The role of the Vologda region in the system of dairy cattle breeding in the Northwestern federal district of the Russian Federation

The paper presents the results of research aimed at determining the role of the Vologda Region in the system of dairy cattle breeding in the Northwestern Federal District of the Russian Federation. The novelty of the study lies in the fact that we analyze a long period of time from 1990 to 2022 for all subjects included in the Northwestern Federal District of the Russian Federation and make conclusions about the role of a particular subject in the context of the entire federal district. We conducted the research on the entire sampled population of the Northwestern Federal District by subject for the period from 1990 to 2022. We used Yearbooks on breeding work in dairy cattle breeding in farms of the Russian Federation and the Russian Statistical Yearbook for 2022. We estimated the number of cattle in total and the number of cows, and also evaluated the average milk yield per head in the indicated years. Thus, we can conclude that the Vologda Region occupies one of the leading positions in the dairy cattle breeding sector of the Northwestern Federal District of the RF. This position is ensured by a large number of dairy herd (96.2 thousand animals) and a fairly high level of average milk yield (8.6 thousand kg of milk per cow). These factors together allow producing a large volume of marketable milk for the market of the region and the district as a whole. Thus, in 2021, 29% of all milk produced in the Northwestern Federal District falls on the Vologda Region. However, the growth of animal dairy productivity will be maximized if the existing livestock in the region is maintained or increased.