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Commercial milk production grows amid war in Ukraine

A dairy educator says Ukraine’s dairy industry is making strides to grow despite the ongoing war.

Michigan State University Extension’s Phil Durst has been working with the Association of Milk Producers (AMP) in Ukraine for about a decade.

“There are commercial dairy herds and a commercial industry that is much like our commercial industry with about the same number of commercial cows in Ukraine as we have cows in Michigan, and so very similar in some ways except that their production levels are much lower,” he explains.

Durst tells Brownfield MSU dairy team leaders have been providing regular educational resources the past two years to improve milk production and changes are helping.

“They’ve gone ahead of where they were in 2022 with 50,000 fewer cows,” he says. “They’ve applied things, they’ve made changes and they’re increasing their production of the commercial herds. That’s a tremendous accomplishment.”

The Association of Milk Producers says commercial milk production between 2022 and 2023 declined about six percent and herds were reduced by about 11 percent during the first year of Russia’s invasion.

Durst says early on during the war, dairy farmers also started processing cheese themselves as infrastructure was destroyed.

“In the worst areas, understand that they’ve really tried to turn that milk into a usable product and get it out to people so that they survive,” he shares.” “And then they’ve also been able to support the armed forces.”

Durst says Ukraine’s dairy industry has the potential to be a dominate player in Europe after the war and MSU plans on continuing supporting it through the process.

AUDIO: Phil Durst, Michigan State University Extension

Photo courtesy of MSUE.