Dairy farming is, of course, one of the most important sectors of agriculture. Domestic farmers keep meat cows, but rarely enough. The main purpose of cattle breeding is to get milk.
A bit of history
Unfortunately, it is not known to scientists exactly when exactly people began to support cows. However, judging by the historical materials available today, it can be said with certainty that dairy farming in ancient states was quite active in the fifth millennium BC. In Asian countries, cattle in past times were bred mainly for meat and as a draft force. Many eastern peoples did not eat milk.
The situation was somewhat different in Europe. It is known for example, for example, that in Kievan Rus dairy cattle were kept already in the 9th century. In the middle of the XVII century, according to the decree of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, they began to import breeding animals from other states. Dairy cattle breeding was actively developing in our country and during the reign of Peter I. This reformer paid much attention, of course, to agriculture. Cattle breeding was concentrated during the time of Peter I, mainly next to large cities.
In the XIX century. control partnerships, unions, and agricultural cooperative associations began to form in Russia. They were engaged in including culling cattle with low productivity. Later in our country, breeding began to develop.
Livestock in the USSR
After the 1917 revolution, dairy cattle breeding in our country experienced several ups and downs several times. During the period of collectivization and during the Second World War this industry underwent a significant decline. In the 50s, dairy farming in Russia began to develop rapidly.
Industry Development in the 90s
At the end of the 80s of the last century, dairy cattle breeding in Russia was very well developed. In the 90th, a record result of the industry was recorded. Then the country's farms delivered 55.7 million tons of milk to the domestic market. The emphasis in those days in Russia was mainly on large livestock complexes. There was a lot of milk in the country in those years. But good results were achieved in this industry due to the large number of animals. Milking from one cow in the years 80-90 was usually a little more than 2,700 liters per year.
Ups and downs
Since the 90th, the development of this industry can be divided into 3 large stages:
90-95 years - a landslide drop in milk production;
95-2001 - a decrease in the rate of decline in milk yield;
2001-2010 - stabilization period;
2010-2018 - increase in milk production.
In the period of stabilization of the economy, the state began to provide assistance to Russian livestock farms. For example, in the framework of the State Program for 2008-2012, the amount of support for dairy production amounted to about 99 billion rubles. In 2013, the number of livestock in the country increased to 21 million heads. That is, the state of dairy cattle breeding as an industry at that time can be considered satisfactory.
Dairy farming today
In the State Program for the Development of Agriculture for 2013-2020, dairy farming is defined as one of the main areas. Since 2013, subsidies began to be allocated to manufacturers of such products. In 2014, 20 billion rubles were allocated for the development of dairy farming in our country. In 2017, farmers received loans worth 102 billion rubles.
In 2018, the leading position in Russian agriculture is occupied by farms specializing in breeding birds and pigs. But dairy and beef cattle breeding is currently well developed in our country. In the first half of 2018, the volume of milk production in the Russian Federation amounted to 15.51 million tons. Head of cattle in Russia today contains 19.7 million (cows - 8.3 million).
The main products of dairy cattle breeding in the Russian Federation are:
Industry features
Mostly these days, large livestock farms supply the market with milk. Peasant farms in Russia are less developed. But nevertheless, small farms supply quite a lot of milk to the market. Such farms produced 1.14 million tons of this product in the first half of 2018.
Most of the dairy cows in the Russian Federation are in the Volga Federal District - about 5.2 million animals. The rating of other regions in terms of industry development is as follows:
The most dairy regions
Most of all, Tatarstan delivers such a product to the Russian market today. In January - June 2018, over 911 thousand tons of milk were milked in this republic. The rating of TOP-5 of domestic areas of dairy cattle breeding for 2018 looks like this:
Tatarstan - 911, 8 thousand tons;
Bashkortostan - 864 thousand tons;
Krasnodar Territory - 740.9 thousand tons;
Altai Territory - 664.8 thousand tons;
Rostov Region - 513.5 thousand tons
Also, good results on milk yield showed Voronezh, Sverdlovsk and Novosibirsk regions, Dagestan, Udmurtia.
If we talk about peasant farms, the best results in terms of the effectiveness of dairy cattle breeding in the first half of 2018 were shown by farmers in Bashkortostan (83.4 thousand tons). In second place are the peasant farms of Tatarstan (77.5 thousand tons), and in third - Dagestan (77.1 thousand tons). Judging by the indicators of milk production, not bad small farms in Russia are developed in the Nizhny Novgorod and Samara regions, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia. The share of deliveries of peasant farms in these regions in the number of total milk yields is quite large.
Dairy Technology
The cattle breeding systems in our country, depending on the climatic characteristics of the regions, can be used differently. In areas with high plowing land, a stall or stall-camp scheme is usually used. In the second case, animals in the warm season are kept in light summer canopy complexes equipped with feeders, milking parlors, etc.
When using the stall system, cows are indoors year-round. In those farms that have their own food supply, cattle are usually kept using stall-pasture technology. In this case, the cows graze in the summer and are kept indoors in the winter.
Flow shop system
Such a system allows the use of feed as rationally as possible. The essence of this technique is the distribution of animals in four production and technological workshops, depending on the productivity of cows for:
- dead wood;
- calving;
- milking and insemination;
- milk production.
