January 20, 2014

For two years straight, the Ukrainian cattle production sector has been on the rise and as of the beginning of 2014, sheep population in the Crimea alone has grown by 14%, to 282,000 heads, according to the State Statistics Committee.

About 24.2% (total area of 4,343,000 hectares) of the Crimean farmland is covered with pastures. These indicators grew up due to the investment programmes for the cattle production development, the Information-Analytical Bulletin of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine reports.

The industry has grown across the country and according to statistics, the cattle population in Ukraine in 2013, grew by 1%, and as of January 1, 2014 included 4.69 million heads. The pigs count grew by 4.1% and reached 7.89 million heads, sheep and goats - by 4.4% to 1.815 million heads; poultry - by 7.3% to 229.6 million.

In 2013, the average milk yield per cow increased by 4.1%, to 4,853 kilogrammes, and according to calculations this figure for the individual farms grew by 1.3%, to 4,504 kilogrammes.

Due to a number of government programmes, cattle production grew. The villagers were given UAH468 million (US$56 million) budget allowances for development of dairy farming in 2013.