A duet on the field

For the first time in the Yaroslavl area, AgroCentreZakharovo arranged a Field Day for the neighbouring regions' farmers at which new machines were demonstrated and gifts presented.

Opening the holiday, Victor Semakin, deputy director of the Yaroslavl Oblast Department of Agriculture, said: “The chief task facing the region's farming sector, updating the fleet of machinery, is being carried out successfully. Last year, we acquired more than one billion rubles worth of machines. The Field Day is a fine opportunity to search for new solutions in the coming agricultural season. AgroCentre is giving our farmers a chance to learn about advanced technologies and to reach a fundamentally new level of farm management”.

Some 17 farming machines were shown at the Field Day. The farmers saw several of them in operation. The first to start demonstrations was the magnificent duet of the legendary Swedish seeder Rapid and the wheeled tractor, Challenger MT585B. The forte of the Rapid machine is a six operation capability in a single pass. The machine can seed various crops, treating the soil in no-till, minimum till or traditional mode. The farmers assured themselves of this following the Rapid's superb operation both in no-till mode and in tillage.

The Vaderstad Top Down cultivator won over the farmers by its multi-role feature. The machine proved that it can till the soil both on the surface and at a depth of down to 25 cm. The farmers familiarised themselves with Vaderstad's new product, the Swift duck-foot cultivator. The machine swiftly mixes the soil, even with a lot of crop residue on it.

Most of the farmers attended the Field Day to pick out the fodder making equipment since the rapid development of husbandry in the region calls for steady provision of fodder. The specialists of AgroCentre met this demand by supplying a whole product line of Challenger equipment. They spoke about the special features of the mower-crusher, the so-called butterfly, of the CHM 313 TR-KC trailed mower, CHT 7706 DN mounted agitator and the CHR 1603 rake. This is very reliable equipment capable of operating in the harshest climatic conditions.

The Challenger 500, 600 and 700 wheeled and tracked tractors put up a real show, demonstrating their capabilities on the field. Pavel Konkov, the AGCO Machinery LLC regional sales manager pointed out the special advantage of the Challenge tractors - their modern stepless gearbox that reduces fuel consumption by 10%. Starting this year, the 500 and 600 series tractors and 647 Challenger grain combine harvesters are being assembled in Russia.

One pleasing episode of the event was the contest for prizes. The lucky visitors got keepsakes from AgroCentre in the form of Challenger, Vaderstad and Kverneland scale models.