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XtraBlatt Issue 02-2019

INTERNATIONAL 1 1 Not

INTERNATIONAL 1 1 Not only quad bales play a role here; round bales are also popular in Russia’s enormous fields. 2 The BaleCollect system from Krone simplifies straw collection and greatly boosts efficiency. 3 Versatile articulated tractors are widely used in the region for stubble cultivations. The hitched implements they pull are often from West Europe or North America. 2 3 46

says the group. Main tractors are John Deere with eight 8000 Series models in action on this farm. The big tractors don’t have an easy life: average annual work rates run to 3,500 hours. POWER COUNTS Dairying is also an earner with 3,000 cows averaging 10,500 l per cow and year. Milk goes to processors Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods and Danone Russia. The farm also runs 1,000 calves, heifers and bulls, the latter for beef production. Grass is the most important forage and around 1,000 ha of forage maize is chopped each year. Other forages include 750 ha spring barley cut as wholecrop silage and a mix of sorghum and Sudan grass (again 750 ha) also lands in the clamps for winter feed. Trio management puts the respective fresh yields at 21 t/ ha for the wholecrop silage, 32 t/ha for sorghum/Sudan grass with forage maize producing 39 t/ha. Krone machinery features mostly in the forage harvesting line-up with two 9 m mower conditioner combis, a pair of 4-rotor windrowers as well as a number of turners, not forgetting a BiG X 700 forage harvester. This is currently being compared with a John Deere model, the forage harvester from Emsland producing a markedly better quality of chop while the John Deere, according to the driver assessment, is easier to operate. The ease and understandability during operation is certainly important. We learn that Russian agriculture shares the problem of having to search hard for operators that are not only knowledgeable, but also careful and proactive in their work. This is one of the reasons behind the farm’s employee bonus scheme. At the beginning of the financial year target yields are established. If the team surpasses these, Trio pays a bonus, accepting that not only the weather and precipitation contribute to good yields. Of central importance on this farm is obviously an acceptable standard of crop husbandry and good professional farming practice followed by employees in field operations. Trio Group workforce totals 570 including 220 in the livestock sector. A further 100 staff members are employed in the security department that does little else but guard machines left out in the fields overnight and the irrigation equipment. Theft is a very serious subject here. LIGHT BALES Krone machinery also operates in the straw harvest. Two BiG Pack 1270s were working along the swathes during our visit. Around 6,000 t of straw is the baling target with most straw going into the livestock department. This Russian farm has interesting approaches to the baling operation. Firstly, the BiG Pack machines are set-up for a bale density of maximum 60%. The 2 m barley straw bales we saw produced tipped the scales at only 260 kg. The farm manager argues that this approach lets him safely use cheaper and lighter baler twine. Anyway, he points out, there’s ample straw storage space on hand. Trio is also experimenting with the Krone BaleCollect system for more efficient collection and transportation. Missing in this connection, however, is a loader with grab capable of handling three bales together. Without this, full efficiency is elusive. Selling the Krone machinery to Trio is dealer Vladimir Silin. Krone has its own Russian subsidiary and works together with regional dealers. Regularly, these dealers, and their customers too, attend additional training and information courses in Spelle. These sessions are greatly appreciated, we hear, allowing additional potential to be fully exploited through machinery performance optimisation and correct adjustment. Incidentally, you would seek in vain here for flatbed trailers or similar transport means for bales, as well as for load securing systems. Bales are carted-off the fields almost always on the country’s typical Kamaz trucks that can be seen everywhere on the roads. A simple loader with pallet-fork is normally used for collecting bales. We also saw a system for bale loading featuring a converted front loader and Belarus tractor with the loader mounted on top of the cab, the support struts outside the cab on each side. Because of the low rainfall, stubble cultivation is started as soon as possible, especially on the no-plough farmlands. Disc harrow combinations are the usual implements used. The Trio farm manager likes working depth to be around 5 cm and this works well on the level areas. In these jobs, heavy articulated Versatile tractors seem to suit the pulling task well. These machines are often seen working in this region and are very impressive to watch. Just as impressive as this country – and the gigantic logistic systems necessary for farming here. « profi-DVD “ABENTEUR RUSSLAND” The visit to the Trio Group farm and the complete round trip followed by the profi camera team from Moscow to St Petersburg and from Moscow to Voronezh is documented on the new 70-minute profi DVD “Abenteur Russland”. The DVD is immediately available. Order per Email: shop@profi.de or via the homepage shop.profi.de 47