Late 2013 is “budget and tender” season. It was right in that period that ASA “Astra” took part in a tender announced by Kernel. As a result of negotiations and several meetings, including at the “InterAgro 2013” exhibition in Kyiv and Agritechnica 2013 in Hannover (Germany), a sale-and-purchase contract was signed for 8 Horsch Maestro 24/70 SW seed drills.
The Horsch stand at the “InterAgro 2013” exhibition
The unusual stand design managed to catch visitors’ attention and clearly show off the implement’s advantages. This layout made it possible to examine “everything” from every angle, every seam and joint, and see the engineering solution’s simplicity and reliability.
The seed drills were specially adapted by Horsch to meet Kernel’s needs. They have 24 rows and a single 5000-litre seed hopper. Designed for sowing corn, sunflower, soybean and sorghum. Four features make the Maestro one of a kind:
- an innovative metering system;
- a compact vacuum metering unit;
- a seed-placement monitoring system;
- hydraulically adjustable pressure in the range of 125–300 kg per row unit.
Modern software, used together with the Isobus Terminal, lets the operator see on the monitor installed in the tractor cab not only “skips” and “doubles” information, but also the seeding rate’s coefficient of variation for individual rows. This lets the operator optimise the machine’s load on time, according to specific sowing conditions. These and many other advantages of Horsch’s seed drills helped them stand out among the abundance of brands and offers on today’s market. It’s worth noting that unloading and preparing one unit, together with its tractor, for travel took 11 minutes. This is possible thanks to the machines being assembled and prepared for transport right at the factory.
On 21 March 2014, “Astra” staff, together with Horsch Ukraine specialists, plan to hold training for Kernel’s tractor operators and machine operators who will be involved in the spring season. According to our partner, all the seed drills will be deployed on the company’s fields in Khmelnytskyi and Ternopil regions.
Below is a photo report showing the seed drills being shipped at the factory in Germany and unloaded at a farm in Ukraine.
Trucks loaded with seed drills, outside the factory
Unloading the equipment in Khmelnytskyi region, at a Kernel facility
Background. Kernel is the largest agro-industrial company in Ukraine and the CIS, and a key producer and supplier of sunflower oil to the domestic market. The company’s brands are “Shchedryi Dar”, “Stozhar”, “Chumak Domashnia” and “Chumak Zolota”. Kernel is Ukraine’s largest exporter of sunflower oil and meal, and a major exporter of grain crops from the Black Sea region. The company’s production assets are black-soil farmland and modern oil-extraction plants. Kernel’s logistics are built on an agricultural infrastructure that includes the largest network of grain elevators and deep-water export terminals. One of the company’s priority activities is modern agricultural production.
The land Kernel leases is located across most of Ukraine’s regions. More than 400 thousand hectares of fertile soil are cultivated by experienced specialists using innovative technology and the best modern machinery. The company employs more than 20 thousand people. Since 2007, the company’s shares have been traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Kernel’s IPO was the best in Central and Eastern Europe in the Warsaw exchange’s entire history.
