With a population of 49,700,000, Ukraine covers an area of 604 000 square km. It is in the south-east of the Eastern European plain between longitudes 22²08' and 40²13' east and latitudes 44²22' and 52²18' north. Its greatest distance from west to east is 1,316 km, from north to south - 893 km. It borders Belarus to the north, Russia in the east and south-east; Moldova and Romania in the south-west; with Hungary, Slovakia and Poland in the west. In the south it has outlets to the Azov and the Black Sea. The length of seaboard is about 1,580 km.

The river network comprises over 22,000 rivers with a total length of up to 170,000 km. The Dnieper, the largest - its basin covers 40 percent of the Ukraine, crosses the country from north to south and flows to the Black Sea, being the largest navigable artery of the country. There are many lakes, reservoirs and ponds.

Major soil types The soil cover of Ukraine is diversified and tends to occur in latitudinal zones across the country (figure 4).

Figure 4. Soil Map of Ukraine

Kinds of soils:

The north-west has a wide belt of soddy (dern or dernovo)- podzolic soils with mainly light texture on sand-clay strata. These soils form some 70 percent of the total cover, are characterised by low humus content, increased acidity and therefore need application of mineral fertilizers and organic manures, as well as lime to yield a rich harvest. Thirty percent of the territory is occupied with sod (dern), meadow, meadow-bog and peat-bog soils with slight soddy (dernor dernovo) sands on elevated pine-clad terraces. Over 600,000 hectares(60 percent) of Ukrainian peat lands are concentrated here.

A wide belt of grey forest soils, as well as podzol and typical chernozems with a 1.2-1.5 m thick humus bed, running from south-west to northeast, is located somewhat to the south. These soils are formed on loess strata. In addition to these, small areas are occupied with bog, meadow and meadow-chernozem soils, often of solonetz type.

Further to the south, encompassing a considerable part of the territory of Odessa, Kirovograd, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Donetsk and Lugansk regions, typical chernozems stretch, with the thickness of their humus bed up to 80-90 cm, formed on moist-loamy strata.

The southern part of Prychernomorie lowlands contains dry southern chernozems, which are replaced along the coastlines of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov with a rather narrow strip of dark-chestnut and then chestnut soils combined with solonetz and soloth.

Carbonatic chernozems and brown forest (often with gravel) soils prevail in the Crimean Mountains, while the Carpathians are characterised with short-profile mountain-forest and sod-brown soils with low content of humus, leached and heavy acid soils (pH=3.6 - 5).

[Note: The classification applied in this paper is the Russian Soil Classification (Ivanova and Rozov, 1967) or a variant thereof. The terms dern(ovo) and sod are typically Russian and not easily translatable. Dernovo is used as "pseudo" in podzol-like soils. "Sod" refers to the topsoil horizon. Many of these soils correspond with the Albeluvisols (or FAO Podzoluvisols) which are characterized by a dark surface horizon, a bleached eluvial horizon and a horizon in which clay has accumulated. They are normally acid and sandy textured.

A soil map of the Ukraine is contained in the FAO Land and Water Digital media series # 10 (Soil and Terrain Database, Land Degradation Status and Soil Vulnerability Assessment of Central and Eastern Europe.) For details about this CD see http://www.fao.org/catalog/book_review/giii/x8322-e.htm

Another CD ROM with a smaller scale soil map for Ukraine but also including a book on "Russian soils and their classification" is contained in FAO Digital Media Series #7 Soil and Physiographic Database for Northern Eurasia.. For details see < http://www.fao.org/catalog/book_review/giii/x3528-e.htm > and extracts of the book at the iiasa website. http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/FOR/papers/medea/3_soils.htm].

Agro-ecological zones. There are three major agro-ecological zones: Polissia in the north (mixed forest zone, 19 percent of the entire Ukrainian territory), Forest Steppe to the south (33 percent) and Steppe in the south (40 percent).

