Orenburg farmers make a choice with Rostselmash

In the Perevolotsk region, BP Agro LLC (a subsidiary of GC BP LLC) has been operating for the second year. There are 12.5 thousand hectares of arable land under cultivation, plus 2 thousand hectares in the Aleksandrovsky district.

erid=2RanyoGYAMn

This year in March, the director of BP Agro LLC, Ivan Ovechkin, visited the Rostselmash production site as part of the Orenburg delegation.

– We traveled with the engineer and foreman of our farm, looked at the models, the production cycle, the whole process, starting with the creation of the machine frame. The result of our trip to Rostselmash was the purchase of four ACROS 550 combines through the official dealer Agrocenter LLC. By mid-April, the combines had already been delivered to the dealer site in Orenburg, says Ivan Nikolaevich. – We already had ACROS 550 combines produced in 2021 and several VECTOR units that worked for more than five years. Last year we were faced with an urgent need for additional equipment; we had to hire combine harvesters. Now we are entering the season with a renewed park. It is convenient that the dealer is nearby and provides timely service support and the supply of spare parts.

We liked that Rostselmash takes into account the wishes of farmers, improves the equipment of models according to specific requests, for example, installing reinforced bearings, increasing the reliability of wiring. The manufacturer’s feedback to customers is well established; it is important that the dealer immediately takes into account our proposals and quickly brings them to the Rostselmash engineering and technical service. It is clear that the company’s engineers are themselves interested in introducing new solutions that will lighten the load on the mechanisms and generally improve quality. Those points that we paid attention to when operating the ACROS 550 combines, produced three years ago, have been worked out,” notes Ivan Nikolaevich.

The director of BP Agro LLC comes from the Aleksandrovsky district, there, in the village of Zhdanovka, after graduating from the Agrarian Institute, he worked at an agricultural enterprise as deputy director for the procurement of succulent and roughage feed. Then he became a state inspector and head of a department in the regional Office of Rosselkhoznadzor, but went into farming and was engaged in farming for 10 years. She has experience in managing a division of an agricultural holding. For the fourth year he has been working at GC BP LLC as the head of the agricultural department and for the second year as the head of BP Agro LLC. Extensive professional practice in crop production helps to approach the matter competently and choose agricultural equipment taking into account the need.

– We observe crop rotation. We grow spring and winter crops, grains, chickpeas, flax, lentils, sunflowers, and corn for silage. The weather does not always provide enough time for harvesting, especially for sunflowers. In late autumn, you need to remove everything quickly, because it may rain and the first snow may come earlier. In our area of ​​risky farming, we need productive equipment to cope on time. The ACROS 550 combine has a good harvesting speed even with high yields.

Today you cannot rely on the popular principle “if it rains, we don’t need thunder, we don’t need an agronomist”; to achieve results, you need to work using modern technologies. All resources: equipment, fertilizers, protective equipment and fuel are constantly becoming more expensive; with soft wheat and barley, at today’s low prices, it is difficult to recoup the costs. We have to revise the structure of crops in favor of more marginal crops. You can’t sow a field with sunflowers every year; let’s try red lentils this year. The culture is demanding, but a ton of sales costs 45 thousand rubles. In addition, we are reducing the area under soft wheat by a thousand hectares, and we will sow durum varieties instead,” explains Ivan Nikolaevich.

Of course, personnel is important for any agricultural enterprise; in total, BP Agro LLC employs 105 people and hiring continues. For greater sustainability, the farm also engages in livestock farming, which also provides year-round employment for workers.

“It’s not enough to keep productive cows; they need to be fed well and correctly in order to justify the costs.” Last year we made two silage pits at once, and thanks to fertilizing we received 120 centners of green mass per hectare from unplowed fields,” the director clarifies.

The average salary at BP Agro LLC is 42 thousand rubles, and in the summer those who worked in the fields received from 50 thousand, some received double or even triple that. At the end of the year, the leaders were rewarded with worthy bonuses.

“We managed to gather machine operators from local residents, mostly young people. We trained them to practice their licenses and give them incentives for conscientiousness and careful use of equipment. Combine harvesters in storage stand in a row, jacked up, the wheels are covered with film. Next year we plan to send machine operators for training at Agrocenter. In general, it’s very difficult to find smart guys today, if we find a couple more machine operators, then we can think about buying a fifth combine. The workshops will undergo renovations and equipment this year. The volume of investment will be determined based on the results of the harvest and sales. Fortunately, the flood didn’t flood anything; the winter crops are in satisfactory condition. According to the plan, we carry out harrowing and fertilizing. We also bought sprayers from Agrocenter. We hope that the year will be favorable,” says Ivan Nikolaevich.

Advertising. Photo courtesy of AGROCENTER LLC, INN 5610071410