The state of the beef cattle industry in the Kurgan region

The agro-industrial complex of the country faces a strategically important task, which as to increase the production of meat, including beef. This problem has been trying to solve by creating a specialized beef cattle industry. The impetus for the development of beef cattle in the Kurgan region was the departmental target program of the Department of agriculture and processing industry of the Kurgan region “Development of beef cattle for 2011–2015”. Implementation of the Program has allowed to increase the number of beef cattle from 2010 to 2015 from 2089 to 6531 heads including cows from 666 up to 2898 heads. In subsequent years there was also a positive trend. For the development of the beef cattle industry in the Kurgan region at present there are all conditions: natural forage lands, the possibility of using low-cost intensive grazing technology, resources of breeding stock in dairy herds for the formation of new beef farms, forage grain. The results of the analysis of the state and prospects of development of this industry in the Kurgan region have been presented in the article. A positive trend has been revealed. In order to preserve the positive trends in the development of beef cattle industry of the Kurgan region it is planned to continue the annual increase of livestock, improvement of productive traits, including live weight, milk capacity and reproductive ability of cows, and improved forage base and optimization of feeding rations according to sex and age of groups.