Number of cattle of A.G.R. Group down by 4.5% over 2022

KYIV. Feb 23 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The agricultural holding, A.G.R. Group, in the conditions of a full-scale Russian invasion, was able to maintain its livestock business: in 2022, the reduction in the number of cows in the holding’s farms amounted to 4.5%, to 632 animals, and in total, three dairy farms of the group currently contain 1,220 animals of cattle livestock (cattle).

According to A.G.R. Group, 2022 has become a very difficult test for Ukrainian agriculture, and especially the livestock industry, where the continuity of technological processes is important, such as feeding, milking and daily sales of milk.

“At the beginning of a full-scale war, a complex and unpredictable situation developed that made it impossible to sell livestock products (milk and culled animals for meat). The dairy plant which we cooperated with, due to unresolved issues of logistics and processing, could not take milk from us and in March closed the milk receiving branch in Poltava region. Most dairy processing plants have stopped. It was decided to give milk to employees, shareholders, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Territorial Defense, as well as district hospitals,” the holding quoted the head of its livestock development department, Volodymyr Zolotar, as saying.

According to him, to reduce the cost of feeding, A.G.R. Group stopped giving feed to dairy cows, due to which the holding’s total milk yield decreased by six times – to 2 tonnes per day from the pre-war 12 tonnes. The group of companies managed to resume the sale of its raw materials to the milk processing plant only from March 2022.

“There were problems with the supply of the necessary veterinary drugs, sperm products – we were forced to quickly make decisions on the treatment of animals. An important and critical issue was the provision of protein feed, due to the fact that most processing shops stopped – it’s good that we had sunflower cake, which helped maintain the productivity of cows,” Zolotar was quoted as saying in the message.

In addition, the holding faced personnel problems, since some of the farm workers were mobilized into the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and they needed to find qualified replacements. At the same time, on some farms of the group, employees combine several professions so as not to disturb the technological process and control the productivity of cows.

However, according to Zolotar, the main Ukrainian suppliers of raw milk and milk processing enterprises have adapted to the situation and restored a stable supply of purchased feed, veterinary drugs, sperm products, spare parts for milking equipment, etc.