Polissia is the least ploughed part of the territory, characterised by a diverse mosaic of natural complexes, with many hayfields and pastures (these account for 17.8 percent of agricultural holdings with 77.3 percent being natural pastures and 22.7 percent sown. The percentage of ploughed land here is 36.4 percent of the terrain or 65.8 percent of cultivated area. Conditions are suited to many cereals, pulse crops, potatoes, flax, forage crops and traditional development of beef-dairy cattle-raising. In recent years, small areas in the sown lands are often occupied with winter wheat, rye, spring barley, potato and perennial grasses. Potatoes are used for food and pig fattening, especially on private holdings.

Forest Steppe (the percentage of forest land of the Forest-Steppe territory is about 12%. The woody vegetation is represented by broad-leaved oak, oak-hornbeam, oak-maple-linden woods. In the river valleys pine and oak-pine woods occur) having fertile soils and favourable moisture conditions; is characterised by a higher percentage of ploughed land, reaching 58.9 percent of the terrain or 82 percent (and up to 88 percent in certain cases) of its cultivated lands. Conditions here are favourable for cereals, especially winter wheat and maize, peas, white beet, and potatoes. The moister northern and north-west areas suit perennial grasses. This zone may produce sugar beet with beef-dairy cattle raising and pig rearing. White beet and grain are the main commodity industries.

The steppe is also an intensively cultivated area; it has 62.3 percent of its area or 81.3 percent of cultivated lands ploughed. Main crops include winter wheat and sunflower, the latter being the most important oil plant in the country. Winter wheat growing area in 1991 - 1995 in this zone was 2,800,000 ha or 52 percent of all crops, the area sown to sunflower was 1,400,000 ha. The area of sunflower rose to 1,900,000 ha in 1998. This caused difficulties regarding the position of sunflower in crop succession and aggravated the problem related to protection of the crop against disease. Large areas (over 1,200,000 ha) are occupied by maize for green fodder and silage. Southern, droughty regions of the Steppe, apart from the above major agricultural crops, are suitable for viticulture. Animal industries include cattle and sheep rearing.

The piedmont and highland areas of the Crimea are where viticulture and horticulture are developed, where essential oil crops (Rosmarinus officinalis L., Salvia sclarea L., Lavandula angustifolia Mill., Rosa sort Krimskaja red) and tobacco are grown. Olea europaea L. is cultivated in the South of the Crimea. Highland hayfields and pastures promote development of cattle and sheep rearing. Sheep are also important on abundant natural pastures in the highlands of the Carpathians.

Cattle numbers and production. Over 20 percent of all Union cattle were in Ukraine before 1990. Imperfect economic mechanisms, liberalisation of prices resulting in the rates of price growth of industrial commodities exceeding these of livestock products by 5.6 times in 1997 already [Zubets, 1999], and traditional application of energy-consuming technologies in fodder production has turned cattle-raising into an unprofitable branch of agriculture in recent years (table 4). Capacity rates in the beef and dairy industry were reduced to 15 - 40 percent.

Table 4. Number of cattle and indexes of efficiency

Dairy cattle Changes in the number of dairy cattle are shown in table 5.

Natural features of grassland and cultivation of fodder crops. The vast area of Ukraine, including several different natural-climatic zones, causes considerable diversity of grasslands as to their variety and composition of vegetation, and of their productivity. According to our estimates (personally Bogovin A.V.), resource potentialities of natural grassland are as follows (table 9):

