High beef prices in 2024–2025 have made cattle farming in Ukraine more attractive to farmers.

However, active sales of animals may lead to a significant reduction in livestock as early as 2025–2026, according to Latifundist.com.

According to Oleksandr Nazarko, co-founder of Global Agro Finance, the number of cattle in the industrial sector may remain stable, but the market will become increasingly unbalanced — small and medium-sized farmers will be forced to exit, while large players will continue to scale up.

The decisive factor remains the economics of dairy production: due to the high cost of feed and low purchase prices for milk, many farms are forced to sell some cows to maintain liquidity.

Oleksiy Bovdyr, a farmer from the Poltava region, reported that his farm keeps 3,500 heads of cattle, of which 1,300 are dairy cows. Alongside milk production, the farm is engaged in rearing both dairy and beef breeds. Specifically, they previously bred the Aberdeen Angus breed, which produces premium marbled beef. This operation was temporarily suspended for the winter due to lack of space, but not due to unprofitability — the demand for high-quality beef remains consistently high.