Earlier than usual. Farmers will have to sow more than 177.5 thousand hectares. Machine operators from the Kostroma region were among the first to bring equipment into the fields. How is the work going? Our film crew visited one of the farms today.
A crane loads wheat into a modern precision seeding complex. The machine operator has a lot of work ahead. On a field of 45 hectares, at least half of it needs to be processed per day. Automation helps the specialist with this.
Vyacheslav Shishov, machine operator: “The computer is standing, it shows: the seeds are out, the fertilizer is out. If there is any malfunction, it also shows. Everything is on the computer, everything is shown, everything is reflected.”
On this farm, sowing began 10 days earlier than last year. It’s warm outside and the soil has already warmed up to the required 4 degrees. Workers call it “early spring.” Before this, they managed to harrow the land and apply fertilizers to it.
Konstantin Bakhvalov, chief agronomist: “The site is still quite wet now, but it’s just good for sowing. Because in order for a grain to germinate, it needs to swell. I think 10 days maximum, but we will try to fit it into a week to sow everything.”
The farm has only 1,900 hectares of area, 450 are allocated for grain crops. Of these, 250 hectares are spring wheat and oats, which have now begun to be sown. The grown grain is sent to feed animals, of which there are about 800 animals on the farm, and for sale. The developing agricultural enterprise financially supports the region.
Alexey Volkhonsky, director of the farm: “At the moment, we have received support for the tribe, we have received support for milk, and in the near future, I think, we will receive all the other subsidies that we are entitled to. We also have a subsidy for potatoes and grain, I think this will all be resolved in the near future.”
In total, farmers in the region will have to use 177.5 thousand hectares in agricultural production this season – 1.5 thousand more than last year. The task of increasing the sown area was set by Governor Sergei Sitnikov. Farms in 19 municipalities in the region plan to cultivate additional lands during the spring work.
