The best way to describe Ukraine’s “Kernel” agroholding isn’t words, but hard numbers: across 515,000 ha of high-standard farmland running a Precision Farming system, it grows grain and oilseed crops that let the company produce more than 3.2 million tonnes of output a year. HORSCH Maestro units play a very important role in that process.
New HORSCH Maestro 24 SX precision seeders will soon be joining the fleet of “Kernel” agroholding’s structural units in Ukraine, having performed excellently during demonstrations and numerous tests. Besides them, more than 50 Maestro 24 SW units are already working successfully in the fields of this giant agroholding and are the main tool for sowing sunflower and corn. But wait a minute … 50 units of a 24-row precision drill – now that says something about scale… What kind of unique operation is this? Read on to find out.
“Kernel”‘s sown areas (in green), structural units, elevators and oilseed-extraction plants, linked into a single logistics chain, are located across all the most important farming regions of Ukraine.
Five HORSCH Maestro 24 SW units sowing corn
“Kernel” today is one of the largest agro-industrial groups in Ukraine, a leading sunflower-oil producer and exporter in Ukraine and worldwide, and a key supplier of agricultural produce from Black Sea basin countries to the global market. The company’s shares have traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) since 2007. The company’s turnover in the 2019/2020 financial year exceeded $4.1 billion. The 12,000 employees of the “Kernel” group of companies work intensively every day, united by an ambitious vision: “Our goal is the sustainable development of Ukraine’s agricultural sector, which has the potential to become one of the leaders of the global agribusiness” – that’s how the locomotive of Ukraine’s agricultural industry positions itself.
The agroholding’s land bank today stands at 515,000 ha across various regions of the country. On land leased by the holding, more than 3.2 million tonnes of grain and oilseed crops are produced every year, making “Kernel” a leading grain producer in Ukraine. Working with more than 6,000 agricultural businesses, “Kernel” additionally buys a further 3 million tonnes of sunflower seed and 5.1 million tonnes of grain from them. The region’s main commercial crops are sunflower, corn and wheat.
Grain is the raw-material base of “Kernel”‘s second line of business: “Grain exports and infrastructure”. The company’s network of modern elevators covers nearly the entire territory of Ukraine, allowing more than 2.4 million tonnes of grain to be stored at any one time.
“Kernel” exports 7.9 million tonnes of grain and oilseeds. Strategic planning makes it possible to minimize the time gap between production and sale. A carefully thought-out and clearly structured system is maximally protected from the volatility of commodity market pricing. The company’s own rail fleet – 3,443 grain hopper cars – ensures uninterrupted grain delivery for shipment at sea ports. “Kernel” owns two deep-water sea terminals in Chornomorsk with an annual cargo turnover of more than 8.8 million tonnes.
It’s hardly surprising, then, that with the most powerful elevator network and the largest private assets in the country’s freight transport system, “Kernel” is a leading grain exporter in Ukraine with a 14% market share.
“Kernel”‘s cargo terminal in Chornomorsk has an annual cargo turnover of more than 8.8 million tonnes
The main export markets for the company’s 7.9 million tonnes of grain are countries in Asia (44%), Europe (35%) and the Middle East (16%).
Sunflower oil is the third branch of “Kernel”‘s business model. In this context, it’s worth recalling the historical background to why “Kernel” specifically, and Ukraine as a whole, hold leading positions in this segment worldwide today.
With the introduction of an export duty on sunflower-seed exports more than 20 years ago, Ukraine spurred the rapid development of an entire industry in the country – the processing of oilseed crops and oil production. For all producers and market participants, it became more profitable to invest in building processing capacity and producing oil rather than simply exporting the raw material. With a total annual volume of 7.4 million tonnes, Ukraine is today a leading producer of sunflower oil in the world. It’s followed by Russia (5.7 million tonnes) and the EU countries (3.7 million tonnes). In total, 22 million tonnes of sunflower oil are produced worldwide today.
“Kernel”‘s 8 oilseed-extraction plants have a combined capacity to process 3.5 million tonnes of seed per year. To better grasp the meaning of that figure: from 1,000 kg of sunflower seed, you get on average 440 kg of oil, 390 kg of meal and 160 kg of husk.
145 million tonnes of sunflower oil are produced every year at the holding’s oilseed-extraction plants. A significant share of the output is bottled and sold right away, both domestically and abroad, under the company’s own brands.
145 million litres of oil are bottled right at the agroholding’s plants. Bottled oil is both exported and sold on Ukraine’s domestic market. 1.4 million tonnes of sunflower protein meal go for export.
This means “Kernel” (with a 7% share of total global production) is a leading producer and the largest exporter (15%) of sunflower oil in the world! The main export markets in this segment are the EU countries (29%), Iraq (24%), India (23%) and China (16%).
Precision and digitalization
Without the broad adoption of digital solutions, managing a giant like this efficiently would be difficult. High-intensity modern agriculture needs precise, reliable and highly productive machines you can always rely on. So it’s no accident at all that “Kernel”‘s choice fell on HORSCH. Since 2009, short disc harrows Joker RT and universal seeding complexes Pronto DC PPF have been working in the holding’s fields.
Experience with these machines was so successful that in 2014, “Kernel” bet on HORSCH machines for precision sowing of corn and sunflower too. Today, more than 50 Maestro 24 SW units furrow the vast expanses of the agroholding’s 515,000 ha.
One of the first HORSCH Maestro SX seeders at “Kernel”, being loaded using BigPack technology
The agronomists and managers of “Kernel”‘s structural units aim to use the potential of these machines, as they put it, “to the full 100%”: the average annual workload of a Maestro 24 SW is around 3,500 ha. As a rule, this solid figure is the result of intense work over just a few days (more precisely, round the clock – since the machines work at night too), in order to sow within the optimal window and make maximum use of favourable conditions. Digitalization is a reliable aid in this task.
