‘Now agronomists are torn away from the land — they no longer work in their profession’
A farmer from the Aktanysh District of Tatarstan complained about the prevalence of automated cattle monitoring systems in rural areas
“Wholesale prices for butter have already started to fall — to 700 rubles per kilogram. The only problem is that prices have not dropped in retail stores. They never decrease there, even if sold at cost,” criticised federal chains for their trade mark-ups, said Lyudmila Manitskaya, the head of the Russian Dairy Union. Since last autumn, butter prices have risen by 36% — to 1,000 rubles per kilogram — but such a price surge will not be allowed this year, she promised during the II National Dairy Congress in Kazan. Adding sharpness to the discussion, the head of a peasant farm in Aktanysh called for a three-year moratorium on the introduction of automated cattle monitoring systems. “This is a cash grab,” he complained. Read more in the report by Realnoe Vremya.
Is the peak of livestock decline behind us?
The country’s cattle population has decreased by 2.5 million over the past 10 years — to 7.2 million head — with the peak of the decline occurring in 2024, when agricultural producers lost nearly 700,000 head at once. These alarming figures were presented by Lyudmila Manitskaya, the head of the Russian Dairy Union, during the plenary session of the II National Dairy Congress in Kazan.
The signal about the dire state of dairy farming in the country was no accident. Federal authorities have set the goal of increasing milk production to 38.9 million tonnes by 2030. Farmers will need to increase output by at least 5 million tonnes, taking 34 million tonnes produced in 2024 as the starting point.
How is this to be achieved when the opposite trend is evident — the milking herd is shrinking year by year? According to Lyudmila Manitskaya, losses last year amounted to 350,000 head, and over the past 10 years the total herd has declined by 1 million head. For this reason, annual raw milk production is increasing, but at a modest pace. A slide showed the trend: for three years, milk yields stagnated at between 32.2 and 32.6 million tonnes. Growth emerged in 2023. Over two years, farmers managed to increase output by 1 million tonnes — to 34.1 million tonnes. There is no threat of a raw milk shortage, but neither is there an abundance of dairy products.
The head of the Russian Dairy Union believes the solution lies in expanding the construction of dairy farms and improving the productivity of the milking herd. The only sector to avoid decline in milk production and maintain herd size has been peasant farms, the speaker noted. They produce one-third of all raw milk in the country. What remains unclear is whether the peak of livestock decline is truly behind us.
Horriot, Merkuriy — maybe that’s enough?
On the other hand, the government is tightening control over cattle tracking and milk supply chains in an effort to eliminate counterfeit products from the Russian dairy market. On 1 March 2024, the HORRIOT system was launched to register and identify cattle. Prior to that, the Mercury GIS system for milk tracking and traceability had been introduced.
The initiator and developer of the VetIS information complex, including the AI subsystem of the Mercury electronic veterinary certification system, is Nikolay Vlasov, the adviser to the head of Rosselkhoznadzor. He found himself having to answer today to Tatarstan’s farmers, who are worn out from navigating complex IT systems and paying substantial fees.
“Right now, the situation is such that agronomists have been torn away from the land. They no longer work in their profession. Their main task is to enter data and fill out paperwork," said a farmer from the Aktanysh District of Tatarstan. According to him, with the introduction of new control systems, farms are forced to hire additional staff to handle bureaucratic tasks.
Large agricultural holdings can afford such a luxury, but small farms cannot. Moreover, the electronic system operators are private companies, while veterinary services have turned into “centres for collecting money,” he pointed out. “You have to pay for every record! If this continues, we’ll destroy small family farms,” he warned.
The farmer from Aktanysh recalled that in Soviet times, record-keeping on a collective farm was handled by a single pensioner, and outbreaks of serious animal diseases were unheard of. “No matter how much record-keeping we do or what medicines we buy — nothing helps,” he lamented.
Shall we build coworking spaces for Horriot GIS in every village?
In conclusion, he shared a parable about a hardworking ant — a story that, he said, reflects the reality of agriculture today. It tells of how a general director, a May beetle, prospered thanks to the ant’s labour, only to hire a dung beetle as a manager and a spider secretary to handle endless reports — until the enterprise nearly went bankrupt. “Watch this cartoon,” he said, addressing the federal guests with a note of reproach.
Nikolay Vlasov, the advisor to the head of Rosselkhoznadzor, countered by saying that with proper professional training, agricultural producers are fully capable of operating the system on their own. And if they lack the necessary competencies, then they will have to pay for the service. “You pay for a passport, for notarial certificates — why should they work for free?” he retorted.
According to him, the implementation of the system has helped eliminate counterfeit products. Anton Getta, the deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Competition Protection, proposed creating coworking centres for working with GIS in villages, funded by the budget. “Support for small farms is needed,” he agreed. In short, federal officials responded that there would be no going back.
What happened to that butter?
Meanwhile, Tatarstan retained its position as the leading milk producer in 2024. According to Lenar Garipov, the first deputy minister of agriculture and food, nearly 2.3 million tonnes of milk were produced. For comparison, Krasnodar produced 1.7 million tonnes, Bashkortostan — 1.6 million tonnes, and Udmurtia — 1.1 million tonnes. Over the past six years, 98 dairy complexes and farms with a capacity of 65,000 heads have been commissioned, including 16 dairy complexes with a capacity of 13,600 heads.
“There are 25 investment projects at various stages of implementation, accounting for 16,000 cows. The construction and commissioning of modern dairy complexes are laying the foundation for a further increase in milk production at a rate of 3% annually,” he said.
In conclusion, the pressing question was addressed: what exactly happened to the butter? “Wholesale prices for butter [from producers] have already started to fall — down to 700 rubles per kilogram. The only problem is that retail prices in stores have not decreased. Prices there never go down, even if they sell it at zero,” remarked Lyudmila Manitskaya, the head of the Russian Dairy Union, with biting irony.
Since last autumn, the price of butter has risen by 36% — to 1,000 rubles per kilogram. The reason for the persistently high prices lies in the retail markups, which range from 100% to 150%. “Regulatory authorities are ready to send the Federal Antimonopoly Service to producers and processors, but for some reason no one targets the retail chains,” she wondered.
In her view, local producers fully meet the demand, and the frenzy was stirred up by the media. “People began buying not just one pack of butter in stores, but ten, filling entire freezers,” she noted.
At the same time, there was a change in import suppliers. “Previously, New Zealand supplied us with 40,000 tonnes of butter annually. Europe was also open — the same story — about 20,000 tonnes were imported. Today, these countries are no longer among the suppliers,” explained Lyudmila Manitskaya. Additionally, the authorities have reduced the VAT rate on imported dairy fat to 10%. This year, such a price surge will not be allowed, Manitskaya promised.