Agricultural company «Ukraine-O»

 

Katashyn village, Chechelnytskyi district, Vinnytsia region


Total herd, heads 700
Milking herd, heads 239
Average daily yield per cow, kg  15

The farm specializes in crop production and dairy cattle breeding.

Total herd size is 700 heads of cattle, including 239 milking cows. The breed is Ukrainian red-and-white and black-and-white holstein. Only milking cows are kept on tie-up housing, all other animals are kept loose. They have their own replacement heifers. 

Barn in the center has a height difference of 45 cm. Therefore, they decided to make a two-level milking pipeline.

Cows are milked three times a day with the help of pipeline produced by DelLaval with DelPro herd management system. Thanks to the hanging transport system, milking operators do not need to transport milking machines and related equipment, this significantly reduces the workload on the worker. Before milking, operator enters his number and computer records the milker and the animal number. Data comes from the milking machine to the main computer: milking time, yield, milk flow, etc.

Milking pipeline in conjunction with the DelPro program is like a milking parlour, but with minimal investment in the construction part.

The average daily yield per cow is 15 kg of milk. For the last 10 months of 2017 they milked, on average, 4 435 kg of milk with a fat content of 3.88%.

The newborn calf is in the barn only for a day, then it is transferred to individual cages under the tent outside. The cold method of keeping young animals is used four years. To make animals feel comfortably, especially in winter, they use a deep straw bedding. For 25 days, calves drink 6 liters of whole milk per day, then they drink whole milk replacer.

From the sixth to the 90th day of their life, calves are fed granulated feed and maize corn at a ratio of 50:50. Then calves are transferred to group housing and are fed with general mixed diet.

The older animals are fed with feeds of their own production. Feed crops are cultivated on 300-350 hectares. They grow corn for silage, alfalfa haylage (stored in bales) and perennial bean grasses. Only sunflower meal is bought. Feed is distributed twice a day.

Also owners are building processing plant, which will produce dairy products exclusively from their own raw milk. Salted cheeses, drinking milk, kefir, yogurts, brasserie will be produced.