The farm collects and analyzes detailed data on individual machines: setting parameters, seed-distribution accuracy and placement quality, the number of doubles and skips, working speed, and so on. Data gathered from the most productive Maestro units is then used to optimize the settings of other machines. “This approach lets ‘Kernel’, by increasing output, make maximum use of favourable time windows and carry out sowing in the shortest possible time, laying a reliable foundation for getting an optimal harvest,” notes Johannes Klut, head of “Horsch Ukraine”. “At the scale of a large agricultural enterprise like ‘Kernel’, the potential of our machines is realized most fully. The very highest output and precision we talk about in our brochures and online can be seen here with your own eyes, in the field.”
Such productive joint work is, of course, impossible without close personal contact. To that end, regular partner meetings are held at the head office in Kyiv. Here, representatives of HORSCH and “Kernel” exchange news and ideas, build joint plans and develop new strategies. During these meetings, new machines and equipment are presented, and the groundwork for further work is laid. These strategic developments are then passed on by company staff in each individual region.
Dealers also play an important role in these processes: they handle machine commissioning, fulfil warranty obligations, and are responsible for machine servicing. An important element of the companies’ cooperation is training and professional-development courses for “Kernel”‘s specialists and staff: for many years running, HORSCH has run winter training sessions for the holding’s machine operators, giving them the chance, before the season even starts, to practise every nuance of setting up and operating these complex, modern machines until it becomes second nature.
At the end of the training, every participant who successfully completes the programme receives a special certificate, which is, in effect, confirmation of qualification and clearance for this responsible work. Without this certificate, no employee can become an operator of a unit with a HORSCH machine.
“This kind of organized joint work is a clear example of the successful interaction within the triumvirate of ‘HORSCH – dealer – customer’. And that doesn’t depend on the size of the farm. We don’t build vertical hierarchies where the manufacturer only talks to dealers, leaving them to handle customer relations on their own. That’s not how HORSCH works. Together with dealers and customers, we discuss needs, identify problems and look for ways to solve them. In the end, this approach lets us take each customer’s particularities fully into account and find individual solutions for them,” Johannes Klut, head of “Horsch Ukraine”, says with conviction.
One outcome of these strategic meetings was the appearance of the first Maestro SX machines in the agroholding’s fields. After a delegation from “Kernel” visited HORSCH’s main plant in Schwandorf, agreements on supplying the Maestro 24 SX were reached during Agritechnica 2019.
Three factors were decisive in choosing these machines: successful operating experience with the Maestro 24 SW, especially its reliability under difficult conditions; the new high-speed pneumatic metering unit, which allows for even higher output; and HorschConnect telemetry.
During this year’s spring sowing, the Maestro 24 SX proved its metering precision and high working speed in practice. It was particularly significant that the machine delivered the stated output and placement quality even when the seed material wasn’t top-grade – it’s understood that not all 515,000 ha are sown with elite, perfectly calibrated seed.
Telemetry via HorschConnect makes sowing “transparent”: you can monitor the quality of work and the output of each machine in real time. And if, say, four out of five machines deployed are delivering excellent results while the fifth isn’t, those responsible can respond immediately, quickly analyze, identify and resolve the problem. Do we need to say how much more timely, faster and cheaper this is than if agronomists had waited for the crop to emerge? And by then it would already be too late to react…
Conclusion
“The telemetry capabilities and metering precision of the Maestro 24 SX let us easily and fully integrate seeder operation into the Precision Farming system at our farms,” says Kostiantyn Shytiuk, Deputy Director of “Kernel Agribusiness”, with complete confidence.
According to “Kernel”, adopting the Maestro SX will let the company increase sowing output by 25% compared with the Maestro 24 SW. This is undoubtedly explained by the higher sowing speed – while keeping the same top-level precision! To ensure optimal mineral nutrition for the plants, all the machines are fitted with a liquid-fertilizer application system. The large central hopper is a further argument in favour of Maestro: a combined 9,000 l can be used as 2000/7000 (seed/fertilizer) or 4000/5000.
The machine display in HorschConnect is very clear and user-friendly, making it easy to analyze the information received.
Work quality and machine output are other key criteria for the equipment “Kernel” chooses.
The Cultro 12 TC crusher roller, with low draft resistance and a high working speed of up to 20 km/h, delivers high-output crushing of cover-crop growth in spring or handling stubble from thick-stemmed crops. The main use for this type of machine in “Kernel”‘s fields is crushing sunflower stalks right after the combine passes. After just a single pass of the unit, thickets of stalks up to 1.5 m tall are turned into stubble no higher than 30 cm above the soil surface.
HORSCH technology is also being trialled in the agroholding’s crop-protection system.
The Leeb VL is a further development of the new modification of the Leeb PT self-propelled sprayer, presented at Agritechnica 2019.
The new VL (variable large) self-propelled sprayer line has new individual suspension on all four wheels, and is fitted with telescopic axles allowing stepless hydraulic track-width adjustment. Two versions of the machine are even offered for this: with a variable track width in the range 2.50-3.50 m and 3.00-4.10 m. Both variants have a maximum ground clearance of 2.00 m. Both track width and ground clearance can be adjusted either mechanically or hydraulically. Because “Kernel” specializes in growing sunflower, trailed sprayer models are practically never used here. The decisive factor is ground clearance. Combined with a large 6,000 l or 8,000 l working tank, the new HORSCH self-propelled sprayer models promise to be a guarantee of the highest output in this segment too.
