The land where Buyanto's sheep and cattle graze is typical of the surrounding countryside of the Buryat Autonomous Republic: low, rolling hills and flat lands that seem to stretch beyond the horizon. Buyanto's wheat fields are still tall with grain, even though the first snow has fallen.

He and his brothers split the duties of the farm: one brother, a veterinarian, cares for the animals; another manages the wheat harvest; another is in charge of building any new structures on the farm: a banya for the families, storage sheds for equipment. Buyanto manages the farm, researches the local markets, and handles all official business with the local government, which he says is very much opposed to private farming.

"The government of the Buryat Autonomous Republic would rather see everyone still working on the kolkhoz," he says. "The idea of private farming frightens them. They will do everything they can to make things more difficult for us, but one thing they can't take away is the tax law that made all this possible."