🇰🇿 The cattle breeds of Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan runs more cattle than any other kind of stock, and beef heads its meat output while cow milk sits among the country's chief animal goods. Herds live largely on grass, since seven tenths of the farmed area is permanent pasture. Farming overall is a modest slice of the economy, and recent programmes, backed by the World Bank, aim to build up beef.

• Cattle top Kazakhstan's livestock numbers, ahead of sheep, pigs, poultry and goats
• Beef leads the meat tally by tonnage; cow milk is a chief animal product beside wool and eggs
• Seven tenths of the farmed area is permanent grazing land
• 157 cooperatives served 15,000 farms through milk depots and thousands of fodder stores
• In 2020 the World Bank lent half a billion dollars for a beef-focused livestock programme

Cattle in Kazakhstan

Cattle lead the livestock counts in Kazakhstan, ahead of sheep, pigs, poultry and goats, yet farming as a whole occupies a modest place: under a tenth of the economy and a fifth of the workforce. Grain, above all wheat, is the real heavyweight, and the beef and milk side of farming is being built up through recent state programmes. Seven tenths of the farmed area is permanent grazing, and Kazakh produce flows mainly to neighbouring Central Asian markets and Afghanistan. Trade in grain and flour with Kyrgyzstan, a partner in the Eurasian Economic Union, is set to grow.

Regions and communities

Cropping is weighted to the north, where a larger share of the land goes to crops, and that is where the wheat belt sits. Over the country as a whole, grazing dominates, taking seven tenths of the farmed area, so stock raising reaches far beyond the northern grain fields. Old Soviet ploughing of the Virgin Lands exhausted soils of nutrients, and that damage still holds back harvests today.

Milk, butter and beef

Cow milk stands among the country's leading animal products, on a short list that also takes in wool and eggs from other livestock. Beef leads the meat table: when output was ranked by tonnage, cattle came first, ahead of pigs, sheep and poultry. Cattle are also the most numerous animals raised in Kazakhstan. Milk leaves member farms through collecting depots set up by the cooperatives, which handle storage and transport, so the dairy trade is being organised from the grassroots up.

Today

State attention has turned towards livestock. The Agribusiness 2020 programme, running since 2013, backstops farm finances, and in 2020 the World Bank lent Kazakhstan half a billion dollars for a Sustainable Livestock Development Program meant to make beef production competitive and durable. Money flowing into farming reached 1.1 billion dollars in 2019, a 41 per cent jump, and the agriculture minister reported in 2015 that output had almost doubled over five years.