AgroTerra Finished 2021 Sowing Campaign

On May 26, AgroTerra completed its sowing campaign in its seven regions of presence. The company’s Kursk farms were the first to entirely sow the fields, and several days later, subdivisions in other regions joined them.

This year, due to weather conditions, sowing began two weeks later than planned. Nevertheless, rapeseed, peas and barley were sown as scheduled. Cool and rainy weather somewhat delayed the sowing of sunflowers, corn, soybeans, and early grain and row crops, including spring wheat and sugar beet. AgroTerra navigated this challenge, completing sowing within agronomic deadlines thanks to a flexible risk assessment system, daily work with operational indicators, and the continuous analysis of deviations from process standards.

Abundant precipitation resulted in minor adjustments to the sowing schedule. According to the forecasts of AgroTerra specialists, these adjustments will have a positive effect on the next harvest. Even now, there is enough harvesting moisture in the soil to ensure the effective growth and yield increases of crops.

“In August and September of last year, precipitation in the Central Black Earth region was scarce— with risks rising for winter wheat. We were ready to reseed the wheat, providing a reserve of spring wheat and soybeans seeds. Additional focus was placed on the spring crops, ensuring that they could be an effective substitute for the unvegetated crops. We also prepared soybean seeds for sowing, should we face a lack of time in sowing wheat within the best sowing timeframe. But our fears disappeared due to the relevant selection of seed varieties and technologies which contributed to overwintering of most of the crops - only 14% of winter crops were not sown,” states Sergei Stenin, AgroTerra Operations Director.

Ability to operate in the challenging conditions, at any possible time and efficiency in making decisions for many years already allow the company to address production season tasks in the most efficient way. Thus, according to the sowing results, more than 90% of the crops meet requirements of the process standards.