The invaders are attacking the country's energy system. How does this affect the operation of the dairy farm and the cost of raw milk? Do milk producers have an action plan in case of force majeure? Replies the director of the company Dmytro Solomakha.
At the farm of LLC Peremoha, member of Association of Milk Producers of Ukraine since 2015, are kept 800 cows, 20 tons of milk are sent for processing plants every day. All processes on the farm are automated, and therefore dependent on electricity supply. Therefore, in case of force majeure, a diesel generator is installed here.
"The main consumers of electricity on the farm are the milking parlor, milk coolers, mill and pasteurizer. In general, this equipment uses about 1,000 kW of electricity," says Dmytro Solomakha, director of the company.
Therefore, own generators are critically needed on dairy farms in case of outages, because the slightest deviation from the usual mode causes failures in the entire chain of operation of the farm. For example, if the milking schedule is changed even by half an hour, the cows begin to give significantly less milk. And in the future, it takes at least a month to restore the previous levels of milk production.
The team of LLC Peremoha assures that the company is ready for a total blackout: the critical infrastructure, that works for milk production, is secured on the farm. In the case of force majeure, only everyday things responsible for the comfort of the farm-team will be affected - first of all, heating and household appliances will have to be turned off.
However, it is also important that the usege of diesel generators increases the costs of the farm. Oleg Marchenko, the chief energy engineer of the farm, emphasizes that, despite the reserves, a lot of diesel is consumed during the operation of generators - approximately half a liter per kilowatt. And this means that farm’s expenses for electricity will increase 5 times! This means that the cost of milk production will also increase.
As noted in the analytical department of the Association of Milk Producers of Ukraine, prices will be supported by the seasonal reduction in milk production. Additional risk factors for forecasting the situation on the dairy market of Ukraine in the coming weeks are the after-effects of increased Russian aggression and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, and the consequences of possible power failures not only for dairy farms but also for factories and retail chains.
Despite the challenges, the team of LLC Peremoga says that the Russians will not be able with missile terror to stop either the counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine or the production of milk on their farm !
We keep the farm and the line! How LLC Peremoga of the Cherkasy region accepts the challenge of interruptions in energy supply - in the ICTV Facts story:
Press service of the Association of Milk Producers