Enterprises in Yamal receive assistance in development of reindeer husbandry

Reindeer-herding enterprises in Yamal received more than 198 million rubles for livestock breeding and development of northern reindeer husbandry. Subsidies for these areas are provided from the regional and federal budgets. This year support for livestock breeding was given to the enterprises “Panayevskoye”, “Muzhevskoye” and “Salekhard-agro”, in total 46 million rubles. The enterprises maintain 20 thousand reindeer of the Nenets breed, including more than 11 thousand female reindeer (the note: a female reindeer is called “vazhenka”). State support is aimed at improvement of breeding qualities of reindeer.   

Bonitation of reindeer or their assessment by breed qualities is conducted in pedigree breeding units. Low-yielding animals are culled, and reindeer with defects are excluded from the herd. A set of veterinary and sanitary measures for prevention from infectious and invasive diseases is fulfilled strictly in accordance with the plan.

Financing of the area “development of reindeer husbandry” is one more type of state support for the branch. It provides subsidies for maintenance of reindeer. This year the sum makes 152 million rubles, as it is reported in the regional department of agro-industrial complex. The money was given to 23 reindeer-herding organizations, which maintain more than 90 thousand reindeer. Among the recipients there are 12 peasant (farm) holdings.

Since this year, subsidies for maintenance of reindeer are paid strictly on the basis of long-term agreements between the department of agro-industrial complex and enterprises. The condition is the following: the number of female reindeer in herds of organized enterprises should be at least 60%, in peasant (farm) holdings — at least 50%. Such herd structure is optimal for meat-based reindeer husbandry.

“By providing support for maintenance of reindeer, we encourage reindeer-herding organizations to change the structure of their herds in favor of breeding stock. It will allow increasing the yield of young reindeer in the future, and therefore increasing production of reindeer meat without increasing the load on pastures”, said Alexander Zemskikh, the deputy director of the department of agro-industrial complex of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.