6 features of the planting year 2018

Despite the rise in price of all material and technical resources for the spring sowing campaign, Ukrainian farmers will save the sown areas at the level of the previous year. However, the plan is how to cope with the additional costs, each has its own.According to preliminary data, which comes from the regions to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, the sown area for the harvest of 2018 is planned within 27.2 million hectares, of which 14.6 million hectares (54%) is allocated for grain crops. The area is preserved at the level of 2017, but the cost of sowing for agrarians has grown significantly.The association "Ukrainian Agribusiness Club" estimated that the sowing 2018 will cost 23% more than last year, and will reach 127 billion UAH. This is 24 billion more than last year. Most of the production resources increased total fertilizer costs - + 33%, fuel and lubricants - + 29%, seeds - + 17%.The information and analysis company ProAgro Group notes that, according to preliminary estimates, the current sowing season has risen in price by 20% on average, while the prices for NWR and fuel have increased most in the structure of expenditures.Comparing the price situation with the seed material, LLC LNZ notes that the year 2017 was quite comfortable for the agrarians both in terms of the choice of a certain hybrid, and taking into account the price and terms of lending offered by the producers and suppliers to the market."Because of this, it was a significant warehouse residue of seed from manufacturers. Also last year, for agrarians, prices were attractive because of fierce competition among both international and domestic seed companies - sometimes the desire or the need to fulfill the set sales plan unreasonably depreciated the product itself ", explains the director of the distribution company LLC" LNZ "Andrey The Poltava.According to him, the current year, 2018, is fundamentally different. "Today seed producers are no longer competing with prices, but with their products. The main thing for them is to prove to farmers the value of their product. Moreover, virtually all breeding companies after the "draining" of previous years have qualitatively updated their line with new productive hybrids, "adds Poltavets.He also notes that almost all the companies leading the seed market managed to balance production with the demand of the market, which made it possible to raise prices, especially for new hybrids that were used last year by agrarians "for testing," and this season they are already observing them deficit."Summing up, it can be said that the inoculum of basic crops has risen in price for agrarians by 5-8% compared to last year, but this trend is both economically and technologically sound from the point of view of producers - a quality product can not be cheap. According to our data, today about 85-90% of the agrarians have decided on suppliers and a hybrid composition with respect to the planting material, concluding the relevant contracts, "said Andrei Poltavets.In turn, the owner of the Trading House "Soybean Century", GC UA Group Alexander Ushakov confirms that the sowing 2018 will cost domestic farmers much more expensive than last year."In the pricing of planting material, biologics and NW on the domestic market, one of the main factors will remain fluctuations in the foreign exchange market. The price of fuel and energy will also increase. Do not forget that the production of the same fertilizers is quite energy-intensive, and therefore an expensive process. And, of course, no matter how trivial it may sound, an increase in minimum wages will also leave its imprint on the process of pricing in the agricultural sector in 2018, "Alexander Ushakov comments.№ 1. Refusal of expensive cropsIn 2018 agricultural producers first of all refuse corn. The reason is the reduction of its yield last year on average by 14% due to unfavorable weather conditions, as well as the expensive technology of growing this crop.According to the operating director of the agricultural holding "Mriya" Andrei Grigorov, the company in this season reduces the area under corn from 24 to 15 thousand hectares."Despite the high planned yield, the culture is very expensive in terms of drying at the elevator. Because of the long rainy autumn period in Western Ukraine, the grain enters the elevators with high humidity, "Andrei Grigorov explains.The total area under crops of the agricultural holding "Mriya" in 2018 will be about 150 thousand hectares. The key crops for the company are traditionally winter wheat, soybean, winter rape, corn and sunflower.As reported in the company, winter wheat in the structure of crops will occupy 25.5 thousand hectares (17%), soybean - 25.7 thousand hectares (17%), winter rape - 18.1 thousand hectares (12%), corn - 15.0 thousand hectares (10%), spring barley - 14.3 thousand hectares (9.6%), spring rape - 8.4 thousand hectares (5%).