Four breeding enterprises for raising beef cattle breeds will be established in the Vitebsk region by the end of 2015.

December 28, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. Four breeding enterprises for raising beef cattle breeds are planned to be established in the Vitebsk region by the end of 2015. This was reported to a BELTA correspondent by the Committee for Agriculture and Food of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee. Herefords and Aberdeen-Angus will be bred in Vitebsk, Gluboksky, Senno and Tolochin districts. It is planned that by the end of the five-year period, the number of purebred cows and bulls at the breeding enterprises will reach 1,000 heads, of which 250 will be sold. The need to establish breeding enterprises is driven by the need to form the structure of beef cattle breeding and to provide breeding stock to agricultural organizations specializing in beef cattle breeding. The regional program for the development of the agro-industrial complex provides for bringing the average annual production of high-quality beef to 5.6 thousand tons by 2015. To achieve this, the number of purebred beef cows is to be increased to 12.5 thousand heads by 2015. For the favorable development of beef cattle breeding, it is also necessary to determine economic incentives for the development of the industry, to specialize the processing industry in the acceptance, processing and production of food products from high-quality beef, and to identify sales markets. Currently, there is one breeding agricultural organization in the region engaged in breeding the Hereford beef breed. 25 agricultural organizations specialize in beef cattle breeding, keeping more than 1.2 thousand animals, typically low-productivity black-and-white breeds. The purebred herd numbers 296 heads of the Hereford breed. -0-