Table 9. The natural resource potential of grassland of Ukraine

The largest areas of grasslands are in Polissia and the Carpathians (17.8 percent) with lesser areas in the Forest Steppe (10.3 percent) and in the Steppe (12.7 percent). In all zones, they are represented by continental meadows and flood lands. Meadow formations comprising Elytrigia repens, Festuca pratensis, Phleum pratense, Alopecurus pratensis, Poa pratensis; Festuca rubra and Calamagrostis epigeios on sandy soils are prevailing in the vegetation cover of Polissia, northern and western Forest Steppe, while Nardus stricta etc are mostly spread on heavy acid soils and alpine meadows of the Carpathians. Natural fodder grasslands in the southern part of the Forest Steppe are represented by steppified meadows and meadow steppes with prevailing Festuca rupicola and F. valesiaca, Stipa capillata, S. pennata, S. tirsa, Bromopsis inermis, and Poa angustifolia.. Real tipchak steppes are spread in the Steppe; they are represented in the northern part with herbal-tipchak-stipa formations (Stipa lessingiana, S. zalesski, S. pulcherima, S. tirsa, Festuca valesiaca and a few forbs), while southwards, on black earths, they are represented by tipchak-stipa species (Stipa ucrainica, S. capilata, S. lessingiana, Festuca rupicola and Festuca with small forb content. In Prysyvashie, along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, on Solonetz Chestnut soils, they are represented with wormwood-poaceous steppes (Artemisia santonica, A. taurica and wormwood-tipchak formations). Grasslands within the Forest Steppe and on flood lands are saline; the same takes place in the Steppe on low ground. These have vegetation characterised by Elytrigia pseudocaesia, Alopecurus arundinaceus, Poa angustifolia, Juncus gerardi, Eleocharis uniglumis, Puccinellia bilykiana, Puccinellia fominii, while the littoral belt contains Aeluropus littoralis and Juncus maritimus. Plant formations in the Steppe, especially in its southern part, are low-yielding and often dry standing, so resulting in shortage of grass fodder on pastures. The deficiency is replenished by growing annual forages or irrigable pastures.

During the past 15 years, natural grassland with an area of some 3,000,000 hectares was replaced by sown pasture. The annual scope of work aimed at renovation of degraded plant formations was reduced by a factor of more than 2 (from 443,000 to 210,200 ha) in 1995 compared to 1990, while the reduction in 1998 was already characterised by a factor of 3.5.

Natural hayfields and pastures on large areas are preserved on alpine meadows of the Carpathians and in the Crimea, while within the plain parts of the country they are in long-term flood plains of large and medium rivers, on swamplands with poor sand soils or on ground cut by ravines and washes; in the south of the country they are preserved on grasslands with prevailing Solonetz-Solonchak complexes.

Pasture in the north of Ukraine (Polissia and northern Forest Steppe) for irrigation is usually made with leguminous-poaceous or poaceous (on the land plots with increased soil moisture) mixtures containing 3-5 species comprising Phleum pratense, Festuca pratensis, Dactylis glomerata, Bromopsis inermis, Trifolium pratensis, T. repens with inclusion of Lolium multiflorum in western regions of Ukraine and its hybrids with Festuca orientalis. Use of legumes in mixtures allows us to obtain high yield over several years without application of nitrogen fertilisers. Dactylis glomerata regrows 10-15 days earlier compared with Festuca pratensis and 25-35 days earlier if compared with Phleum pratense. Therefore, to avoid aging of the plant formation of Dactylis glomerata, it is sown on 25 percent of the area in pasture crop rotation.

Mixtures of Medicago sativa and Bromopsis inermis are the most popular in the southern Forest Steppe in waterless valleys, while those in the Steppe include Medicago sativa, Onobrychis arenaria or O. vicifolia, Bromopsis inermis, and B. riparia. Also, it is recommended to introduce Agropyron pectinatum or A. desertorum, Psathyrostagys juncea, Elytrigia pseudocaesia, Roegneria trachycaulon, which withstand dry conditions and soils salinisation. Here perennial mixtures, as a rule, are combined with planting of drought-resistant annual crops and first of all with sorghum (Sorghum sudanense). These crops are utilized through grazing or mowing with feeding in mangers.

Problems High energy-intensive systems of fodder production with all-year cattle management on large farms, developed during the years when Ukraine was in the Soviet Union, was found to be untenable in a market economy. Therefore, we have the task today of turning up to 8,000,000 hectares of arable land into grassland to improve the structure and environmental conditions of agro landscapes, increasing the share of grass fodder in fodder resources (use of pasture would be preferred since they are the least demanding in energy resources), and putting cattle out to graze in summer. However, absence of finances, seeds of perennial grass, poor technical capacities of farms, curtailment of annual scope of pasture establishment makes solution of the task a problematic question. It increases the specific weight of old-sown grasslands and wasteland occupied with low-quality spontaneous vegetation.

Common village pastures are overstocked with animals; this causes serious degradation of the pastures. Land sharing in a number of regions with allotment of land plots to particular owners complicates grazing of collective herds thus increasing individual work loads. Private holdings of the people and small farms have no technical capacities to procure silage and hay for winter; production of grass meal has practically ceased because of high fuel cost. Therefore, winter fodder roughages are based on straw and hay of poor quality made from grass collected when over mature.

