Challenger: we are here to stay

An exhibition of foreign and domestic farm equipment opened the eleventh Kursk Korenskaya Fair. In this land, famous for its nightingales, the AgroCentreKursk LLC presented, for the first time, highly productive agricultural equipment from the Challenger Company, which is part of AGCO.

Starting this year, the AgroCentre Company is an official dealer of farm equipment from Challenger, one of the leaders in the production of self-propelled farm machines and soil treatment systems.

"We supply farmers with the entire Challenger product range, from wheeled and caterpillar tractors to grain harvesters, self-propelled sprayers and soil treatment systems," says Aleksandr Logvinov, Executive Director of AgroCentreKursk. "The first machine was sold by the manufacturer. Other sales, however, depend largely on experts of the servicing branch and spare parts sales department. We make available to the farmers not only high quality farm machines, but also prompt servicing and timely delivery of spare parts."

The 600 Series Challenger wheeled tractors (featuring 300 to 370 hp) showed their capabilities on the field. The forte of these farm machines is their state-of-the-art TechStar CVT gearbox with its power adjustment system (named ‘Power Management’). All the Challenger tractors are fitted with modern powerful engines, Agco Sisu Power, that emit no harmful exhausts.

"Quality, productivity, and affordability are the three principles which Challenger experts apply in developing the machines," says Aleksey Gushchin, Regional Sales Manager, AGCO Machinery. "Reliable in operation and simple to use, our machines are popular with European farmers. The equipment is manufactured at factories in the US, France, the Netherlands and Italy."

Aleksey Gushchin said that next year the AGCO Corporation will open a manufacturing facility in the Moscow region (Odintsovsky district) to produce Challenger MT665 and MT685 wheeled tractors, Challenger CH647 grain combine harvesters and Challenger CH670 rotary harvesters. Thus, acquiring these machines will become much easier. Credits will be made available for purchasing farm machines. As Russian-assembled machinery, they will be sold at subsidised prices.

"Russia is very interesting to the Challenger Company," says Aleksey. "We want to make our contribution to the development of farming. In other words, Challenger has come here to stay."

In addition to the new brand, the exhibition featured machines from Vaderstad and JCB, which have long become the Russian farmers' tools of choice.

The Rapid stubble seeder and Top Down 500 Vaderstad cultivators are always in operational service. The Rapid is a unique seeder that performs several operations in a single pass. The machine is suited both for traditional seeding with minimum soil treatment or direct seeding into the stubble. The Top Down machine is a legend of soil treatment. The cultivator does a fine job on farms that have turned to minimum soil treatment. The farm machines were the bestsellers of the fair.

The guests of the show said that the JCB 531- Agri telescopic loader is like a magic wand that can do any farming work at warehouses, on the farms or the field.

"Farming has no future without efficient farm machines," says Vyacheslav Loshkarev, head of a farming complex in the Khomutovsky district, the Kursk region. "Our farm is beginning to use new technologies. AgroCentreKursk helps us to do this. At the exhibition we got interested in the Rapid stubble seeder from Vaderstad. We're going to buy it for our farm."

Governor of the Kursk region Aleksandr Mikhailov awarded a certificate of appreciation to the AgroCentreKursk Company for its active participation in the exhibition.