Dairy productivity gets boost through technology

Russia is one of the world's fastest growing dairy markets but declining cattle numbers are starting to limit further growth. That means the Russian dairy industry is turning to technology to boost productivity.

Half of Russia’s milk is produced on small farms and private households. Most government support for the dairy industry has been focused on larger players – with more than 2000 cows. But increasingly its being realized that with a little technology small can be beautiful, according to First Deputy Prime Minister, Viktor Zubkov.

“We need to have standard projects for small farms and private households. It can be a small project of 20,30 or 100 cows. We need new technology, and we are ordering that here in Sweden at Delaval.”

The Delaval company has over 130 years of history specializing in high technology for the dairy sector. A computerized system shows key milk data, and enables every last cow to be monitored.

With a declining dairy herd, Russia needs to increase the productivity of every cow to maintain the total production levels. Russia is looking to Sweden for advanced technology to make it's dairy sector more efficient. Delaval is already a major presence on the Russian market, supplying technology and operational service to farmers.

Now the assembly will be located at the Kirovsky plant in St. Petersburg with more parts being produced locally, according to Elena Skrynnik, General Director of Rosagroleasing.

“We are investing over $16 million and Rosagroleasing will supply the production to Russian farms.”

Agriculture is one of the few sectors of the Russian economy which showed growth in January. With imports being priced out of reach of consumers, raising Russian production is essential. And more technology being brought into Russian dairying will mean it can step into the gap