Nikolai Sherstnev at a meeting on improving livestock farming: “Don't think this is just another wave of control”
On May 24, the second such discussion took place, summarizing the remarks and instructions given a week earlier. Specialists from the Committee for Agriculture and Food, and subordinate organizations regularly visit farms that do not ensure planned weight gains and milk yields to identify the causes and help them establish technological processes in a short period.
According to Boris Efremov, Deputy Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, many shortcomings are revealed, concerning livestock keeping and feeding, ensuring their safety, insemination, and so on. At the meeting with the participation of Nikolai Sherstnev, Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, heads and deputy heads of such agricultural enterprises, and representatives of district agricultural departments were invited to jointly improve the livestock sector.
-- Your farms are the reserve through which the region can significantly increase milk and meat production and the capacity utilization of processing enterprises, and become one of the top three in the country if each ensures at least the regional average indicators, -- said Nikolai Sherstnev, addressing the attendees. – The consistent work we have started must yield results. And do not think that this is just another wave of control, that they will make noise for a while, and then everything will return to normal. No! Last week showed that only a few have grasped the sense of responsibility for the results of their work. Farms that do not ensure even 500-gram weight gains of cattle during the May holidays lack a systematic approach. Even if current order has been established, it is necessary to think about such components of system stability as proper labor motivation, not to mention the impeccable adherence to all elements of technological processes.
Vladimir Mashero, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Agriculture and Food, presented the results of a repeated survey of farms to the audience using slides. According to him, in the Dokshitsy district, the reaction to the inspectors' remarks was more active than in other regions. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work to be done here. For example, at the request of regional specialists, half-starved calves were switched to feeding with stretch-film silage, and they are now concerned about purchasing teat buckets, pasteurizers for heating milk, and ensuring quality feeding. In many places, it is necessary to build outdoor exercise pens and sheds to shelter young animals during bad weather, so that they receive additional insolation and do not suffer in cramped pens without good bedding. What kind of weight gain can there be with poor care! Moreover, Nikolai Sherstnev noted that creating proper housing conditions not only improves the health of the livestock but also reduces the amount of manual labor on farms, allowing for greater productivity, and thus, higher wages for livestock breeders.
The questions posed to the heads of agricultural enterprises were simple and obvious. Why has the livestock not been moved to pasture, why are calf feed mixtures not prepared, and why is deep bedding not provided? Have the reasons for the mortality of young animals been thoroughly investigated, and what measures have been taken to prevent it in the future? Why are trenches for storing feed not being repaired? After all, otherwise, their quality will be compromised in the future stall period. Finally, why do specialists from the region need to point out the necessity of solving such obvious issues for any manager? The answers from many were not distinguished by convincingness or determination to rectify the situation. To which the chairman of the regional executive committee remarked that order must and will be established in any case. Any technology yields results when it is strictly followed, and animal husbandry is no exception. Today, when the grass for green fodder has already grown to waist-high in the fields, we should be seeing weight gains of 1000 grams, not talking about 500 grams.
The current situation in Gluboksky, Sharkovshchinsky and other districts was reviewed at a meeting in the context of implementing the program for the repair and reconstruction of livestock buildings to ensure year-round technological livestock keeping. Locally, the importance of bringing farms up to modern standards is understood and measures are being taken. By the beginning of the stall period, 80-100 farms will be updated in the region. But even this is not enough. The scale is hampered by the lack of material and financial resources. The program will be continued next year, so that ultimately up to 80 percent of promising livestock buildings, where the herd will be concentrated, will meet today's requirements.