"August-Agro" will breed breeding heifers of the Holstein breed and calves for fattening
August-Agro Management Company in the Republic of Tatarstan is starting to implement a dairy farming business model that is unique for Russia: in the near future, all dairy complexes (MTC) of the company will specialize either in milk production and achieving maximum productivity, or in conducting intensive selection and breeding work and cultivation of repair - intended to replenish the livestock - young animals. Agrofirm "August-Muslyum", within which the ITC "Urazmetyevo" operates for 2,400 cows, has already received the status of a breeding reproducer for breeding the Holstein breed. On farms focused on milk production, young animals will mainly be intended not for replenishing the dairy herd, but for fattening, therefore, the semen of beef bulls will be used to fertilize cows - a corresponding experiment is already being implemented in a number of agricultural firms.
The construction of MTC "Urazmetyevo" in the Muslyumovsky district of the Republic of Tatarstan started in 2019, it was carried out in two stages and was completed in 2022. Today it is an ultra-modern robotic farm with a digital herd management system, consisting of two monoblock buildings built using big box technology (“everything under one roof”) and equipped with an automatic cross-ventilation system. "Urazmetyevo" is designed for a herd of 2,400 dairy cows, excluding the "loop" - animals outside the lactation period (calves, heifers, dry cows, etc.). The Holstein breed, which is highly effective in the industrial production of milk, was chosen to complete the livestock of the innovative complex. At the end of 2022, the average daily milk yield per cow at Urazmetyevo exceeded 32 kg. In the future, this indicator is planned to be increased to 45 kg - not only due to the improvement of production technology, but also due to the formation of a full-fledged herd structure, where more than 70% will be full-aged lactation cows with maximum productivity, and not first-time heifers, as at the moment.
The assignment of the status of a breeding farm indicates the recognition at the state level of the high quality of breeding and is an advantage for potential buyers of breeding stock. In addition, the development of domestic livestock breeding is stimulated with the help of state support in the form of a set of subsidies for the maintenance. In the context of the year, the subsidy paid reaches significant amounts: for example, such a complex as Urazmetyevo, thanks to it, can fully provide itself with breeding material - the best seed of bulls-producers of international selection, even taking into account its high cost.
By the end of 2022, the number of cattle on all August farms reached over 9,200 animals, including almost 5,300 cows. Today, the average productivity per dairy cow is almost 30 kg of milk per day, which already puts the company on a par with the best agricultural firms in Tatarstan. However, like most agricultural producers focused on dairy farming, Avgust-Agro also sells bulls for fattening, the buyers of which are enterprises specializing in beef farming. In order to improve the characteristics of such calves, Avgust-Agro started a project to inseminate dairy cows with the semen of beef bulls of the Belgian Blue breed and Aberdeen Angus in order to obtain cross-bred (local) young animals. Such calves are not used for the reproduction of the dairy herd, but they have an increased live weight and quickly gain muscle mass.
At present, more than 250 cross-bred calves have already been born on August-Agro farms, and all of them were sold out very quickly. By the end of the year, there should be at least 500 more such heads. In the future, on the basis of dairy complexes that do not conduct breeding work, it is planned to receive up to 4,000 heads of cross-bred young animals per year.