In this publication

COVER STORY

Business on the

Off Chance p. 12

As a rule, agricultural companies do not have a desire to minimize risks. The reasons, farmers explain, are lack of free funds and confidence in some insurance companies. In turn, representatives of large insurers blame the consequences of financial crisis and the government inability to systematize the operation of the agricultural insurance market, to abolish the so called insurance schemes in particular.

Plant Growing

TEST DRIVE

Rake Andex 773 p. 20

Rotary rakes Andex 773 by Kverneland are used to rake up sun-dried and new-shorn grass from swaths into one big or two small windrows. The rake can work in the field round-the-clock through the whole season, company specialists assure, due to specially enforced parts, includings bearings, reduction gear, etc.

TECHNOLOGIES

The ABC of Beet p. 24

Sugar beet is one of the main industrial crops in Russia. Beet root crops are used to produce sugar while waste, both fresh and dry, is used to feed cattle. To have big beet crop, farmers have to both take care of the seed quality and take a set of measures which require rather high power inputs and capital expenditures, specialists claim.

Price of Refusal p. 30

The crisis had severely undermined demand for mineral fertilizers all over the world thus forcing producers to cut prices. However, low prices failed to spur increase in sales. More than that, many farmers and companies had to give up purchasing potash and phosphoric fertilizers. Low prices helped to increase demand only for nitrogen-bearing fertilizers.

EQUIPMENT

Unprofitable Deficit p. 38

Russia lacks elevator capacities. Grain crops increase, state interventions help to extend grain stocks but for some reasons, growing demand for elevator services fails to spur their supply. Construction of new elevator capacities is unprofitable, agricultural companies believe.

Cattle Breeding

TECHNOLOGIES

Livestock Population under Protection p. 44

Illness caused by the virus of the African swine fever affects up to 100% of the pig population of all breeds and ages, irrespective of mode of distribution. This virus doesn’t affect humans but causes great economic damage to farmers.

Universal Sheep p. 50

Sheep breeding doesn’t attract such large investments as cattle breeding. Sheep are not imported, karakul has fallen out of fashion long ago and there is almost no sheep milk on offer. However, some specialists believe that it is possible to make money in sheep breeding.

EQUIPMENT

Broiler Is on the Line p. 56

Domestic poultry farming had hard times in the early 1990s when cheap US chicken imports, named «Bush legs» after then-President George Bush Senior, flooded the market. But the local market revived and today, according to specialists, it is the world class sector.

POINT OF VIEW

Team Building

Russian Style p. 59

As dietology has been advancing, fatty food became less and less attractive to people. In the US, in the mid-19th century a new fatty breed Duroc was quickly raised due to high demand for salted pork fat, but it was «redirected» into a meat breed already in the early 20th century. At the same time, in the Western Europe such meat breeds as Landrace and Pietren were raised. While in the Soviet Union these issues were of almost no interest, and we feel the consequences of this neglect until nowadays.

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