Through hardships to the stars!

Ad astra per aspera (through hardships to the stars), this is the motto of Kansas, a North American state where the AGCO Corporation maintains one of its most powerful divisions.  AgroCentre customers have recently paid a visit there.

The delegation visited Beloit, a town where Sunflower disc harrows are manufactured. Each day, 15 to 20 machines roll off the plant’s assembly line. The Sunflower proved itself to be a fine tool on Russian fields. Farmers respect this harrow for its reliability, operational simplicity and the high quality job it does. Its grip width is just the size that vast Russian fields cry for. The tool’s maximum grip exceeds 15 m, which makes it one of the most efficient harrows available on the Russian market.

In the town of Hesston, the farmers attended the corporation’s other facility, which assembles rotary combines, self-propelled mowers and pick-up balers under the Challenger brand name. Many guests noted that the Challenger WR 9740 self-propelled mower revolutionised fodder procurement. This is an agile machine, moving at a speed of 24 km/h and helping to do the fodder gathering within a very tight timeframe.

The Russian guests were shown a complete equipment assembly cycle and briefed on a multi-stage test procedure. The farmers liked the high level of automation.

The chief pride of the plant which impressed our farmers is a new large robotised paint shop. AGCO specialists noted that due to the high demand for Challenger machines, the plant’s manufacturing facilities are increased and updated each year, whereas the paint shop remained “a bottleneck” which delayed the machine manufacture time. The new shop, accommodating 10 to 15 self-propelled machines at a time, fully resolves this problem.

“It was rather interesting to visit the place where the farming equipment which you use on your fields comes from,” says Victor Fomin, Khlebinka LLC director. “The Kansas motto reflects the life of a farmer, who has to make strenuous efforts, invest ample means and clear numerous snags in order to get gratifying results. I think that the Challenger equipment will help us overcome all the difficulties with lower losses and higher profits.”