Co-founder and board member of one of the largest Ukrainian IT companies, SoftServe, Taras Kytsmey, shared unexpected insights about his investments in non-core assets during his speech at Tech Week Odesa. In particular, the entrepreneur talked about his own dairy farm and how high technologies and automation are changing traditional agriculture.
Co-founder and board member of one of the largest Ukrainian IT companies, SoftServe, Taras Kytsmey, shared unexpected insights about his investments in non-core assets during his speech at Tech Week Odesa. In particular, the entrepreneur talked about his own dairy farm and how high technologies and automation are changing traditional agriculture.
According to Kitsmey, a modern dairy farm has long ceased to be just a "barn" and has turned into a real research enterprise.
"If you want to have a good result, you have to be first in genetics, second in nutrition, and third in work culture and processes," the investor emphasized.
Thanks to the implementation of advanced approaches, the farm demonstrates impressive results that are radically different from outdated Soviet standards:
Space milk yields: the average yield per cow today is 40 liters of milk per day (for comparison, in Soviet times this figure was 12 liters).
Labor efficiency: 30 times less human labor is now spent on one liter of milk than before. If previously one milkmaid served about 30 cows, then with machine milking this figure has increased to 300 cows per worker.
Unmanned technologies: the entrepreneur noted that there is almost no staff on the farm - the animals are free-range, going to milking and returning on their own. At the same time, cleanliness in the territory is ensured by special robots that automatically sweep the paths and push feed.
Despite the high level of robotization of the farm, Taras Kytsmey noted that artificial intelligence is not needed everywhere. In his opinion, AI is a tool for optimizing mental labor (just as electricity once optimized physical labor). However, in the real sector, such as on a farm or in the hotel business (Kytsmey is also a co-investor of the famous Charbel resort complex), clearly configured processes, automation and, most importantly, a culture of working with people and team development still play a key role.
Previously, dev.ua reported that the dairy farm is located on the outskirts of the village of Dolishne in the Morshyn community of Lviv region and has over 69,000 sq. m of total area. Several cowsheds, a veterinary clinic, a feed warehouse and other facilities are planned on its territory.
