On April 20, 2017 at the production facilities of LLC ‘Agro-Region’ in Velyka Oleksandrivka town, Kyiv region, the second Day of Agro-Technology dedicated to demonstration of the sowing leading-edge technologies took place.

The event presented and displayed operation under the field conditions of agricultural equipment produced by leading international manufacturers, generators of agricultural technologies. 6 sowing machines produced by different manufacturers participated in the event. The event brought together about 200 participants-agricultural producers from the central regions of Ukraine. Agro-Technology Days are held by the Association ‘Ukrainian Agribusiness Club’ together with the AgriEvent Agency.

Seeding of sunflower was brought into sharp focus at Agro-Technology Day, and the group of experts evaluated the following four parameters of machinery: observance of sowing depth, precision of seeding (equal distance between seeds), absence or presence of twins, missed places, quality of sowing at speed of 8 km/h, quality of sowing at speed of 14 km/h. The visual assessment of the quality of harvest emergence was performed. In order to evaluate precision of seeding in three weeks following the date of sowing, the website ucab.ua will host a video from unmanned aerial vehicle. Moreover, organizers of the event promised to provide images of plats growth during period of vegetation. Members of the expert group were chief agronomists of the agricultural companies belonging to the Association.

Taras Vysotskyi, General Director of the Association ‘Ukrainian Agribusiness Club’ says: "Today there has been a continuation of Agro-Technology Days of UCAB since we are willing to embrace key technological steps that are important for the efficient cultivation of agricultural crops. The second event was devoted to sowing of sunflowers. This is the most profitable and the most profitable crop. It occupies a large sown area and is very complicated in terms of quality seeding. In addition, the planting stock is not cheap and the yield may vary by 30-40% from the quality of sowing So today the best approaches of precision seeding as well as various machinery have been demonstrated. Each year we dedicate Agro-Technology Day to sowing only changing the crop’.

Volodymyr Kravtsov, Production Director of LLC ‘Agro-Region’ says: ‘I am fond of experimenting, so I agreed with pleasure to test seeding machinery on the field of Agro-Region. I have more confidence in demonstrativeness rather than advertising campaigns. At Agro-Technology Days we can observe how the machinery operates on the field and, furthermore, there are specialists who explain the pros and cons of machinery’.

Artem Belienkov, founder of SmartFarming says: ‘I liked the last event of the soil processing. Agro-Technology Day presented lots of high-quality machines that could be compared on the same field. There were also high-grade seeding machines, technologically equipped units. We, as the members of UCAB, develop precision farming and work in the relevant committee. Today we are presenting drones technology for video monitoring and orthophoto creating, maps of the sown crops condition. We have also test solutions for application of crop-protection agents as well as the best solution for large companies to monitor condition of the sown crops which within one flight covers thousands of hectares. We are planning to participate in Agro-Technology Days this year. During spraying, we’ll show our devices, during harvesting we’ll share satellite data analytics’.

Representatives of the machinery manufacturers presented benefits of their seeding equipment.

Andriy Horobets, Product Development Manager of AMAKO company says: ‘We represent 8-line Challenger 9108 seeder (operating width is 11.2 m). The machine is additionally equipped with Presicion planting system, this concept has been presented at the USA market more than 20 years, and in Ukraine it is only gathering the pace. The system consists of hydraulic vacuum drive containing turbine, air ducts as well as actually seeding unit and electric motor that is mounted on the side of disc and not the center (so it can stop at any moment). It is also fitted with Delta force system regulating pressure of each section separately, so that the system automatically controls the depth of seed sowing on one level, the machine does not excessively firm the soil and has less pressure on the root system. The seeder enables to avoid yield losses of corn by 99.8% and sunflower – by 98-98,5%’.

Oleksiy Siryi, representative of Agrimatko Ukraine Company says: ’Today we are presenting 8-line electrically-driven Monosem NX ME seeder (operating width is 5.6 m). High precision of seeding is ensured by single-motorized drive of the seeding unit standing on each seeding section. Pressure on the coulter is 240 kg, constant seeding depth is achieved by the shock absorber, barrels with fertilizer are transferred to seeding sections and, therefore, the seeding depth is constantly kept. There are also wheels of sowing depth, they operate independently from each other, the coulter itself is unique: both disks and anchors are fitted between it. The seeding tube is quite long, it is shaped as trench, and when the seed is dropped, it reaches the bed’.

Serhiy Osadchyi, representative of Horsh Company says: ‘Today we presented 24-line Maestro 24 SW seeder (operating width is 16.8 m). It can cultivate from 40 to 60 hectares per day depending on organization of the household. The seeder unit contains a large bunker for 7 thous. liters of fertilizer and 2 thous. liters of planting stock saving time to refuel. Another important aspect is a hydraulic additional loading of sections. The seeder can sow in various rates, include sections. It is adapted to precision farming systems. We can work remotely on monitors and conduct online surveillance of the seeders as well.

Volodymyr Mirnenko, representative of POTTINGER says: ‘Today we presented TERRASEN C6 Fertilizer seeder (operating width is 5.6 m). The technology of sunflower sowing envisages continuous method. In Ukraine we have been practicing this technology for sunflower sowing on row spacing of 12.5 cm since 2011. The machine has many advantages. Due to the random distribution of seeds on the field, we get an even distribution of the area and narrowing of the rows two weeks earlier. It means that two weeks earlier the sun stops reaching the ground and less moisture evaporates. At least, covering of the soil with herbicides can be avoided. Individual parallel lift linkage on each drier enables to observe the depth of seeding. This seeder has never received a lower yield than precision seeder over 6 years.

Ihor Lobotenko, Regional Manager of VADERSTAD Company says: ‘The main advantage of machinery is an application of power shoot technology invented by VADERSTAD. Through additional air pressure a seed as if shoots, rubber wheel catches it and presses into a solid wet bed that greatly improves contact with the ground and, accordingly, the germination is faster. The seeder operates with Trimble system for section-by-section disconnection on the overlapping when edges of fields are finished to be sown with a view to save seeds. In addition, the company provides two-year warranty for the machinery’.

Borys Onyshchenko, Regional Development Manager of KUHN says: ‘Today we presented 16-line Maxima 2 TRX (operating width is 11.2 m) for row crops. It is fitted with a large bunker for 4,300 liters of fertilizers and 1,300. liters of planting stock. It consists of autonomous hydraulic system, 4 pumps, 3 engines providing planting stock and fertilizers. There are also sensors for sowing, the system controls gaps in sowing, ‘twins’, and can operate on fertilizers as well. The machine is fitted with vacuum dosing unit for high-quality sowing. The average performance of such seeder is 100-150 hectares per day. We recommend this seeder for medium-sized farms".