On December 18, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. In 2013, the Vitebsk region will switch to industrial milk production. This was announced today at a session of the Vitebsk Regional Council of Deputies, where the socio-economic development forecast for the region was discussed, by the Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Alexander Kosinets, BELTA correspondent reports. Next year, agricultural enterprises of the region will abandon the traditional seasonal transfer of cattle to pasture grazing and will switch to free-stall housing for the dairy herd. This will be possible due to the implementation of a program for the reconstruction of old and construction of new dairy farms and complexes, as well as the development of the fodder base. Reconstruction and construction work is underway at 476 sites. In 2012, 228 dairy farms were updated with modern milking parlours and robotic milking systems, three new dairy farms were commissioned, and another 24 are to be built within the next two years. It is planned to install 102 arched structures with fabric covers. According to Alexander Kosinets, an optimal ratio of sown areas has been achieved in the region: 500 hectares of land are allocated for grain, 100 thousand hectares each for rapeseed and corn, 20 thousand hectares for flax, another 30 thousand hectares are allocated for crops for protein raw materials for the compound feed industry, and over 100 hectares are allocated for clover. Over the past three years, the average field size has increased from 3.9 hectares to 11 hectares. In 2013, the region plans to produce 1.5 million tons of grain, 15 thousand tons of flax fibre, 150 thousand tons of rapeseed, 100 thousand tons of potatoes, 940 thousand tons of milk, 402 million eggs, and sell 228 thousand tons of cattle and poultry. -0-

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