In 2021, investments by the August-Agro Management Company in the construction of stationary mortar units on the territory of their own farms will amount to more than 35 million rubles. 5 nodes have already been put into operation. Each of them is a complex of containers and equipment that allows high-quality and fast mixing of large volumes of fertilizer solutions and plant protection products for the treatment of crops.
In the winter of 2021, the construction of additional mortar units began on the farms of the August-Agro Management Company in the Republic of Tatarstan. 5 of them have already started working: these are Karkali (Leninogorsk District), Toygildino (Muslyumovsky District), Pobeda (Aznakaevsky District), Uzyak (Tyulyachinsky District) and Bolshiye Saltyki (Kamsko-Ustinsky District). Another 2 nodes are being built near the villages of Urazlino (Kamsko-Ustinsky district) and Maidan (Verkhneuslonsky district). In addition, 4 installations were launched earlier: in 2019 - Karamaly and Novoe Saitovo in the Muslyumovsky district, Melken in the Menzelinsky district, and in 2020 - the Yaltau node in the Leninogorsky district.
Almost all treatments with plant protection products in the fields of "August-Agro" farms are carried out with the addition of any fertilizers or microelements to the working solutions. As the chief agronomist of the western region "August-Agro" Vladimir Zalyaiskalns explains, 3 parameters of water quality matter for the preparation of a solution: acidity (pH), composition of dissolved salts (hardness), the presence of various impurities (purity). Acidity and hardness can be dealt with with special conditioning additives. However, when preparing a working solution before processing directly in the field (for example, directly in a sprayer or using a mobile solution unit), it is often necessary to use turbid polluted water from natural reservoirs. Such solutions will clog the spray nozzles. If the driver is not conscientious and does not monitor the state of the equipment, then the quality of processing seriously deteriorates - as well as the level of plant protection. If the employee takes his duties responsibly, then cleaning the filters of all spray nozzles after applying a contaminated solution can take several hours, which naturally reduces the productivity of the equipment.
For the construction of mortar units in the "August-Agro" farms, wells abandoned by the previous owners were restored and modernized, and new ones were drilled: thus, the issue of providing clean water for spraying was resolved. Each of the mortar units, in accordance with the requirements of SanPiN, must be located at a distance of at least 300 meters from housing, reservoirs and water supply sources. The site for the installation is covered with gravel and fenced, road and electricity are supplied to it. The water supply at each site should be twice the daily requirement of the farm: in the case of the August-Agro mortar units, it is at least 200 tons. The installation itself includes a pumping station, storage tanks for water, bimetallic containers with an inner stainless steel coating for solution preparation, as well as a mixer for dissolving bulk fertilizers.
“In the mortar units, clean and heated to the required temperature water from the accumulators is pumped into the mixer, fertilizers and microelements are also loaded there,” Vladimir Zalyaiskalns describes the principle of operation of the installation. - After receiving a high-quality fertilizer solution, the pump pumps it into a bimetallic container. Then this solution and clean water are poured into a cassette consisting of 2 containers with a volume of 5 cubic meters each, which is installed in the back of a "KamAZ". In the trailer to "KamAZ" a mobile solution unit is fixed for preparation of a working solution on the field with the addition of plant protection products to the solution with fertilizers. The finished working solution is pumped into the sprayer. At the same time, KamAZ continues to deliver fertilizer solution and water. "
Vladimir Zalyaiskalns adds that large volumes of solutions have to be prepared for large areas of farms: “It's one thing to dissolve 100-10 kilograms of fertilizer in 12 liters of water, and it's another to prepare 50 tons for the night shift. And our two-year experience of using stationary mortar units has convincingly proved their undeniable effectiveness ”.
It is worth noting that since 2019, the budget of the Republic of Tatarstan has provided subsidies for farmers who build stationary mortar units. In addition, the availability of installations that meet the requirements of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Republic of Tatarstan is one of the factors affecting the size of the per hectare support. These measures also became an important incentive for the introduction of modern technologies in the farms of "August-Agro".