Milk production and challenges in transition from conventional to robotic milking in Croatia

Milk production in the Republic of Croatia is facing a great challenge. Over the years, there has been a decline in the number of farms, cattle and the amount of milk production. Data for 2019 show a decrease in the number of cows for milk production of 4.4% compared to the previous year, or 14.4% over the last 5 years. Consequently, during the mentioned period, there was a drop in milk production by 15.5%. There are several reasons for this situation: high fragmentation of parcelled land, rural population moving to cities and other richer EU countries, negative population demographics, strong pressure of cheap milk imported by retail chains from western and northern EU member states, insufficiently modernized farms. All this makes it difficult for the survival of the Croatian farmer. Self-sufficiency in milk production in 2019 in Croatia was only 48.4%. In order to somewhat stop these negative trends, the Government of the Republic of Croatia is trying to encourage farmers to modernize dairy farms. One way of modernization is the introduction of milking robots. Farmers increasingly accept the proposed idea. Currently, 40 robots were installed in Croatia, distributed on 27 farms. Preliminary production results show that on robotic farms there has been an increase in milk production at the lactation level of about 528 kg. In addition to the production effect, the robotization of farms also leads to a financial effect on the entire Croatian economy.