Dear participants of the conference, ladies and gentlemen!
On behalf of the Russian delegation and breeders of Russia I would like
to greet all of you. I wish successful work in 1999.
Dairy cattle breeding is a leading branch of animal husbandry in Russia.
It provides production of high quality food - milk and meat, and also raw
material for leather and other industrial products. It represents one of
the most complicated (from technological and economical point of view)
branches of animal husbandry and the increase of its efficiency is now
the main task of our breeders.
We perfectly understand, that the increase of food production depends
mainly on the complex decision of urgent tasks by various directions of
science and engineering, on rates of scientific and technical progress.
We need animals, which are tolerant against diseases and stresses,
which are adapted to machine milking, and adapted to severe climatic conditions
(in Russia 75 % of the whole territories is described as unfavourable).
For the last years a tendency of decreasing numbers of cattle including
dairy cows was observed in Russia.
The reduction in number of cattle was substantially caused by such
factors as refusal of administrative methods of managing, structural reorganisation
of the agricultural sector, high level of expenses in animal husbandry,
non- or underdeveloped marketing systems which are not yet adapted to the
new economic system.
Last year the number of cattle was stabilised.
Up to the recent past, Russia kept dual purpose cattle of local origin.
The presence of the large industrial centres dictated the necessity
of manufacturing a large volume of whole milk. And we perfectly know, that
this task can be solved by breeding (in suburban zones) of specialised
dairy breeds. Now we have quite good results in this direction. Annual
milk productivity of recorded cows (1,3 million) is 5000 kg per cow. Our
best dairy farms are in Moscow, Leningrad, Sverdlovsk, Murmansk regions,
Republics of Komi, Kareliya and others. Having 1000-1500 heads of cows
per herd, they achieve an annual performance of 7000-8000 kg milk per cow.
We consider, that it is a quite good result. They confirm skill, ability
of our chiefs and experts of farms (on large number of cattle) to organise
breeding work, correct selection, using proven good sires (bulls).
The quality and safety of received feed products is a global problem
for agricultural production. Taking place in Moscow at the All-Russian
Exhibition centre in December, 1998 the all-Russian agricultural exhibition
has shown that our food processing industry has achieved impressive successes.
However there is a problem of quality in raw material production (milk
and meat). It not always meets the requirements of the Russian and international
standards. State inspections on quality of production revealed over 9 months
of 1998 that dairy farms in the Russian Federation realised 82% of milk
as first grade and 3% as non grade.
The state standard accepted in 1988 indicates 4 groups of regulating
parameters influencing quality of milk:
The first group - requirement to technology of primary processing:
a filtration, cooling, and prevention of freezing;
The second group - requirement on physical-chemical parameters: smell
and taste, density, acidity, cleanliness, contents of fat and fibre;
The third group - requirement to presence of chemical admixtures: inhibitors
and not sterilized substances, heavy metals, ash, etc.
The fourth group - veterinary-sanitary requirements: presence of bacteria,
presence of somatic cells.
It is clear, that the quality of milk is caused by a combination of
these factors, which are interconnected among themselves.
Because of absence of milk cooling facilities on many farms only about
46% of milk was cooled to temperature of + 6°C in 1998. As a result,
acidity of milk was increased especially in the summer period, bacteria
number was increased also. This worsens quality and suitability of raw
material for processing.
In many respects the quality of milk is influenced also by such factors
as technology of animal management and milking technology and equipment,
quality of forages, culture of work of the attendants. On many farms of
Russia line milking facilities is common standard. This technology in our
conditions, when the length of cowshed exceeds 100 m, has a number of constraints,
which influence quality of raw milk, the main factor is the extended length
of milking pipelines. Therefore, we consider that the best technology dairy
management system is the loose housing method, equipped with a milking
parlour, where it is easier to support hygiene of milking and to reduce
the way of transportation of milk in closed pipelines. We are using the
following types of parlours: "Herringbone", "Tandem" and "Rotation type",
but they demand certain technical and management skills to ensure a proper
mode of milking.
Russian institutes developed system of automatic milking "Stimul" which
control quality of milking and volume of milk from each cow in an automatic
mode.
Milk of our domestic breeds of cattle: Holmogorskaya, Yaroslavskaya,
Kostromskaya, Bestygevskaya, Red Gorbatovskaya, Istobenskaya contains 3,4-3,6
% of protein. These animals are adapted to feed on plenty of roughage and
green, forages are capable to give high dairy efficiency at low level of
concentrate feeding. We think, that some Russian cattle breeds are of interest
to other countries with similar conditions.
