Ukrainian Institute of Livestock Breeding of the Steppe Regions

(full name, M. F. Ivanov Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of Livestock Breeding of the Steppe Regions of the V. I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences [Askaniia-Nova]), an agricultural institute located in the settlement of Askaniia-Nova, Kherson Oblast. The institute, established in 1956, was reorganized from the All-Union Scientific Research Institute for the Hybridization and Adaptation of Animals (Askaniia-Nova); it was named in honor of Academician M. F. Ivanov of the V. I. Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 1940.

As of 1975, the institute had divisions of sheep breeding, cattle breeding, swine breeding, feed production, feeding and physiology of farm animals, and biology of animal reproduction; there are also divisions for the study of the economics, technology, and mechanization of livestock breeding, the acclimatization and hybridization of wild animals (the zoo), the introduction of trees and grasses (the botanical garden and steppe preserves), and scientific and technical information. The institute also has laboratories for wool research and routine analyses, a computer center, and a science museum. It maintains an experimental farm and four livestock-breeding farms.

The institute specializes in the development of new breeds and types and the improvement of existing ones. It deals in the study of patterns of heredity and variability of economically useful traits, technological aspects of the care and feeding of sheep on mechanized farms, and methods of acclimatization, hybridization, and domestication of wild ungulates and birds. It also develops new research techniques in livestock breeding.

The institute has developed and introduced into practice methods of improving the Askanian sheep and of classifying fine wool. It has developed a purebred Karakul sheep capable of multiple births, a milk-meat type of red steppe cattle, and a new breed of swine (Ukrainian Spotted Steppe swine and Ukrainian White Steppe Swine), as well as stud lines of cattle, sheep, and swine. It has also developed and adapted hybrid forms of wild ungulates and birds; approximately 50 ungulate species and approximately 50 bird species are now reproducing. More than 1,400 species, varieties, and forms of plants are tested in the dendrological section of the institute’s botanical garden, and 250 of them were recommended for cultivation in 1975.

The institute has both resident and correspondence students in its graduate program. It has published the journal Trudy (Transactions) since 1933. It was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1969.