Belarus to reduce cereals share in compound feed

Up until now compound feeds in Belarus contain about 70% grains. "This is a very high figure," said Popkov. He gave the example of world practice where the level of cereals use in feed production on average equals to about 50%, and for example in the Netherlands is already reduced to about 30-40%.

 

He also said that weight gain and milk yield obtained with use of foreign compound feed is much higher.

 

This issue is not brought up for the first time in the former Soviet republic. In feed production the country still has not solved the problems of raw protein availability.

 

Only 60-65% of the requirements are met by the feed industry. As a result the forage fed to cattle is unbalanced, which leads to overspending of grain and higher feed intakes per unit of livestock production.

 

Belarus is estimated to produce about 7 million tonnes of animal feed per year, with about 5 million tonnes of grain use. "If our industry can reach world standards, we only need about 3-3.5 million tonnes of grain," Popkov said.

 

"We have prepared an analytical report, and soon, perhaps, President Lukashenko will bring up this issue during a session of government meeting and it will be turned into an appropriate instruction" Popkov added.

 

Within a new strategy it is also expected to introduce a total of 15 technologies and 15 types of equipment for technical re-equipment of existing and newly constructed feed complexes.

 

In coming years, it is planned to increase production of high-grade organic feed from 4.7 million tonnes to 7.5 million tonnes per year. (Vladislav Vorodnikov)