Livestock breeding development in Siberia

Abstract

The establishment of the Siberian Research Institute of Animal Husbandry was in the 1930s, a time when the whole country, having survived collectivization and famine, was beginning to form a cultural animal husbandry with livestock productivity capable of providing the population of the region with milk and meat. The vast extent of the territories and the diversity of climatic conditions required animals capable of adapting to the cold long winters and hot short summers to which the cultivated European breeds were not adapted. In this regard, Siberian scientists faced the task of creating new types of dairy and meat specialized cattle, pigs, sheep, horses, combining high productivity and survivability in extreme conditions. If high genetically determined productivity was achieved by combining local improved cattle with European pedigree cattle, it was impossible to surpass the best imported breeds or at least maintain their level due to the inconsistency of natural and climatic conditions and incomparable feeding and housing conditions. It is necessary to create new breakthrough technologies in fodder production and animal housing with more energy-consuming elements, which will make the livestock products produced in Siberia competitive in comparison with the southern regions of Russia, not to mention Germany, France, USA, Australia. For this purpose, it is advisable to combine the efforts of fundamental and applied sciences in the development of breakthrough technologies for obtaining elite delicacy products demanded abroad. There is a need for economic mechanisms to facilitate this process, which in return will bring development and repopulation of remote and underdeveloped territories.