Leyli Chobanyan, who is an experienced farmer, lives in the village of Agarak, not far from the town of Stepanavan, Lori Region. For the past 25 years, Leila has begun her day by caring for the animals, working tirelessly to keep her farm thriving and growing.
In 1990, I got married and moved from Vanadzor city to the village of Agarak, not far from Stepanavan. My husband’s family owned three cows, and my mother-in-law was highly skilled at processing milk and making tasty cheese and other dairy products.
As I was born and raised in a city, it was difficult for me to be engaged in animal husbandry at first, but after a few years, I began to assist my husband, and we even decided to increase the number of our animals.
At the beginning our farm was small, but through hard effort, it increased to 70 heads of cattle and 30 heads of small ruminants. Now the number of animals is much more bigger, but it is easier for me, because many functions are mechanized, we have different types of equipment: milking machine, milk separator, etc.
We sell some of our milk, and I process the rest myself, making cheese, butter, and yogurt. My customers impatiently wait to purchase my products.
We rented 60 hectares of land to ensure the fodder base for our animals. I have two sons who work equally with me and my husband. We cultivated fodder for our cattle and sold the extras to the neighboring farmers.
If you want to be successful while living in the village, you have to work every day. Animals require daily care, you should start each day thinking about your animals, doing everything to improve their conditions, properly organize feeding and care.
I believe that our success was also due to the fact that my husband grew up in the village and helped his parents with agricultural jobs, so he learned how to cultivate the land and keep cattle.
He also taught me various functions: now we assist the cow during calving, both of us take the animals to pasture, and we even manage to provide first aid to the animals before the veterinarian arrives.