Alright, figured I might as well do a thread on the cowboys that came to Central Asia.

When the USSR collapsed, the newly independent countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia all were faced with a grim future with their agriculture and beef industry.

For the newly independent countries, they had new economic sectors primarily centered around oil and natural gas export. There was a yearning to return back to the old ways and invest in the agriculture and beef industry to help solidify the economy, but with one small issue.

Lack of experience in farming and raising cattle was basically a lost art form in the immediate years after the USSR collapsed. Collective industrial farming brought about persecution against traditional farmers, under accusations of being Kulaks by the new Soviet government.

Because of the industrialization of the farm industry, nobody knew how to truly farm or live off the land anymore, this only came as a shock when the USSR collapsed. It was around the late 2000s when major concerns about food insecurity started to get more worrying.

In Russia alone, there were only around 500,000 cows left in the country at this time. This prompted ranchers from Montana to fly over with cattle and horses to help Russia and countries like Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as much of their meat was imported from other countries.

The ranchers that came over would cycle over and stay in the country for a season before returning home to let another rancher from the states fill his position. The goal in mind was to help these countries become self sufficient by 2017-2020.

Here are some sources to read more on this:
https://archive.is/5jwRR 
https://www.businessinsider.com/kyrgyzstan-cowboys-us-afghanistan-2012-6
https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/article_39ab4d1e-0965-11e0-95ee-001cc4c03286.html
https://comradecowboy.wordpress.com/category/blog/ 

Much of the latter's blog redirects to Natgeo, and their articles will most likely behind a paywall. Archive their pages first to read them