Almost everywhere pastures are not (or rarely) given mineral fertilizers; irrigation has ceased due to high electric power cost; regular mowing of weeds is not done. Removal of the surface mass of plant associations as compared with their annual increment frequently exceeds acceptable standards; rates are more than 70-75 percent in the Steppe, 75-80 percent in the Forest Steppe and 85-90 percent in Polissia. This leads to reduction of pasture productivity and deterioration of fodder quality, thus causing reduction in animal productivity.

Cessation of liming of acid soils is a great problem in the Polissia zone in recent years. Natural restoration of the original acidity of sod-podzol soils becomes a limiting factor for use of legumes in plant formations and for efficient rehabilitation of grasslands contaminated with radioactive elements because of Chernobyl NPP disaster. Low professional skills of new farmers may often be seen. All this reduces efficiency of grassland maintenance and has an adverse impact on dairy and meat productivity of animals.

Rotational management of cattle Cattle grazing in Ukraine is recognised as having good prospects, but was not widespread until quite recently because of cheap energy sources. Large collective dairy enterprises organised highly-productive pastures near the main cattle-farming premises, equipped with mechanical milking devices, or near summer camps with the use of small holding-pen grazing using stationary or movable electric fences. Such cattle management almost halves the costs of livestock products and to obtain 9-12 kg of milk from a cow per day with low consumption of concentrates is conducive to good animal health. Nowadays, however, because of deteriorated management and reduction of pasture productivity, such a management system has become a baffling problem for farms with many livestock. Due to poor equipment, late or absence of regular mowing of uneaten plant residues causes accumulation of old grass and weeds leading to pastures of low nutritive value, thus causing the reduction of dairy productivity of a herd. Small-size grazing is still efficient for farms with few livestock.

As a rule, cattle of private holding are grazed on poor pastures used without any set system. It forces owners to compensate any shortage in feeding on the pasture with additional fodder when the cattle come back for mid-day (thrice daily milking)and evening milking.

Production of silage and haylage Silage and haylage are only made by large agricultural enterprises. 15,518,900 tons were made in 1999 that is 19.5 percent less than in 1998 and 47.1 percent less compared to 1994. Waxy and milky-waxy maize, sunflower at onset of flowering, annual leguminous-poaceous and poaceous plant formations, and perennial grasses are the main raw materials for silage. Silage is made in trenches, silos or surface mounds and covered with polyethylene film further covered with a 5-6 cm soil layer. Due to financial problems in 1999, only 503,000 tons of silage was covered by film. Silos are more often covered with straw. Poor sealing of silos, prolonged (over 5 days) filling of the silos, non-observance of timing for plant mowing and practically total absence of mineral additives and conservatives (only 40,700 tons were made with addition of carbamide and other conservatives in 1999) does not allow us to obtain good quality silage. The problem of production of good quality silage is of top priority today.

Haymaking. Some 2,177,200 tons of hay were made in 1999 in Ukraine; that is 15.6 percent of all forage procurement (with 25.6 percent of haylage and 58.9 percent of straw). Large enterprises make hay mechanically, mainly in the loose form (82.2 percent); it is stored in the open air close to cow-sheds. Often hay is left in stacks at the places of haymaking and is carried to the farms in winter, when transport facilities and workers are free from field work. Due to machinery shortage, non-observance of haymaking technology, and mowing over mature grass (and due to frequent rains in this period in northern and western regions of the country), haymaking is accompanied by considerable losses of nutrients, giving a poor quality forage.

Private holdings, where hay is the main forage, make hay manually. Grass is mown with scythes. Mowing is in mid-end of June, i.e., during the late stages of meadow vegetation because of the aim of obtaining as much forage as possible; this has an adverse impact on forage quality. Hay is then transported by tractor-trailers, truck or horses. The vehicles are provided on a cash basis or by account payment for the work done. Hay is stored in lofts of ancillary premises or in stacks in the yard (in southern regions).

