AKIPRESS.COM - About 40% of the lambs died in Turkmenistan during winter due to frost and lack of food, the local shepherds say. The female sheep also died, the "Chronicles of Turkmenistan" report.

In particular, a shepherd from the Halachi region, whose herd consisted of 348 animals, lost 62 lambs and 30 female sheep during lambing.

The livestock industry is managed by the State Association for Livestock Husbandry (formerly the Turkmenmallary Association), which distributes state-owned herds to individual agricultural associations.

According to one of the shepherds, there are two shepherds for a herd of 300-400 heads. Previously, 230 packages of dry food per herd were brought to the sheep pens from farms in winter. This year, the food was not brought. The animals had to feed on pastures, which offered little food.

Watering the herd also became a problem, the shepherd notes, because many wells in the desert had not been cleaned for a long time and it is impossible to get water from there. The water was brought in irregularly by water carriers.

The shepherds are not paid wages, according to them. Their income is a third of the surviving livestock offspring. 

Livestock need to be vaccinated or, if the animal is sick, given medications, the shepherds add. One injection costs 30 manats, and the veterinarian gives 2-3 injections to each animal per year.