This technology is being introduced today by many agricultural enterprises specializing in dairy cattle breeding.
Problems of livestock breeding
Active development of dairy and beef cattle breeding is impossible, of course, without pedigree work. Of course, the state pays maximum attention to this issue. At the moment, the main emphasis in Russia is on the development of domestic livestock breeding. In this regard, since 2015, the state has stopped subsidizing the procurement of imported thoroughbred young animals.
This decision of the government led to the fact that many actively developing before this economy slowed down the rate of replenishment of the herd. The fact is that in Russia very few pedigree young animals are currently being sold. Accordingly, it is quite expensive.
This situation, of course, hinders the development of the dairy industry in Russia. And the law on the mandatory sale of a certain number of thoroughbred heifers by farms does not save the situation. Complexes specializing in breeding, among others, try to keep high-quality young animals for themselves. The schemes for this are used in this case the simplest. Breeding farms sell heifers to each other or just to themselves. In addition, according to livestock farmers, the quality of domestic pedigree cattle is still inferior to imported.
Ways to solve the problem
The breeders themselves can solve all these problems. For this, it is worthwhile to establish breeding work for those farms of the dairy cattle breeding sector in Russia, in which it has not yet been conducted. Moreover, due to the shortage of domestic thoroughbred young animals in the market, this business can become quite profitable. Here, farmers expect help from the state.
In 2018, the situation regarding the lack of subsidies for imported young stocks remains. In this regard, farmers offer:
to improve the subsidizing system for the purchase of pedigree young animals;
review the methods of state support for livestock breeding;
to optimize the costs of subsidizing the purchase of young animals.
How to achieve increased performance
In 2018, the Russian Federation provides itself with dairy products by about 75%. This is quite a lot. In any case, no trade wars or embargoes can significantly shake the dairy market in the country. However, in order to completely protect itself in this regard, Russia must increase the production of such products by at least 90%. The shortage of dairy products, which is to be replenished through supplies from abroad, currently stands at about 8–9 million tons.
According to experts, Russia can solve this problem within about 5-7 years with appropriate state support. Achievement of growth in dairy cattle breeding is possible only if the following conditions are met:
increasing subsidies to the industry;
building a coherent import admission strategy to the domestic market;
the transfer of problem enterprises to the management of effective owners on favorable terms;
the development of effective measures to combat the falsification of dairy products in the market;
stimulating domestic demand for dairy products.
Feed production
It is this industry that is the basis for the development of livestock. The use of saturated high-quality nutritious feeds provides an increase in the productivity of dairy cattle. This industry has been developing quite actively in our country in recent years. For the first half of 2018, domestic agricultural enterprises delivered 14.2 million tons of animal feed to the market. Compared to the same period in 2017, the growth in the industry is thus equal to 6.8%. The volume of compound feed intended for dairy cattle, at the same time, amounted to 7.7%.
Farms can grow hay for cattle both on their own and purchase it. When harvesting on their own, the grass in the meadows is first cut with mowers, then subjected to flattening for uniform drying, tedding, assembly into rolls, and stacking. It is impossible to violate the technology of storing coarse feed for dairy cows. Otherwise, the percentage of nutrients and carotene will decrease in it. And this, in turn, will lead to a decline in cattle productivity and a deterioration in the quality of milk.
Family livestock farms
Obviously, the development of dairy cattle breeding in our country is currently given maximum attention. Support to farms of this specialization is also provided by the state. The major share of dairy products in Russia today is supplied by large agricultural enterprises. However, small producers also make a significant contribution to the development of the industry. One of the goals of the state program for expanding livestock production in Russia for 2013-2020. is the development of family farms. Among other things, the state provides a grant for the organization of such farms.
For 2018, the conditions for receiving such cash assistance, for example, are as follows:
Participants of such a business can spend the received grant on:
construction of premises for livestock;
land purchase;
purchase of equipment;
access road construction;
installation of engineering networks;
acquisition of inventory, livestock itself.
In addition to assistance from the state to organize a farm, today in our country you can get a grant for:
reconstruction of the economy;
repayment of debt on loans;
compensation for the amounts spent on construction.
Owners of family farms can also count on loans with low interest rates. The specific grant amount for each applicant is determined by the commission, based on the cost plan. In different regions, however, it may be uneven.
Environmental hazard
Of course, livestock dairy farms, like any others, can cause some harm to the environment. The danger of such complexes for ecology is as follows:
farms produce more greenhouse gases than all vehicles in the world;
animals consume more than half of all cultivated cereals;
a bad smell may spread from the cowsheds;
near farms increased concentration of parasites.
The main environmental damage caused by such complexes is due to the use of hormones, growth stimulants and feed additives, which can be toxic. To reduce the damage to the environment by enterprises of intensive dairy cattle breeding, you can by:
increasing the percentage of natural protein feed in the diet of animals;
arrangement of effective ventilation systems in cowsheds;
development of the most rational schemes for the use of manure.
Liquid effluents from livestock complexes must be decontaminated, as they can become a source of the spread of infectious diseases and parasites.