The cost of feed continues to increase

In 2016–17, the price of feed wheat increased by 12.2% compared with the previous year, the price of feed barley increased by 4.5%, and feed corn increased by 6.7%. This was stated in the land company "Phoenix Agro". According to Valeriy Pekin, analyst of Phoenix Agro, the rise in feed tariffs started in 2014: because the cost of feed is pegged to the dollar, and devaluation processes affected the cost. In 2014, the cost was measured, and only from the end of 2015 its small rise started. “This prevented livestock breeding from developing in Ukraine, which began to integrate the national currency only at the end of 2015,” said Valeriy Pekin.

The specialist is confident that only later on the absolute integration of the purchase prices for whole milk, the devaluation of the hryvnia, it is likely that profitability will return to the dairy production sector, which has worked in conditions of very high feed prices for almost all of the past ten years.

A farmer spends an average of 83 hryvnia per day on the ration of a high-performing cow. Last year, the owners spent an average of 60 hryvnia on feeding one animal, in 2014 - 40 hryvnia.An animal weighing 500 kilograms and an average daily milk yield of 20 kilograms must be prepared up to 60 kg of feed per day. According to the information of the Director of the AVM Consultation Center Denis Sergienko, the daily menu of cattle consists of 10-12 kg of roughage (hay), 30-35 kg of succulent feed (silage, haylage), 3-4 kg of concentrated feed (grain, meal).