AgroFarm has established itself as the platform for Russia's professional animal husbandry sector. From 2009 onwards, awards for products and services particularly aimed at the Russian market will be conferred in the course of the exhibition. The prizes will be awarded for "Best Product - AgroFarm 2009" and for "Best Service - AgroFarm 2009":
The award for "Best Product – AgroFarm 2009" is in recognition of products with a particularly high potential for constructively increasing efficiencies within animal husbandry in Russia.
The award for "Best Service – AgroFarm 2009" is in recognition of companies, which have provided their customers in the Russian animal husbandry sector with a particularly high level of service.
The awards will be presented at the AgroFarm 2009 opening ceremony on 20 May, 10 am to 11 am.
The 2009 award-winners were picked from a pool of 15 entries by an independent panel made up of Russian and international experts. The panel comprised Dmitriy Kasanskiy, Director of Podolsk's Technical Research Institute for Animal Technology; Dr. agr. Vladimir Epischin, Managing Director Mortadel; and Dr. Dirk Quest, Managing Director of the DLG (Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft – German Agricultural Society) Test Center Technology and Farm Inputs.
Two products received the award for "Best Product – AgroFarm 2009": Lothar Becker Agrartechnik's B 70-10-60 S-2Z GMP JET swivel-type agitator; and Minitube's eProCheck® automated analyser. .
Lothar Becker Agrartechnik's GMP Lagoon Jet agitator is an agitator and pump in one. The machine is specifically designed to stir up large, deep lagoons of semi-liquid manure or biogas plant digestate and transfer the contents into transporter tanks. It can be used on as many lagoons as required.
This piece of machinery's efficiency and the fact that its segmental construction requires relatively few spare parts to be stocked, means that it is particularly well-suited to Russian farms.
Minitube's eProCheck® automated analyser combines two dairy herd management tools in a single piece of equipment. It can provide an accurate, fully automated analysis of progesterone levels in milk or blood serum samples for the optimal fertility management of high-performance cows, and it also automatically tests BHB (beta-hydroxybutyric acid) levels in the milk, so that any subclinical ketosis can detected.
Readings are quick and easy to take, meaning that the eProCheck can be deployed to improve those very areas that often constitute weak spots in Russian intensive dairy farms, namely breeding and feed management, and herd health and fertility, thus ensuring optimal milk yields.
Two companies also shared the "Best Service – AgroFarm 2009" award: the Russian company AgroProektInvest and Conexx-Rus, a Russian subsidiary of the Dutch Conexx Group.
AgroProjektInvest specializes in the development of pig farms of all sizes. The company delivers its customers with ready-to-use facilities, assembled from Russian and European components for optimal pig production. AgroProjektInvest takes 3-8 months to develop a project, and 2-5 months to deliver the equipment. Any maintenance work on equipment supplied will be carried out cost-free within the warranty period, and the firm also provides its customers with the option of taking out post-warranty maintenance and repair protection plans for this equipment.
Customers are provided with extensive advice and staff members are trained to use the new equipment. AgroProjektInvest works in collaboration with the Russian Ministry of Agriculture's Training Centre for Environmentally-friendly Technologies in Livestock Husbandry, the All-Russian Institute for Livestock Husbandry and the V.P. Goryachkin Moscow State Agroengineering University, to organise advanced courses and training for professionals from all over Russia.
A series of manuals written by specialists within the firm provide the icing on the cake for Russian agricultural customers.
Conexx-Rus' core speciality is livestock housing, and it provides a comprehensive range of services during the construction and assembly works.
Customers are provided with a quotation within one day, and the firm's development office is staffed by specialists with extensive experience in planning steel-based constructions, who are able to submit construction designs and blueprints within 1-2 weeks of the contract being signed. The requisite building materials are subsequently delivered within 4-5 weeks.
All of Conexx-Rus' building materials are chosen and calibrated with due regard to the conditions of use, animal housing climate and external burdens and stresses such as expected snow and wind loads. The materials used have a correspondingly high life expectancy of more than 40 years.
Regular training courses ensure that the skills of Conexx Rus' staff and those of its partner firms are maintained and extended. In this way, Conexx-Rus can offer its Russian customers a first-class service with competent advice, short delivery times and an extremely durable end-product.
