Ukrainian livestock is on the verge of fundamental but necessary changes. Over the past few years, the industry has been developing asymmetrically. According to the State Statistics Service and the Association of Milk Producers for 2025, the overall production of raw milk has decreased, partly due to the reduction of small farms that accounted for a significant share of the market. Instead, the industrial sector demonstrates steady growth, even outpacing the development rates of some European and US countries. However, behind the positive dynamics lies a much more complex picture. This was reported to AgroNews.UA by Irina Matyukha, a scientist at the R&D center of Enzym Group.
Читай нас також у Viber та Telegram.
By its nature, the development of animal husbandry cannot progress in a vacuum. Its progress is determined, among other things, by the potential of the plant direction of agriculture, processing opportunities, real needs of the domestic market, and export prospects.
In Ukraine, this interaction remains weak or disrupted. Increased production costs, demand fluctuations, long payback periods, insufficient state support, lack of technologies, import dependence of the breeding base are factors that limit the industry’s potential, despite the growth of individual segments. It is important to note that the reduction of dairy farms and the shortage of milk raw materials are not direct consequences of the war but rather the result of problems that have accumulated over the years. The full-scale invasion only exacerbated the systemic challenges.
Joint forecasts of the FAO and the OECD, according to which milk production in Ukraine will continue to decline until 2033, only underline the depth of these processes. Indeed, such an outlook prompts an analysis of critical points that slow down development.
Bottlenecks in Livestock Farming: Where Does the Industry Lose the Most?
The cattle sector in Ukraine has long developed without clear strategic direction. The lack of defined development benchmarks has given rise to bottlenecks that have evolved into systemic challenges:
Low efficiency. Cow productivity in Ukraine significantly lags behind countries with advanced industries, primarily due to the absence of feeding and management standards, especially for early-age calves. Farms that fail to achieve adequate herd efficiency demonstrate reduced competitiveness and gradually exit the market, compounding the structural decline of the sector under wartime conditions.
Milk raw material quality. Dairy farming operates under conditions of persistent raw material shortages, while quality indicators frequently fail to meet European standards — which limits processing profitability. At the same time, milk quality is shaped by the complex interaction of various factors, including feeding systems, animal health, and housing technology.
Excessive use of antibiotics. This is a global-scale problem, and in the local context it is becoming more acute. Despite regulatory restrictions, antibiotics remain a tool for masking deficiencies in feeding and management, which contradicts the legislative norms of the European market. As a result, excessive and unjustified antibiotic use increases risks to animal health, to consumers of livestock products, and to the reputation of the industry as a whole.
The industry’s paradox: the most critical stage is the least standardized
Solving the industry’s systemic challenges often occurs at the level of the mature herd with a focus on cow productivity, milk quality, and ration optimization. At the same time, the risk zone that determines productivity is formed by the time the animal gives the first yield.
Healthy young stock is a key indicator of farm viability and a guarantee of future herd productivity. Research confirms that slow growth rates at an early age lead to insufficient calf weight at weaning, which is a deficit that is not compensated by further feeding at subsequent stages of rearing.
It is important to understand that the first four months of a calf’s life are critical in several aspects. This is the period when the immune and digestive systems are formed, and the establishment of the gastrointestinal microbiota occurs. Due to the immunological vulnerability, newborn calves require colostrum intake from the first hours of life.
The next phase of increased risk is the transition from liquid to solid food. It is usually accompanied by stress, leading to growth suppression and an increased risk of disease.
Paradoxically, despite its key role, the early age is often the least standardized stage in most farms. Thus, the lack of systematic approaches to calf feeding and management operationally grows into a strategic mistake with long-term consequences for the industry.
A scientific approach to feeding: from the laboratory to the ration
In a system where the early age of calves is a growth point for the industry, feeding determines the realization of their productive potential. Understanding the criticality of the first months of life prompts the industry to seek tools beyond the so-called established pharmacological approaches. This is where natural feed additives become not an additional option but a strategic decision. Today, among the biotechnological approaches to young stock feeding, interest in postbiotics is increasing. These are biologically active products of microbial metabolism that do not contain live cells and retain functional activity.
Compared to probiotics, postbiotics are characterized by higher stability during storage and technological processing, do not contain viable microorganisms, which excludes the risks of their colonization and horizontal gene transfer, and are considered safe for use. This underscores their importance, especially against the backdrop of the EU legislative course on banning the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry.
Classic functional postbiotics include yeast products, including inactive yeasts, yeast extracts, autolysates and hydrolysates, fractions of yeast cells, and biologically active substances.
The key metabolites of yeast cells are peptides, nucleotides, B-group vitamins, β-glucans, and mannan-oligosaccharides, biologically active compounds with antioxidant and antimicrobial effects. The complex action of these compounds supports immunity, gut health, and the efficient use of nutrients.
Interestingly, such products are currently actively researched and integrated into feeding systems in the European market. In Ukraine, this market is still forming, and one of the leaders in this direction is Enzym Group, which develops yeast feed additives for animals and conducts its research. The obtained results indicate the practical benefit of such an approach.
The new logic of feeding: 4 indicators of efficiency
Research on the impact of yeast postbiotics in calf rations in the first months of life has demonstrated results based on several key performance indicators:
✅ Average daily gains. Yeast extract in calf feeding from birth to two months resulted in a 12.1% increase in growth. Interestingly, adding a postbiotic based on inactivated yeast for two to four months caused an even more noticeable result: growth increased by 30.3%.
✅ Feed conversion ratio. The FCR indicator decreased by 9.2%, meaning lower feed costs per kilogram of gain, reducing the cost.
✅ Livestock retention. During the first 60 days of postbiotic use, no cases of gastrointestinal diseases were detected, and the retention rate reached 100%.
✅ Live weight. The weight of calves consuming postbiotic preparations was 5.95% or approximately 4.76 kg higher than animals on a standard diet.
The research data on yeast solutions essentially become a green light for the industry, confirming the effectiveness of postbiotics as functional feed additives in calf rations. Increased growth, improved feed conversion, positive dynamics of live weight, and livestock retention create conditions for a safer and more systematic approach to young stock rearing.
Clearly, implementing the approach on an industrial scale requires testing in various production conditions. However, the results obtained indicate that biotechnological feed additives can become a new strategic tool for increasing efficiency, replacing ineffective outdated methods.