PLAE named after I. Franko

 

Gorokhovsky district, Volyn region

The farm specializes in crop and dairy cattle breeding.

Total herd size is more than 1800 heads (including 930 fodder cows and 800 milking cows).

Dairy cows are milked in parlour «parallel» 2×16 with quick release (manufactured by DeLaval). On average, in 2017, they milked 8900 kg per cow. The average daily yield per cow is 28 kg of milk with a fat content of 3.9% and a protein of 3.4%. Milk is stored in two tank-coolers of 12 and 18 tons. Total milk bulk is 22 tons of high-quality milk delivered to the processing plant in Radekhiv (Galichina) and Dubno (Dubnomoloko PrNAT).

Barns are designed for 256 heads each — four sections of 64 heads. The farm refused from stalls, which made it possible to reduce the cost of construction for $500 per head. There are no side walls with windows. Instead, they have curtains.

For the maximum comfort of animals in the sections they use a deep litter of sawdust, 40 cm thick. In one section, for comparison they use straw.

The animal is divided into four technological groups: high and low productive, early and late dryoff. The diet for high-yielding cows includes corn silage, rye haylage, concentrated group and corn paste.

The feed is distributed by feed dispenser: twice a day for milking cows, for the rest — once a day.

Cows are dried off simultaneously. The dry period lasts for 60 days.

Newborn calves are fed 3,5−4 l of colostrum through a probe.

Preweaned calves are partly kept in individual cages, partly in groups. They drink 9 liters of pasteurized whole milk from the bucked — 3 liters three times a day. The bull calves are given 6 liters. Calves are weaned simultaneously when they reach 90 kg of live weight. Water and granules are given from the first days of life. To 10−12 days of life calves are dehorned.

Heifers are inseminated in 13−14 months at a weight of 360 kg. To breed heifers and cows they use sexed semen. Service period is 124 days.

The dairy farm is serviced by 33 employees.