Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 19 ISSUE 4
Written by Jury POLULYAKH, Lubov ADADIMOVA

The paper analyzed the EU-28 milk sector in the decade 2009-2018 based on Eurostat Database, using fixed indices, trend method and comparisons among the member states regarding number of dairy cows, number of dairy farms, average number of cows per farm, milk yield, raw milk production on farms and milk deliveries to dairies and milk price. In 2018, the EU-28 had 22.9 million dairy cows, 1.2 million dairy farms, the number of cows per farm varied between 219 heads in Czechia and 2.4 heads in Romania. Milk yield was 7,021 kg/cow/year, but the EU average was exceeded by 14 countries. The highest yield, 9,504 kg/cow was in Denmark and the lowest one, 2.877 kg is in Bulgaria. The EU produced 172.2 million tonnes raw milk of which 91 % was delivered to dairies. Average production per inhabitant is 336 kg. The results proved the decline of the number of cows and dairy farms, the growth of the average number of dairy cows per farms, milk yield, milk production and marketed milk. The main milk producing countries in the EU are: Germany, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Ireland, Romania and Spain. The EU has a large spectrum of farms from the most numerous subsistence farms to the largest specialized farms. The largest farms with over 30 dairy cows per farm as percentage of the total dairy farms are in: France (92.2%), Germany (70.5%), Netherlands (77.6%), Italy (32.1%) and Poland (10.65%).The specialized dairy farms have the highest production and standard output performance. The milk price crisis from 2014-2016 affected dairy farmers, despite that the EU Commission took corresponding measures to protect them. Farmers have to continue to reduce the number of farms and dairy cows, and to grow yield in order to produce and deliver more raw milk to dairies. In this purpose they have to invest more in farm modernization, to optimize nutrition and selection, to obtain a higher quality milk for getting a better return in terms of price at farm gate, income and profit.

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