CONDITION AND PRODUCTION CHARACTERISTICS OF CATTLE BREEDING IN THE AREA OF THE BASIN OF RIVER BREGALNICA

In the Republic of Macedonia pastures take 50.8% from the total agricultural area. Feeding of cattle with grazing allows the cheapest production of meat and milk (Azderski & Jakimovski, 1996). Considering climate factors and conditions in the country, it is provided up to 6-7 months when the cattle is at pastures, starting from April to the end of October. The remaining period of the year cattle is feed with a partial supplement of the grazing, and in the winter period with conserved feed (silage, haulage and hay). Fifty year ago, the cattle in the country was universally used for labour in the agriculture and forestry, as well as for production of meat and milk. Busha was the largest and most common breed of cattle (Azderski, 2003, 1996). Today, the breed composition of the cattle breeding in the country is changed, so it is difficult to meet Busha in pure blood. General characteristics of the cattle breeding are:- Low milk yield per cow 2,152 litres;- Very early slaughter of the offspring, in average 124kg live weight;- Small land property per household 1-3ha;- Small size of the area under forage in terms of ploughed field, which is 7%, compared to the developed countries where that percentage is 34-40%;- Small percentage of cows covered with artificial insemination and parent bookkeeping, approximately 6-8% of the population, while before the transition period this percentage was more than 20%;- Big import of precious breeds, in the first place Holstein-Friesian breed, but after a short time period these breeds are quickly pulled out from production;- Low information and knowledge on the production technology for highly productive cattle;- Challenges in production of high quality voluminous feed;- Insufficient measures built by the country for supporting the farmers; and- Spending large financial assets to import livestock products and insemination material.The tendency in the world and in the country is to lower the number of farmers, to increase the number of cows per farm, and at the same time to increase the production per livestock head and to specialize the production in order to satisfy the needs of the population for meat and milk. Considering the economic importance of their products (meat, milk and manure), cattle comes to the first place in the livestock breeding in the Republic of Macedonia.