OREANDA-NEWS. June 4, 2008. This year new harvesting machinery will be introduced in farms of SAHO in Novosibirsk and Rostov regions and also in subsidiary agricultural holdings in Ulyanovsk and Tula regions.

SAHO has been implementing its own programme of technical re-equipment since 2005. By the sowing campaign-2008 SAHO spent more than 1.240 billion roubles on the renewal of agricultural machinery. In 2007 the holding tested grain combine harvesters Case AF 2388, Mega-370 (Claas company) and John Deer WTS 9660 to select one of producers of harvesting machinery. According to the results of tests a tender was held. The holding chose Claas combine harvesters because they did not show any failures during work, but productivity and quality of processing remained high and also losses were minimal.

One of the advantages of the chosen machinery is the fact that Mega-370 are equipped with satellite system “Agroskaut” which enables to monitor real-time on which field a harvester is working. Also this system reports on the work of each of combine harvesters during a shift. According to the agricultural department of SAHO, this data is important both for control over machinery operations and immediate decision-making.

Price was also a significant advantage of Claas. Price difference between Mega-370 and John Deer WTS 9660 was 20%. Having assessed all advantages of the machinery, SAHO purchased 52 such combine harvesters this year. Taking into account dynamics of SAHO agricultural business development, next year the holding is expected to purchase additional 50–60 combine harvesters.