Sheep farming has never been a strategic industry in Volyn. For the most part, it played a supplementary role in those farms that were engaged in animal husbandry. And yet, back in the early 1990s, almost every collective farm here kept at least a few hundred sheep. These rather demanding animals prefer the climate of the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine and Transcarpathia. Odesa Oblast, Donetsk Oblast, Kharkiv Oblast, and Kherson Oblast remain leaders in the production of mutton and wool to this day. But in Volyn, sheep farming began to decline entirely when problems arose in the livestock sector as a whole. And today the number of sheep in agricultural enterprises of the region stands at only seven hundred head. And village households have begun to abandon their breeding, although some had been engaged in sheep farming for generations. Could it be that sheep will disappear from Volyn altogether?
THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS
The editorial car moves slowly along the road, avoiding potholes. We are driving to the village of Velyka Hlusha in Liubeshiv Raion. In the raion center we were told that in Velyka Hlusha every other household keeps sheep. And indeed, on the pastures in the village, in the yards near the houses, sheep are grazing. Upon seeing our figures, they bleat loudly and run away to a safe distance. Skittish.
The village head says that today sheep farming in the village is practiced mainly by elderly people who are used to sheep, because they inherited a love for these animals from their parents. But young people do not care for such a trade — too much hassle. The problem of grazing sheep is the most troublesome. Once they were grazed together with cows. Now many are dissatisfied. It is impossible to reach agreement on how many days a household must graze for its sheep. Quarrels began, and the shepherds were simply driven out of the queue. To stay out of trouble, the villagers began to get rid of rams and ewes.
But that is not the only thing pushing them to this step. Previously wool was valuable too, and they paid five karbovantsi for it, when the household service combines were still operating. And the housewives themselves knew how to wash it, comb it, spin it, weave it, and knit not only socks but also skirts and cardigans. Blankets were sewn from wool. Sheepskin was tanned and wonderful sheepskin coats were sewn from it. Now the market has been flooded with artificial fur products, leather substitutes, and products made from synthetic fibers.
Antonina Trokhymivna Kliavzunik, who lives in the village of Velyka Hlusha together with her son's family, despite her advanced age (seventy-six years), cannot bring herself to give up sheep.
— They used to keep at least twenty of them. Now only five. I don't want to get rid of them entirely, — says the housewife, — because, say what you will, there is still benefit from them. So in autumn, when the pig is slaughtered early because it's warm and the meat has already run out, slaughtering a ram comes in very handy. It's just a pity that almost no one in the village does tanning of hides anymore, although there are quite a few who know how to do it. So it happens that we take it off and simply throw it to the dogs.
Antonina Trokhymivna says that she knows how to do absolutely everything with wool: combing, spinning, warping, she knows the technology of tanning hides and making cloth, because in her time she sewed both svyty and jackets. In the attic, all the tools and looms necessary for that have also been preserved. It's just a pity that she has no one to pass her knowledge and skills on to. Of the four children the woman gave birth to and raised, all of whom, by the way, live in Velyka Hlusha, only her daughter still keeps sheep — and even then for the meat.
Twice a year — in May and after the Feast of the Presentation — Antonina Trokhymivna shears the wool from her sheep. From the fine-fleeced ones she gets up to two kilograms of wool. Although they grow larger, according to the housewife, their meat is not as tasty because it has a specific aftertaste. The household also has black-headed sheep. Very rarely do buyers appear in the village who offer a ridiculous price for a kilogram of wool — one or two hryvnias. So most often no one sells it. Instead, all the girls who get married are provided with a dowry — woolen blankets.
First that wool is washed in the river, laundered, dried in the sun, plucked, and then taken to be combed. Previously there was a combing machine in Kamin-Kashyrskyi Raion. They often also traveled to Belarus to the village of Bastyn, which was generally famous for masters who tanned and dyed sheepskins very well. Now you can't even get to Belarus with your wool, and in all of Western Ukraine only one combing machine has been preserved at the Rozhyshche sewing factory of the physical culture and sports society "Dynamo of Ukraine." This enterprise is perhaps the only one today that is engaged not only in wool processing but also has a workshop for sewing woolen blankets.
After the potato-digging season ends, the period of "pilgrimage" to Rozhyshche begins for sheep farmers, — the residents of Rozhyshche joke. Every day on the road you can meet people with bags and backpacks stuffed with wool walking to the factory. Moreover, they are not only from Volyn. Many among those who come to comb wool are residents of Transcarpathia and neighboring oblasts. Most often the sheep farmers comb the wool and immediately order blankets and even pillows to be sewn from it. After all, few have not heard about the healing properties of wool. One of the workshop's employees told how a woman came to them who wanted to buy a blanket as a gift. After some time she came to the factory again and said she was taking another one, because she had decided to test the gift on herself. Thanks to the woolen product she got rid of joint pain. And woolen pillows, they say, also relieve headaches.
HOW THE STATE REGARDS SHEEP FARMING
According to data from the Ministry of Agrarian Policy posted on the Ministry's official website, the price of wool this year has begun to slowly move upward and stands at an average of 444 hryvnias per centner of physical weight, whereas in 2001 it was within 380 hryvnias. Of course, for Volyn sheep farmers, who rank among the last in Ukraine by the amount of wool produced, such statistics play no particular role. But a certain interest of the state in sheep farming has been observed in recent years in Volyn as well. For instance, in May of this year a Cabinet of Ministers resolution was issued on the payment of funds for the increase in the number of sheep in households and for the existing livestock. Those households that keep at least 40 ewes and submitted all the necessary documents on time were able to receive 30 hryvnias 44 kopiykas for each sheep. For the increase in livestock, funds were received by those who had at least ten sheep and increased their number during the year (50 hryvnias per head). In total, Volyn households received 14.7 thousand hryvnias from the state.
In previous years, letters came to the editorial office with complaints that not all villagers who keep sheep in their households were able to receive the money provided by the state to support sheep farming. Obviously, there will be dissatisfied people this year as well. There are two reasons for this. Employees of raion agricultural administrations do not always collect documents from village households in a timely and efficient manner. But most often villagers conceal that they keep sheep in their household, supposedly so as not to pay taxes. Such savings later backfire on the households themselves.
While communicating with agricultural producers, we heard rather skeptical opinions about sheep farming in Volyn. Supposedly, in the best of times for this industry, specialized Volyn households kept sheep, and in order to fulfill the wool procurement plan, they brought it from Moldova. There was also talk about the demanding nature of these animals and their susceptibility to various diseases. But when the conversation turned to mutton, to sheepskin coats and astrakhan coats, no one could deny that sheep farming is a necessary industry — perhaps it is not so profitable for our producers, but aren't we abandoning it categorically too soon?
Olena DUDKEVYCH