Sowing of corn continues in the Mogilev region
Although the current protracted spring and the April cold snap in the Mogilev region delayed the sowing campaign for at least ten days, corn sowing continues at full speed in all regions . This is the main concern of farmers in the fields today. In total, 53.7 thousand hectares have been sown in the region - 40 percent of the planned. At the same time, the sowing of corn intended for grain has been practically completed, 39.2 thousand hectares, or 93 percent of the sown area, have been sown.
Lilia Gulinskaya , head of the crop production intensification department of the Committee on Agriculture and Food of the Regional Executive Committee, believes that corn sowing is within the technological timeframe and it was not worth rushing to put grain in the cold ground:
- At the beginning of May, the farms were sowing corn with caution. The last year's experience was alarming, when the early crops did not germinate for a month, and agronomists feared that they would have to reseed. Now corn sowing is in full swing. The southern regions are at the final stage of these works. Most of the districts have already coped with the sowing of corn for grain. All farms are provided with seeds. For silage from Belarusian corn-sizing factories, domestic seeds were purchased centrally at the expense of future milk through milk processing enterprises. For grain, we mainly use imported hybrids.
Spring and warmth always come to the southern Glussky district earlier, so all farms were among the first to introduce precision seeders to the fields. 626 hectares were sown at the Agrofirma Slavgorodsky, OJSC, more than 400 at the Glusk Experimental Base OJSC, and 528 at the Glusskaya Zarya OJSC. A total of 2.5 thousand hectares of corn have been sown in the region. Including all farms fully coped with sowing grain, planting seeds for these purposes on an area of 1.5 thousand hectares.
In general, in the region, the sowing of corn is decreasing, and they are trying to replace corn silage with haylage as much as possible. This trend has not been spared either in the Glussky District: to create a more complete and nutritious fodder base per thousand hectares, the sown area of maize has been reduced by increasing the area of alfalfa and perennial legume-cereal grasses. Nevertheless, the "queen of the fields" remains an irreplaceable feed for dairy farming.
- This year we are sowing 6 thousand hectares of corn, - said the chief specialist of the production and technical department of the regional agricultural product of the Glussky regional executive committee Valery Glaz . - We prepared the soil well for sowing crops. We plowed organic matter at the rate of 50 tons per hectare. We made a full-fledged starting filling of the soil with potassium and nitrogen. Through the dairy-processing enterprise "Babushkina Krynka", 170 tons of seeds of Belarusian hybrids were centrally purchased, which had already been initially treated with two disinfectants. Farms will pay for seeds with milk.
But the Klichev UKSP "State farm" Volunteer "is not going to reduce the area for corn - it is impossible to feed the 10-thousandth livestock of gobies, not counting dairy production, without corn silage. Sowing corn on 3.5 thousand hectares cannot be done at once, the chief agronomist of "Volunteer" Evgeny Rusetsky is convinced in practice :
- Last year we started sowing corn on April 17, this year - on the 27th. Maybe it was a bit early to start putting grain in cold soil, but we have no other choice. This is an organizational tactic for such large volumes. On May 12, sowing was completed: 2.5 thousand hectares - for silage, 1 thousand hectares - for grain. We bought good seeds at our own expense - we sow imported hybrids for silage and grain.
In the Klichevsky district, they began sowing corn not only in the "Volunteer", all other farms have also actively started planting seeds in the soil. According to Vitaly Sita , deputy head of the regional agricultural product of the Klichevsky district executive committee , three more farms, besides Volunteers, have found their own resources to buy seeds of imported corn hybrids for sowing grain - open joint-stock companies Maksimovichi-Agro, Batsevichi-AGRO and UKSP Sovkhoz Olsa. For the rest of the farms, according to the worked out scheme, they purchased seeds of the Belarusian selection through JSC "Babushkina Krynka".
- The sowing of maize is proceeding at a good clear technological pace, first of all, because last year all farms in the region purchased precision seed drills. We do not sow a single hectare of corn both for silage and grain with sowing machines. We allocate at least 6.5 thousand hectares for corn. Although we are increasing the area for perennial legumes to create a fodder base, we still cannot objectively feed the cattle with haylage. While we are increasing our silage resources (last year we almost doubled our volumes), we are still relying on corn silage. The main thing is to prepare it with high quality, with the correct use of a preservative.
The trend among agronomists of the Mogilev region is also Belarusian corn hybrids. Gennady Davydov, deputy head of the regional agricultural product of the Mogilev region, clarified:
- In the region, sowing of corn intended for grain has been completed on an area of 5370 hectares. A total of 7,700 hectares were allocated for corn. We were in no hurry to start mass corn sowing. The longer the seeds of this heat-loving culture lie in the ground, the more their germination decreases. But now the daily output is more than a thousand hectares. With this pace of work, there is less than a week left. Imported hybrids are used for grain in OJSC Vendorozh, Avangard, Mogilevsky Lenok, CJSC Agrokombinat Zarya and Servolux agro. The rest of the farms received seeds of Belarusian selection at the expense of future milk with the help of a centralized purchase through "Babushkina Krynka". With proper cultivation techniques, they give good yields not only for silage and green fodder, but also for grain.
Written by: mogilev-region.gov.by