However, as a whole in Russia the content of protein in milk averages
3,1%, because of the large number of the cows of black and white breed.
The low content of protein is explained by non balanced rations (protein)
and poor quality of forages. Main reason for this is harvesting of grass
for hay or haylage too late in the vegetation stage, that results in a
reduced nutritional value and increase of fibre content up to 30 and more
percents. Not all our farms have good quality fodder harvesting equipment,
lack of mowers, rakes. It is not possible to cut corn for silage up to
the size of particles less than 8 cm that influences on pressing and sealing
of silage. All this results in reduction of fat and protein content in
milk, its density. In the winter period there is an unspecific smell in
milk.
It is very important for us to attain an ecological quality of product
in animal husbandry. Ecological quality is meant as a degree of harmlessness
of a product for human organism. Dairy products, which do not meet the
requirements of the ecological quality standard, contain heavy metals,
including mercury, lead, Cd, Zn. In a number of territories the increase
of milk with microtoxins, radionuclides, dioxines is observed. In products
there are the residual quantities of antibiotics, biological toxines and
microorganisms. It leads to a reduction immune system of children, and
to sharp increase of intestinal infections.
It is very difficult to solve these problems.
But there are also positive shifts in this direction. The state control
of quality of products is strengthened due to application of modern devices.
Until recently the analysis of dairy production were carried out by routine
chemical and physical-chemical methods, which have a low productivity and
demand long time, now dairy factories and farms use mobile laboratories
with portable express - analyser ASKM-1 which were developed by our scientists.
This equipment controls density, acidity of milk, contents of fat and protein,
quantity of somatic cells, etc. At breeding farms of All-Russian breeding
organisation (Rosplem system) there are dairy laboratories that carry out
the control of efficiency and quality of milk of the cows. They are equipped
with devices of domestic production, such as Laktan1-4, TSZHM-1, those
of Foss-Electric and, Tru-Test.
We understand that competent price policies and payment policies for
raw milk will assist solving many other problems. Now in Russia the system
of stimulation for marketing of high-quality production is realising. It
works at two levels: regional and state. To increase milk quality dairy
processing plants pay a premium of 10-20 % of the normal price for delivery
of best quality first grade milk. The price of purchased milk is increased
with increased protein and fat contents. Milk with a fat content higher
than 3,5% is receiving a state subsidy at a rate of 10 % of the normal
price.
We try not only to carry out the control, but also make it an independent
measure. For this purpose in Russia the project "Tacis" is developed for
the main purpose of creating independent laboratories for evaluation of
product quality. They will also decide on questionable problems between
the suppliers and buyers of raw material.
The breeding organisation "Mosplem" together with ADT (Germany) since
1992 carries out the pilot - project " Breeding cattle of the Moscow area
". This work covers all parts of breeding such as the estimation of dairy
efficiency and quality of milk, linear type and conformation evaluation,
artificial insemination. All of the project activities have contributed
to increase the efficiency of animals, to improve quality of raw milk and
to improve the technological properties of milk products.
Within the framework of improvement of ecological quality of dairy
raw material the employees of the All-Russia institute of animal husbandry
developed method for estimating the production chain of a dairy farm: air-water-feed-product,
and will also carry out monitoring of the basic parameters of external
environment, which affect quality of products and consumer health.
I think, you will agree with me, that high performing breeding cattle
are the basis of product quality. The creation of high performance is hard
work and the merit of experts, who secure the future of animal husbandry.
In 1995 the Law "About breeding cattle" was accepted in Russia, to
set the rules and requirements for control and estimation of level of efficiency,
for quality of products, and for breeding value of animals. According to
this law the state system for the identification of breeding animals has
been introduced.
Identification numbers of breeding animals represent a ten-digit code,
which reflects a code of region and numbering of animals within the limits
of region actively from 1 up to 99999999.
At registration of animals according to the International organisation
on standardisation (ISO) the reduced name of our country - RU is put to
the left of the identification number.
The tag (carrier of identification number) is fixed on the right ear
of the calf. The information on its identification is transferred to the
authorised organisation, where the breeding animal is registered in a database.
In case of realisation and purchase of animals the information is put
down in a special form.
All this work is carried out under the control of the state breeding
service.
Dear ladies and gentlemen!
Circle of mutual interests of breeding service experts is very extensive.
It is necessary for us to study the experience of each country with high
productive animal husbandry.
I hope that our dialogue with your experts, scientific workers will
bring mutual benefit and will serve the common business of developing breeding
animal husbandry in our countries.