, and a local farmer helped me when I was just starting out. In the beginning, we milked sheep by hand. Now we have a milking hall.”

The farmer sells sheep meat to the Arab students and restaurateurs. The also sell bryndza in Chernivtsi, Lviv, sometimes in Ternopil, Chortkiv and other regional centers. The wool is bought by men from Ivano-Frankivsk region for the manufacture of bedding, sweaters, mittens, and socks.