The keynote speaker at this year’s Australian Dairy Conference, held in Melbourne this week, was on a mercy mission to protect the agricultural industry in his own country.
Andriy Dykun, president of the Milk Producers of Ukraine and chair of the Ukrainian Agri Council, held the audience in awe as he described the war in his home country.
Mr Dykun leads the organisation representing the interests of Ukraine’s 1100 farms that includes 150 dairy producing farms.
He said there were no standalone dairy farmers; rather they were grain growers who operated dairies as a side venture.
These dairy farms milk between 200 and 700 cows and the animals are housed in barns year-round.
Mr Dykun is privileged to be allowed to travel out of Ukraine.
In an interview with Country News, he said men aged 18 to 60 years old were obligated to serve in the military, and were not allowed to travel out of Ukraine.
Mr Dykun has special dispensation because he travels overseas to raise money to protect the infrastructure that enables Ukrainian farmers to keep operating.
Attendees at ADC were encouraged to bid in a silent auction on two paintings.
Mr Dykun told Country News donated money pays the military to protect power and water infrastructure, roads and processing factories.
The military needs vehicles and arms to protect the nuclear power plants, water infrastructure, transport routes and processing factories, to enable agriculture in general and the dairy industry in particular to keep functioning during the war.
Mr Dykun said farming inside the 1500km front line of the war has been disrupted, but beyond a 40km buffer zone, the remainder of the country is operating as normal.
Schools, retail centres and other businesses, farms, milk processing and other factories are operating as normal.
The silent auction raised $7800 for Mr Dykun to take back to Ukraine. Further donations are still being collated.
Stay tuned for more stories from the Australian Dairy Conference.