Animal-Breeding Complexes

large specialized enterprises for the production of meat, milk, eggs, and the like using the latest industrial technology.

In order to solve one of the most important problems of agriculture—increasing the output of animal products—the Ninth Five-year Plan projected the construction close to cities of large state, kolkhoz, and interkolkhoz complexes for animal products on an industrial basis; this is to be followed by an increase in animal products from every sovkhoz and kolkhoz. The Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR in the decrees “The Development of Output of the Products of Animal Breeding on an Industrial Basis” (Apr. 16, 1971) and “Measures for Subsequent Increase in Production of Eggs and Poultry Meat on an Industrial Basis” (Feb. 26, 1971) pointed out that the development of machine building, the construction industry, and the concentrated feed and microbiological industry opened the way for the construction of large complexes for pork, beef, milk, and poultry—both egg and meat —plants. The organization of complexes makes it possible to increase the production of meat, milk, and other animal products and to lower expenditures for feed, significantly decrease labor requirements, and make more effective use of the premises and equipment, thus increasing the profitability of production. The construction of animal-breeding complexes fosters acceleration of technical progress in agricultural production. The creation of the complexes is part of an overall program of intensification of animal breeding through specialization and concentration of production using advanced industrial technology.

Animal-breeding complexes are created for production of end or intermediate products. For example, pig-raising complexes may have a closed cycle of production—that is, obtaining, rearing, and fattening offspring—or they may specialize in only fattening or rearing the young. Animal-breeding complexes are built according to a single standardized plan that permits mass production of prefabricated components and structures and of multipurpose equipment for mechanization of construction operations.

All production processes in an animal-breeding complex are covered in a single technological plan based on the division of labor of workers and specialists, complex mechanization, and automation of production. This ensures low-cost continuous year-round production.

In 1972 at the Shchapovo Sovkhoz in Moscow Oblast an experimental complex was built for 2,000 milk cows, with one building housing all production departments. The complex is completely mechanized and automated. The estimated annual productivity of the cows is 5,500 kg of milk per cow. The entire complex is serviced by 69 workers. The labor cost for one centner of milk does not exceed 1.25 man-hours.

State complexes for raising and fattening 12,000 and 24,000 pigs per year and state complexes for milk production by 800 and 1,200 cows rely primarily on fodders of their own production; state complexes for 600 meat cows and all kolkhoz and interkolkhoz complexes use all types of feeds of their own production. For the production of complete concentrated feeds, protein-vitamin supplements are distributed to farms from state resources. Industry provides animal breeding complexes with a whole-milk substitute for feeding calves and piglets. Included as components of state complexes for rearing and fattening 108,000 pigs per year are state concentrated feed plants. Animal breeding complexes are attached to meat combines, which take fattened cattle directly at the farms and deliver them by specialized transport for slaughter. In order to administer the work of state animal-breeding complexes, the Central Bureau for the Output of Animal Products on an Industrial Basis (Glavzhivprom of the USSR) was created in 1971.

Large animal-breeding complexes of the industrial type are being developed in Bulgaria, the German Democratic Republic, Rumania, and other socialist countries. In Rumania in 1971 there were 19 state industrial complexes for fattening pigs. In addition, complexes for fattening 15,000 to 50,000 pigs per year are being built on cooperative farms. In Bulgaria in 1971 there were nine animal-breeding complexes in operation. A program begun in 1971 and running until 1975 provided for the construction of complexes for fattening from 12,000 to 108,000 swine per year in each. Also projected is the construction of large complexes for fattening 5,000 or 10,000 young beef cattle and dairy complexes for 1,000, 2,000, and more cows.

In the USA, Great Britain, the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), France, and other economically developed capitalist countries, large industrial enterprises are being organized with continuous output of animal products. US animal breeding is intensely specialized and concentrated in beef production. Areas have been constructed for simultaneous fattening of 20,000, 30,000, 50,000, 100,000, and more young beef cattle. In 1970, 9.1 million animals, or 36.9 percent of the total number of fattened and sold cattle, were fattened at 356 sites. Large fattening enterprises have their own concentrated feed plants, slaughtering departments, and feed storehouses. In the USA, Great Britain, and the FRG there are dairy farms for 500, 1,000, and 2,000 cows. Large industrial-type enterprises are being created for fattening from 10,000 to 30,000 pigs per year. Usually these enterprises have a complete cycle of production; they fatten the pigs to meat readiness on industrially produced complete concentrated feeds. Intensified processes of specialization and concentration of animal breeding in capitalist countries are accompanied by the liquidation and ruin of a significant number of small farms.