Milk production in the Russian Federation slowed down the growth rate due to the abnormal heat

‘So far, the dynamics of commercial milk production in the Russian Federation is positive: we see an increase in milk production for the first six months of this year. But the pace is lower than it was last year; this is partly due to the abnormally hot weather on the territory of a number of regions of the Russian Federation, where due to ... high temperature was a decrease in productivity,’ Belov said.

‘Therefore, if a year ago the increase in production in the country for the first six months was about 4%, now it is about 1.5-2%. I think that if the situation with the weather and natural and climatic conditions normalize, milk yields will recover. Moreover, this is already happening in a number of regions,’ he added.

Since the second decade of June, hot and mostly dry weather has been in a number of regions of the Central, Volga and Ural Federal Districts for more than a month. According to Belov, the air temperature is noticeably higher than 30 degrees Celsius seriously affects the productivity of animals regardless of how technologically advanced the farms are and whether they are provided with cooling equipment. When the temperature normalizes, milk yields will recover, but the situation can also affect the annual dynamics.

‘I do not exclude that the growth rate may be slightly lower than last year. But I am almost sure that the dynamics will be positive here,’ Belov concluded.

According to Rosstat, milk production in Russia in 2020 in farms of all categories increased by 2.7% compared to the previous year, to 32.2 million tons. According to the operational data of the Ministry of Agriculture, as of July 19, the average milk yield from one cow per day was 18.76 kilograms, 0.78 kilograms more than a year earlier. Meanwhile, on May 17, the average yield was 18.94 kilograms, and on June 29 - 19.49 kilograms.