1.3 million sheep to be moved to winter pastures in Dagestan

According to Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Republic Sharip Sharipov, the state of pastures allows counting on favorable wintering.

Livestock breeders of Dagestan have begun driving small cattle to winter pastures. In total, by October 25, about 1.3 million heads of livestock will have to be overtaken, First Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Republic Sharip Sharipov told TASS on Tuesday.

"The ferrying has begun, we have already distilled more than 200,000 heads on our own, and transported about 30,000 more. In total, we have to distill 1.3 million heads. If the weather allows, we plan to complete it by October 25. This year, the start of the ferrying was somewhat delayed - they prevented rains that washed out roads in certain directions, in addition, snow fell in the mountains, some passes were closed," Sharipov said.

According to him, now the weather is generally conducive to the transhumance of livestock, and the state of pastures allows us to count on a favorable wintering.

"The green carpet on the pastures is like in spring, even experienced sheep breeders say that they do not remember such a grass stand on these pastures. In September, in some areas - in Yuzhno-Sukhokumsk, Kochubey - 329% of the monthly rainfall fell, in the Nogai district in September 235%, and for the first week of October -120% of the monthly norm of precipitation.Last year, in these zones, precipitation was no more than 10-15% of the norm, there was no grass stand on pastures, and already at that time we were forced to spend the harvested for the winter Now the grazing will be long-term, we also managed to prepare more fodder for the winter, this removes the alarm that in winter we may face a lack of fodder," the First Deputy Minister explained.

Last year, as a result of a dry summer and long winds in autumn, about 230 thousand hectares of winter pasture land were covered with moving sands. As a result, there was a shortage of fodder in a number of livestock farms. In connection with this, an emergency regime was introduced in certain territories of the republic.