The idea of domesticating moose surfaced in Russia as early as 1869, when zoologist Alexander von Middendorff wrote to the Tsar's government proposing the concept. Nothing came of it until the 1930s, when Soviet planners, with characteristic ambition, imagined moose cavalry capable of operating in deep snow where horses could not. In 1934, the government ordered the creation of moose breeding centers. Researchers at sites across the country experimented with the animals, including attempts to mount weapons on their antlers and use them to haul artillery. World War II ended the cavalry dream permanently, but after the war, attention shifted to agriculture. The moose, whose name derives from an Algonquian word meaning "twig eater," seemed ideally suited to the taiga -- it could feed on timber-harvesting byproducts like branches and bark, essentially converting waste into food for free.

The first experimental moose farm, led by Yevgeny Knorre, launched in 1949 at the Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve in the Komi Republic. Researchers quickly discovered that penning moose in stalls made them sick. The animals are picky eaters who refuse branches thicker than about 10 millimeters, and they need wild plants for nutrients that captive diets cannot replicate. The breakthrough came with a technique better described as "moose ranching" than farming. Calves are separated from their mothers within two to three hours of birth and bottle-fed by human caregivers. The resulting imprinting bonds the calf to people permanently -- steamed oats become a lifelong favorite food. Meanwhile, the mother moose, through a parallel imprinting mechanism, comes to recognize the farm's milkmaids as substitute offspring. Released into the forest, she returns daily to be milked throughout her lactation period, typically until September or October. In winter, the animals drift toward nearby timber operations, where abundant branches and daily rations of oats and salted water keep them close without any fencing.

The Kostroma Moose Farm was established in 1963 under the Kostroma Oblast Agricultural Research Station. At its peak in 1978, the herd numbered 67 animals. Over the years, 10 to 15 milk-producing cows have typically been in service. Between 1972 and 1985, they produced 23,864 liters of milk -- roughly 6,000 gallons. The milk, rich in vitamins and microelements, is supplied to the nearby Ivan Susanin Sanatorium, where it is reportedly used to treat peptic ulcers and radiation injuries. Bull moose contribute their antler velvet, harvested while still soft each summer and used in pharmaceutical manufacturing. The farm also draws organized tourist groups through the Kostroma Tourism Bureau. By 2006, the farm's database recorded 842 individual moose that had lived there during its history.

For all its successes, the Kostroma Moose Farm operates at the edge of what domestication can achieve. The Moose Husbandry Laboratory was shuttered in 1992 due to budget cuts and only reopened in 2002. Hopes for a multi-generational breeding program that might produce a truly domesticated moose variety are complicated by a fundamental problem: free-ranging farm cows frequently mate with wild bulls, scrambling any selective breeding efforts. Researchers caution that moose farming requires genuine expertise, ample capital, and suitable habitat. Meat production is economically impossible -- costs run up to ten times those of beef -- and the moose themselves are not naive about slaughter. Operators in Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod who tried meat farming went bankrupt when their animals, having witnessed or sensed the killing of herd members, simply stopped returning. The moose, it turns out, cooperate with humans only on their own terms.