№ 2. The choice of high-margin"Barley and rapeseed are planned for the first time this year in the Mriya crop rotation, so that the load on machinery and elevators is optimal. I also want to say separately about sunflower, which is allocated to 33.9 thousand hectares (22.6%), that is, we view it as a high-margin crop. Also double the area under sugar beet - up to 7,3 thousand hectares in Ternopil and Khmelnytsky regions. And in 2020 we plan to sow 20 thousand hectares. Last year, for the first time after the default, we sowed this culture in the Ternopil region as part of a contract with a local sugar factory, and the result satisfied us - with a planned yield of 40 tons per hectare, we received 48 tons per hectare at the test weight, "says Andrei Grigorov.№ 3. Search for more economical solutionsOn the rise in price of material and technical means in the agricultural holding "Mriya" do not complain, as they find ways to optimize expenses. For example, here they gradually move from applying solid granular mineral nitrogen fertilizers to ammonia water. According to Andrei Grigorov, this will make it possible to reduce the cost of 1 kg of nitrogen by 20-25%, depending on the logistics. In addition, mainly ammonia water is applied simultaneously with the main soil treatment, that is, there is less equipment per pass, which also reduces costs.№ 4. Selection of seeds and SZRNovel Franchuk, Director of JLLC "LNZ-Agro", notes that last year Ukrainian farmers gave preference to corn, and the volumes of soybean and rapeseed sowing were also reduced, all because of the price issue."Finally, all stopped fearing Ukrainian seeds - there are almost no" unbelievers "who would like to buy exclusively imported goods," Roman Franchuk notes.This year, the LNZ Group was previously planned to allocate 27 thousand hectares for corn commodity, within 10 thousand hectares for sunflower, 11 thousand hectares for soybean, 7 thousand hectares for winter wheat, the rest - hybridization and forage wedges . Approximately 4.5 thousand hectares are planned to be used for hybrid corn, in the range of 1.5 thousand hectares for sunflower.If we talk about NWP, then, as Roman Franchuk noted, because of the difficult economic situation in the country, constant fluctuations in prices, unfavorable weather conditions, Ukrainian farmers often prefer generic chemistry.According to Andrei Poltavets, today 60% of the area is under the chemistry of multinational companies, 40% - under generic products. "Although if you call things by their own names and take into account the fact that many companies in the NZ market position themselves as multinational producers, and in reality 70-80% are producers of post-patent products, the proportion is most likely to be reverse-40 / 60, "he notes.№ 5. Compliance with crop rotationIf it is rather difficult for large agro-holdings to make quick changes in plans for the structure of crops, small farms are quick and flexible enough to deal with these issues. Although the rise in price of resources is more painful.The farm "Tiras 2007" in processing up to 1 thousand hectares in the Zhitomir region. According to the farmer Ruslan Prysyazhnyuk, they try to observe a crop rotation, growing five crops."Such a number is not accidental, because, introducing such a crop rotation, you get a guarantee that one of the crops will help catch up if others do not yield a crop or the price will be unprofitable. Thanks to this we achieve balance, - notes Ruslan Prysyazhnyuk. "In the structure of crops, we have 10-15% of potatoes, 20-25% of soy, and the rest is a grain group: wheat, oats, barley, rye."Strangely enough, but the FH "Tiras 2007" does not sow sunflower and corn at all. As Ruslan Prisyazhnyuk says, it is difficult to combine these cultures in crop rotation with potatoes."Of course, sunflower is considered to be a highly profitable and popular crop, and therefore large farms that cultivate the land next door, mostly sow in their fields sunflower and soy," the farmer argues. - Every year everything changes, and it is difficult to choose a stable and profitable culture, everything depends on weather conditions, purchasing prices. But, most likely, it's soy. "№ 6. Introduction of exact agricultureIn the farm "Agrocomplex-98" also rely on soybeans."Even taking into account soy corrections and the fact that in us, that is, producers, they will take 16% of the cost of grown produce, we will not stop sowing soy. This culture is stable in price and, besides, a good predecessor in our Polissya lands. We tried to replace it with peas, but something he did not go, "- says the farmer Oleg Levlovskiy.Both farmers are thinking about the introduction of new technologies, and especially accurate farming. First of all, they plan to concentrate on the technique and soil analysis."From the rise in price of sowing is nowhere to go, for us the urgent problem today is that the spring began in the right time, waiting for the early spring to get a good harvest of winter crops."