Pit Bühler

Miratorg is the largest holder of black Angus cattle in the world; handling 500,000 heads of cattle on 65 farms across Russia, most of them in the Bryansk region, about 300 miles southwest of Moscow.

In 2011, the company began recruiting American cowboys to help restart a national beef industry that had been destroyed during the Soviet era.

The Russians have a strong incentive to keep the nose to the grindstone. Most were born and brought up in the area but were forced to migrate to Moscow to find work. For them, the chance to come home for a good job was a godsend.

American Cowboys were hired to teaches the operators to ride horses, to use a lasso, to doctor calves, but also to accept the long work hours, the can-do attitude of a dedicated cowman, and the love for the animals.

Today, Miratorg employs more than 1,000 "Russian Cowboys" who were educaed, trained, influented and inspired by American Cowboys.