ANAU teaching-experimental farm of “Balahovit” is situated in the north-eastern part of the Kotayk marz.
The main objective of the Yerevan Zoo Veterinary Institute, established in 1957 on the basis of Mhub farm of Abovyan province and horse-breeding farm of Balahovit village was established aiming at creating a sound scientific, educational, practical and industrious background for students᾿ education.
In 1959 the dairy teaching-experimental farm associated with the chair of “Milk and Dairy Product” at the Yerevan Zoo Veterinary Institute was launched, which was later moved to the Balahovit village. In 1994, after the unification of the Yerevan Zoo Veterinary Institute and the Armenian Agricultural Institute, the dairy factory was unified with the “Balahovit” teaching-experimental farm.
H.O.Balayan, A.G.Chirqinyan, Z.V.Petrosyan, V.A.Zoranyan, A.S.Avagyan, G.S.Asryan, S. S. Ghazaryan. A. V. Avetisyan. M. V. Galstyan, H. G. Khachatryan, M. A. Hovhannisyan, H. A. Galstyan, V. Hovakimyan and Zh. Virabyan were the heads of the teaching-experimental farm in different periods of time.
By 2000 the “Balahovit” teaching-experimental farm had operated under different statuses and in the mentioned year it was united with “Voskehat” teaching-experimental farm and the union of the teaching-experimental farms was established.
Upon the decision of the ANAU Board of Trustees made on November 6, 2018, these two farms will operate again individually as a result of the university’s structural changes.
The “Balahovit” teaching-experimental farm currently has 1077 ha land area at the Yelija field plot out of which 274 ha are non-irrigated arable lands, 407 ha are grasslands and 396 ha are pastures. It is already a long time that the dairy product /milk, sour cream, curd, cheese, tan, matsun/ “Zovet kat” has been produced through the German technologies.
Ararat Minasyan has headed the farm since 2014.