Household farms keep abandoning cows en masse (−28.7%), while enterprises posted their first herd growth in years (+2.6%). Poltava and Cherkasy regions remain the largest dairy herds in the country.
As of 1 September 2026, Ukraine’s total dairy cow herd (across all farm categories) stood at 926,000 head — down 18.1% year-on-year. According to preliminary data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine (SSSU), the decline is driven almost entirely by household farms, while enterprise herds have stabilised and even edged up slightly.
Two diverging trends — enterprises vs households
Household farms continue to exit dairy farming en masse: their herd fell from 750,000 to 535,000 head over the year (−28.7%), and is down nearly half from 957,000 in 2024 — the sharpest decline of any farm category. Enterprises show the opposite pattern: their herd rose from 382,000 to 392,000 head (+2.6%), after holding roughly steady at 386,000 in 2024 and 382,000 in 2025 — the sector’s first genuine growth in recent years, even as the national total keeps falling purely on the back of household exits.
Regional ranking by dairy cow headcount
As of 1 September 2026, dairy cows are concentrated mainly in central and northern regions:
- Poltava region — 52.1k head
- Cherkasy region — 45.7k head
- Chernihiv region — 37.7k head
- Kyiv region — 35.3k head
- Vinnytsia region — 32.6k head
- Khmelnytskyi region — 32.3k head
- Zhytomyr region — 23.8k head
- Ternopil region — 22.3k head
- Kharkiv region — 19.9k head
- Volyn region — 18.1k head
- Sumy region — 17.0k head
- Rivne region — 10.6k head
- Kirovohrad region — 9.4k head
- Mykolaiv region — 7.6k head
- Lviv region — 7.4k head
- Dnipropetrovsk region — 7.3k head
- Odesa region — 5.3k head
- Ivano-Frankivsk region — 4.4k head
- Chernivtsi region — 1.4k head
- Zakarpattia region — 0.7k head
The top five regions (Poltava, Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kyiv, Vinnytsia) together hold over a quarter of the country’s entire dairy cow herd. The smallest herds are in the western regions of Zakarpattia (0.7k) and Chernivtsi (1.4k).
Regional picture: who is growing, who is losing
Regional data on the 2026-vs-2025 change, broken down by enterprises and households, confirms the national pattern at regional level. In most regions, household herds fell sharply, while enterprise herds rose noticeably in a number of regions — including Rivne, Kharkiv, Ternopil, Lviv and Zhytomyr.
Background
Figures are preliminary estimates from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine (SSSU) as of 1 September 2026. Enterprise and household figures are shown as a three-year series — 1 September 2024, 2025 and 2026.
Source: infographic “Assessment of the State of Dairy Cattle Farming, 2026” (preliminary data, State Statistics Service of Ukraine, SSSU).
