As of August 1 of this year in Ukraine there were 3 million 972,3 thousand heads of cattle, which is 4,3% less than last year. Including 1 million 183,8 thousand of heads (-3.2%) were kept in the industrial sector and 2 mln 788.5 ths. (-4.7%) in households.
The number of cows for the analyzed period decreased by 3.4% and amounted to 2 million 33.1 thousand heads. In industrial farms there are 476,600 cows, which is 0,8% less than last year. Khmelnitsk (27.5 thousand + 4.6%), Ternopil (11.9 thousand + 4.4%) and Mykolayiv (7.2 thousand + 4.3%) regions were able to grow their population of cows.
Milk production for the analyzed period decreased by 2% and amounted to 6 mln.
The dry weather had a negative impact on both the quality of the forage and the productivity of cows.
Therefore, the seasonal decline in milk production this year began earlier. In addition, some of the farms were not able to qualitatively and fully prepare forage, which will affect the volume of production in the future.
Agricultural enterprises for seven months increased milk production by 0.9%, to 1 million 668.1 thousand tons, while the population reduced its volume by 3% to 4 million 332 thousand tons.
Prices for milk
In the first half of the year, the flow of industrial milk to processing enterprises amounted to 1.2 million tons, which is 0.8% more than last year. The largest increase is noted for raw materials of extra grade - 287.7 thousand tons (+ 36%), which is 21% in the structure of revenues. Last year, this share was 15.6%.
The demand for extra is noted in the price, which for the month increased by 13 kopecks. The average July price for milk of this variety was UAH 8.98, including VAT.
From the first of August the purchase price of milk will grow. Therefore, demand will be served by processing plants and the seasonal decrease in milk production in households. We expect that the price of extra grade will increase to 9.20-9.30 UAH / kg per lot of milk more than 10 tons, the rest of the grades will be "step" at 30-40 kopecks smaller.
After six months of negative dynamics of UMI (UMI is the Ukrainian milk index, which shows the conditional profitability of milk production by professional farms) in July showed a slight increase. It amounted to 1.2%, and even did not block the fall of UMI in June.
The value of UMI in July 2018 was also 18.9% lower than in July last year.
Monday, 27 August 2018