Mikhail Fedorovich began his teaching career in Kharkov at the beginning of September 1900. On October 20 of the same year, according to the decision of the Council of the Institute, a public defense of the dissertation was appointed, presented by Mikhail Fedorovich for the title of assistant professor at the cattle breeding department. After the end of an interesting debate, the dissertation candidate, to the applause of professors and students, was recognized as deserving of a degree. In Kharkov, he read a number of livestock disciplines: general animal husbandry, feeding, cattle breeding, horse breeding, pig breeding, sheep breeding, exterior horse breeding, dairy business, general hygiene with zoohygiene. In addition to reading numerous subjects, he spent a lot of energy for a more rational formulation of animal science at the veterinary institute.

Very few funds were allocated for the department; suffice it to say that an amount of 100 rubles a year was allocated for teaching aids. There was no animal husbandry laboratory. Experience and research work could only be established from the dairy business, and in the meantime, the livestock technician should be familiar with the analysis of feed, their chemical composition, falsifications and microscopic studies. With exceptional energy, he began, both orally and through numerous reports to advocate for the improvement of the organization of animal science in veterinary institutes and achieved great success. Instead of 100 rubles, they began to allocate 300 rubles for teaching aids; increased allocations for the work of the department; a animal husbandry laboratory was organized; they began to allocate funds for excursions, it became possible to show their listeners animals in factories, farms and in private households. Mikhail Fedorovich was preparing even to the master's exam and passed it in 1901. He processed the material for her in his laboratory. In 1903, after a brilliant defense of his dissertation, Mikhail Fedorovich received a scientific degree and was approved as a staff assistant professor. From the first steps of his scientific activity, he established a connection with practical animal husbandry. In the summer of 1902 Mikhail Fedorovich, having received a business trip, made a trip to the provinces of the Russian Empire. Starting from the Arkhangelsk province in the north and ending with the Kuban in the south, he visited the best farms, was at livestock fairs, livestock exhibitions, dairy farms, got acquainted with the zemstvo and government measures to improve animal husbandry. The survey reports were submitted to the press after returning from a business trip. In 1905 he was sent by the Veterinary Office to Budapest for the International Veterinary Congress. Along with carrying out extensive research work, Mikhail Fedorovich devoted a lot of time to writing scientific papers. The young scientist's versatile activities attracted attention, and he was invited to lecture in various cities of the Russian Empire for courses on animal husbandry and subjects related to this industry: biology, bacteriology, etc. Not a single animal husbandry exhibition in the country was complete without his participation in as an expert. He was invited to the councils of institutions related to agriculture. Together with his research activities, his social work developed. Observing all the backwardness of animal husbandry in his homeland, he began to advocate for its improvement by creating animal husbandry research stations. Along with extensive scientific, pedagogical and social work, Mikhail Fedorovich was also engaged in practical work, from which he never broke away. He was engaged in the grading and selection of sheep in various sheep breeders, also worked in the field of artificial insemination of horses and cattle, organized courses on artificial insemination of cattle in one of the large farms of the Kiev province, where he taught the technique of this matter to veterinarians. In 1906, Mikhail Fedorovich received an invitation from a very large landowner of the Tavrich province F.E. Falz-Fein conduct the selection and grading of sheep on his estate Dornburg. On the instructions of the Kharkov provincial zemstvo council, in the summer of 1913 and 1914, Mikhail Mikhailovich Fedorovich made a thorough examination of the state of animal husbandry in the Lebedinsky and Kupyansky districts of the Kharkov province. Since the work was to be very large-scale and complex, zemstvo veterinarians, zootechnicians, students and trainees of the Department of Agriculture were sent to help him. As a result, all peasant, private-owned animal husbandry was examined in detail. Mikhail Fedorovich personally took many photographs of animals. Returning home, he worked for a long time on processing the material he had obtained for printing, and as a result, the Kharkov Provincial Zemstvo Council published two large volumes of research. In the summer of 1916, Mikhail Fedorovich made an examination of the Voloshskih sheep. As a result of studying the Voloshskih sheep, he came to the conclusion that they, despite their endurance and unpretentiousness, giving coarse wool, are of little profit. Then he set himself the task of creating a sheep that would combine the qualities of the local Voloshski and English meat. By crossing walnut sheep with Lincoln, Mikhail Fedorovich developed a type of sheep that fully corresponded to this task. At this time, a professor was appointed director of the Kharkov Veterinary Institute, who immediately started the order of espionage and denunciations at the institute. The scientist could not come to terms with the director and his system, and as a result, clashes began. Soon, in 1913, Mikhail Fedorovich was elected by competition as a teacher in the department of private animal husbandry at the Petrovskaya Academy. So, the scientific method of M.F. Ivanov is an invaluable contribution to the treasury of domestic and world animal husbandry, it must be taken into account in modern conditions of production and scientific research.

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