The regional "Dazhynki-2016" will be held in Senno tomorrow. With what results are the region's farmers meeting the holiday?
– Sergey Alexandrovich, how do you assess the current season?
– In terms of the harvest, it was very difficult, as the weather conditions did not allow us to harvest the entire crop that was in the fields without losses. We could have obtained more than 1 million tons of grain. Unfortunately, in the second half of July and August, the region was simply flooded, especially the western districts. There were periods when not a day went by without precipitation in one part or another of the Vitebsk region.
Winter rapeseed overwintered poorly: out of 37 thousand hectares, 8 thousand remained by spring. As a result, we had to sow 52 thousand hectares of spring rapeseed. The gross harvest of the crop amounted to 71 thousand tons with a yield of 14.5 centners per hectare.
In the future, we will expand the areas for rapeseed to load the capacities of the Vitebsk Oil Extraction Plant and obtain cheaper protein raw materials for the production of meal.
This year, we more than doubled (to 62 thousand hectares) the sown areas of leguminous crops – peas, lupins, vetch, beans, which are a valuable product for animal husbandry. For example, barley contains an average of 12-13% protein, while peas contain at least 23%, and this protein is of completely different quality.
This year, when summing up the results at "Dazhynki", we introduced a new nomination – "Best Agricultural Organization for the Production of Leguminous Crops" to stimulate farms. By the way, in September, the growth rate of average milk yield per cow compared to the same period last year was 109.7%, and sales were 112.9%. No other region in the country has such an indicator.
– Is enough grain harvested to meet all needs?
– Of course, the current figure of 880 thousand tons in all categories of farms is not the result we would like to see. We fulfilled the state order of 145 thousand tons and will provide feed for pig farms and poultry farms.
This year, farms in the Vitebsk region significantly
plus on the preparation of haylage. Together with corn silage, it is planned to prepare about 30 centners of feed units per head for the table period. So there will be no problems with wintering cattle.– Which farms showed decent results in difficult conditions?
– The largest gross grain harvest was at OJSC "Agrokombinat "Yubileiny" of Orsha district – 21.3 thousand tons, Tolochin Cannery – 16.5 thousand tons. In terms of yield, SPK "Larinovka" of Orsha district is ahead of everyone
– 60.9 centners/ha, OJSC "Khotily-Agro" of Postavy district – 55 centners/ha.
– How significant was the help from city residents?
– About 1.7 thousand machine operators, drivers, and fitters from industrial enterprises of cities and district centers participated in sowing, fodder harvesting, and harvesting. Students of educational institutions provided great assistance in harvesting potatoes, vegetables, and apples. All of them deserve words of gratitude.
Sergey Lyashuk. Photos by Anton Stepanishchev and Dmitry Osipov. "Vitebskiye Vesti".