Sheep, goats at Russian farms could decrease 8% to 17.7 mln head in 2025 - AgMin

MAKHACHKALA. Oct 3 (Interfax) - The number of sheep and goats in all categories of farms in Russia has decreased in recent years, deputy head of the Russian Agriculture Ministry's department for livestock production and pedigree animal breeding Margarita Alexandrova said.

"Numbers are falling across all categories of farms. The forecast for this year is practically minus 1.5 million head," she said at the international Sustainable Development of Mountain Territories forum taking place in Makhachkala on Friday.

The Agriculture Ministry forecasts that farms will have 17.654 million head of sheep and goats in 2025. There were 19.138 million head in 2024, Alexandrova said in her presentation. As such, the expected decrease is 8%.

According to the presentation, the number of sheep and goats has been decreasing for the last five years. Russia had 21.66 million head in 2020 and 20.96 million in 2021; this then decreased to 20.831 million in 2022 and to 20.268 million in 2023. The number at household farms fell 16.3% in five years, 14.5% at agricultural organizations and 5% at peasant farm holdings.

Output of sheep and goats for slaughter is forecast at 437,000 tonnes in 2025, as in 2024, Alexandrova said.

"It should be noted that lamb production at peasant farm holdings has increased 7% over the last five years, and by practically 14% at agricultural organizations," she said.

Russia's leading regions in terms of output and numbers of sheep and goats are Dagestan, the Astrakhan region, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia. The number of sheep and goats grew most in Kabardino-Balkaria, by 12.8% in the first half of this year.