Seed production Today Ukraine has no reliable statistical data on production of perennial grass seeds. Seed-growing areas of perennial grasses were some 500,000 hectares in 1998 and comprised 180,000-200,000 hectares of Medicago sativa, 140,000 - 150,000 hectares of Trifolium pratense, 5,000 hectares of T. repens, 5,000 hectares of T. hybridum, 80,000 hectares of Onobrychis, 60,000 hectares of poaceous grass, 20,000 hectares of Melilotus which is used for creating meadows on slopes in the marshy woodlands and the Steppe, on salt soils and as intermediate culture in the field for feed production. In 1998 a large enthusiasm for this culture was observed; today the area of crops has been reduced by more than 10 times and from 5,000 hectares of Lotus corniculatus 28,500 tons of seed were produced in 1997; which is 69 percent of their demand.

The former organised seed-production system collapsed after disintegration of the Soviet Union. Some joint-stock companies and agricultural enterprises are dealing with production of perennial grass seeds; it is made often under methodological supervision of plant breeders (originators of cultivars) who transfer their pedigree seeds under contractual grounds for foundation and commercial seed production. However, this system, having no support from the government, provides a poor solution to the seed problem. Because of economic depression in the industry, exiguous technical base and chronic poor solvency of consumers, the production of perennial grass seeds, which is far below the demand, is still decreasing.

Until quite recently, plant breeders in Ukraine maintained high potentialities of types and species of perennial grasses. Their work allowed the inclusion of 165 cultivars of perennial grasses of 33 classes to be entered into the Register of Ukrainian Plants recommended for production in 2001.

Among the above classes, seed production of Trifolium pratense, Medicago satvia, Dactylis glomerata, Festuca pratensis, Phleum pratensis, Bromopsis inermis are in a good state of preservation compared to others; they are considered basic classes. Trifolium pratense and Medicago sativa produce 50-60 kg/ha (The seed yield of Trifolium pratense and Medicago sativa is 60-80 kg/ha - in humid regions of the country, and 150-250 kg/ha - in the Forest-Steppe and in the Northern Steppe), Dactylis glomerata and Festuca pratensis, 250 - 500 kg/ha, Phleum pratensis, 150-200 kg/ha, Bromopsis inermis, 200-250 kg/ha. Self-pollinated species of Yaroslavna and Roksolana lucerne, bred by the Institute of Agriculture of the Ukrainian Academy of Agrarian Sciences, are able to yield 250-300 kg/ha of seed. Some agricultural enterprises in recent years grow seeds of Lolium multiflorum and its hybrids with Festuca orientalis (Yaroslav cultivar), as well as Lolium perenne; seed productivity of these reaches up to 800-1500 kg/ha. Nevertheless, use of these species in ley management is very restricted due to their lack of persistence and poor frost resistance in northern regions or poor resistance to droughts in southern areas. These grasses are the most suitable for sowing in pastures in mixes with other perennial species in moist western regions and on fertile soils in fodder crop rotation with short (2-3 years) rotation of the perennials.

Seed growing for other grasses much needed for the grasslands of Ukraine (Trifolium repens, T. hybridum, Lotus corniculatus, Poa pratensis, P. palustris, Festuca rubra, Alopecurus pratensis, A. arundinaceus, Agrostis gigantea, Agripyron pectinatum, A. desertorms, Elytrigia pseudocaesia, Roegneria trachycaulon, Psathyrostachys juncea etc.) has very small scope and has no commercial significance.

Ukrainian Institute of Agriculture, Feed Research Institute, Institute of Irrigation Agriculture, Institute Agriculture and Breeding of Animals in Western Regions and other scientific-research institutions are engaged in the selection and testing of new cultivars of the perennials.

6. OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT OF FODDER RESOURCES

It was decided to take 10, 000,000 hectares of arable land out of intensive cultivation and to put 8, 000, 000 million hectares of these under grass. It will allow the balance of agro-landscapes and restoration of environment-oriented functions of agro-ecosystems, halting of erosion processes and improvement of the quality of water resources. At the same time, it opens large opportunities for strengthening the fodder base and to increasing the livestock (cattle up to 15,800,000 head, including up to 6,000,000 dairy cows and up to 1,300,000 beef cows, and up to 6,000,000 head of sheep), increasing significantly the share of cheap grass fodder in forage resources and turning cattle out to grazing in summers.