Shabska Ferma LLC («Starokazatsky cheese»)
Shabo village, Bilgorod-Dnistrovskii district, Odessa region
Rostyslav Zinovskyi, Financial director of «Starokozatsky cheese»
«In 2016 our farm was a part of Starokozatsky Cheese Ltd., and this year it is already a separate company — Shabska Ferma LLC. This is because we have separated the dairy business from processing to understand better what makes profit, and what makes losses».
The company operates in two main areas: dairy cattle breeding and cheese making.
Milk is processed at own cheese factory, and also is sold through 14 milk machines.
The capacity for cheese production was built in 1960s. The current owners purchased them in 2005. They made the reconstruction and restored production.
The daily capacity of a cheese factory is 50 tons of milk, but only 30−35 tons are processed. They produce 14 varieties of hard cheese, soft cheesesб goat cheese and butter.
| 2016 | |
|---|---|
| Land area, hа | 250 |
| Herd size, head | 1018 |
| Dairy herd, head | 580 |
| Breed | black-and-white and red-and-white, Holstein |
| Type of housing | loose housing, milking cows — open lots |
| Milk and milking | |
| Average milk yield per cow per year, kg | 8400 |
| Fat content, % | 4.1 |
| Protein content, % | 3.45 |
| SCC, thousand/sm3 | <200 |
| Bacteria count, thousand/sm3 | <100 |
| Milkings per day | low-productive cows are milked twice a day, and highly-productive — three times a day |
| Milking system | milkline (DeLaval) for 200 cows |
| Health | |
| How many lactations a cow is kept in the herd (average) | 3 |
| Culling rate, % | 30 |
| Youngstock rearing | |
| Liquid feed for calves before weaning | colostrum, whole milk |
| Age at weaning, days | 52−54 |
| Milking cow ration | hay, grass-legume hay, corn silage, sunflower meal, dry brewers' grain, corn offals, grape pulp |
