On Wednesday, the first hectares of oats were sown at the Radunskoye unitary enterprise in the Orsha district.
On Wednesday, the first hectares of oats were sown at the Radunskoye unitary enterprise in the Orsha district. As reported by Andrey Konstantinov, Deputy Chairman of the Orsha District Executive Committee, 31,424 hectares of grain and leguminous crops will be sown in the district for the 2020 harvest. 548 tractors will be deployed in the fields, including 121 high-powered ones, 49 combined soil cultivation units, and the same number of grain drills. 520 machine operators will be involved in the sowing campaign. Interns from agricultural educational institutions and workers from the district's industrial enterprises will lend their support.The first hectares of oats have been sown at the unitary enterprise "Radunskoye" in Orsha district
23/03/20200 views
Order in the machine yard is the first sign of a successful farm. It is the best indicator of iron discipline, adherence to technologies, and worker safety. And overall, it is a crucial element of the rural economy, as without properly functioning machinery, it is impossible to carry out spring field work and harvesting, or to procure fodder on time.
At a meeting on preparation for sowing, the Chairman of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, Nikolai Sherstnev, emphasized the need to move away from the practice of sending everything that can move into the fields. Attention should be focused on each unit of energy-intensive, wide-cut machinery and entrusted to experienced machine operators. This will increase the pace of sowing and significantly save fuel. The region's agricultural enterprises have 700 soil-cultivating and sowing units and 360 seeders of various types.
As of March 20, the readiness of the machinery is as follows, according to Mikhail Pridibaylo, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Agriculture and Food of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee:
— Tractors are 92 percent ready; out of 1200 energy-intensive units, 30 remain for repair, and 13 engines are at the engine repair plant. The situation with other machinery is as follows: ploughs are 91 percent ready, sowing units are 84 percent ready, and machines for applying organic and mineral fertilizers are 89 percent ready.
The difficult financial situation affects the preparation of machinery for the season: with a need of 30 million for repair work, only 8.3 million rubles have been allocated so far. Immediately before sowing, almost all districts additionally allocated from 200 to 600 thousand rubles from the budget for the purchase of spare parts, tires, and components. In general, the agricultural machinery fleet is worn out by about 70 percent, especially concerning sowing units, most of which have been in operation for 10 years or more. Renewal is needed by at least 10 percent annually, but it is only two to three percent. For diligent farmers, everything is ready for sowing. At SPK "MazolovoGaz" of the Vitebsk district, they are currently repairing units that will be used for fodder procurement, says Roman Khashkovsky, Deputy Director for Mechanization:
— We have a machinery repair schedule, and it is strictly adhered to. Machinery for spring field work is 100 percent repaired.
Year after year, the farm manages to complete sowing and harvesting in 12 days. Technical equipment is key here. In 2016, "MazolovoGaz" opened a technical center
In 2019, "MazolovoGaz" implemented precision farming technology, states the director of the agricultural enterprise, Roman Babaev:
— The process of soil cultivation, sowing, and application of mineral substances is fully automated. Due to the new technology – reducing passes and precise fertilizer application – we reduced costs by 15 percent last year.