Ms Tsvetkova, Plemzavod Rodina farm is one of the large-scale milk producers in the Russian Federation with as many as 10 commercial dairy farms, 10 calf houses and two feed rooms at your impressive production base. Have you introduced any revision?
- We have, our two feed rooms are of an outdated type of production: in terms of technology, capacity, and parameters. Now we are currently constructing a modern feed building, which we plan to launch next May or June. The production capacity is going to be at an astounding 8 tons per hour rate. We bought new equipment from Austria. We paid half of the costs before February 2022, and the last tranche has been made just recently. The equipment has already been delivered to the territory of Russia.
Could you specify the costs please?
- The cost of the equipment is 1 million 800 thousand euros. We paid half with our funds and took a loan. The construction costs for the room shop are 300 million rubles, we are dealing with it with our funds.
What is dairy livestock number at the enterprise and what is the annual volume of raw milk production?
— The dairy herd is 2 450 heads of Holstein cows. Milk production volume in 2021 amounted to 20,380 thousand tons.
How many farms and what regions have you been selling breeding cattle? And what are your plans for further work?
— We sell Holstein stud bulls and heifers. The geography of the buying farms is our Vologda region, Tatarstan and Bashkiria. I will emphasize that it is vital for us to maintain our livestock at the same level, which we have been doing for five years. Therefore, we only sell 50 per cent of 2 450 heads of cattle annually, leaving the rest for reproduction in situ. This is the bigger plan for our current work, which is to renew the aging herd and get milk.
Is increasing milk production also included in the husbandry plan?
- Definitely, so we ought to root out all the reasons hindering it. To do this, we are increasing the herd number and implementing all modern methods out there for raw milk production. We have installed robotic solutions from DeLaval.
Will it be the first time for Plemzavod Rodina farm in the Dairy Olympics?
- Yes, we have not visited it before!
What was the interest for you, your company, in the Dairy Olympics?
– It’s very interesting, to start with! Secondly, this is a unique opportunity to see the work done by our colleagues, and thirdly, this is a chance to share experience we’ve have gained over the years of work. So we decided to seize the moment and take part in such great international event. I think that this will help us in our future work.
The Dairy Olympics program includes participants visiting local factories and farms, and what would you be interested in seeing in the fellow farmers’ work?
— I am eager to learn how the comfort for cattle is handled in Uzbekistan given its hot climate. I would like to know how they deal with the heat stress in the herd, as we have a problem with the ventilation in the cow sheds in summer. We had had two consequent years with hot summers. Insufficient comfort negatively affects milk production, so we need to seriously mind sufficient ventilation at farms.
What are your expectations for the upcoming event?
– There we will meet many milk producers so we can learn a lot of new things and gain experience. Personal connection is extremely important for us and, I believe, for our good. I am sure that we will pick up some innovative solutions related, as I said above, to setting more comfortable enviroment for animals. We will see ourselves how animals are kept in Uzbekistan, how they are getting protected from heat stress and the milk yields across the country.