EkoNiva took part in Ural-Agro 2023 trade fair held in Sverdlovsk oblast from 4 to 6 April. The company showcased high-yielding pedigree dairy cattle and seeds of the world's best crop varieties, including those for risky farming zones.

The 30th anniversary Ural-Agro trade fair brought together over 100 companies and organisations which presented a wide range of machinery, seed material and agricultural innovations – all that is needed for profitable production and competitiveness of Ural farmers. Shortly before the upcoming season, they got to learn about the latest crop varieties and managed to take the issues off the table.

‘Our booth hosted a number of business meetings with partners from Sverdlovsk, Kurgan, Perm and Tyumen oblasts. We have been working in the Urals for over three years. About 500 local farming enterprises opt for EkoNiva's seeds, and the number keeps rising. Our diverse seed portfolio allows us to cover the needs of any grower, and the highly adaptive varieties meet the challenge of making crop production in risky farming zones lucrative’, points out Aleksandr Suntsov, Sales Rep at EkoNiva-Semena.

The climate of the Urals is quite harsh with the danger of recurrent frosts until early June and frequent droughts in summer. Therefore, of special interest are winter-hardy varieties that are resistant to lodging and produce consistently high yields under any weather conditions. Intensive winter wheat varieties of EkoNiva's own breeding are tolerant to various stress factors – EN Taygeta, EN Albireo, EN Cepheus, EN Mars and EN Photon have already proved their worth at enterprises in different regions of the country. This year, two new in-house bred winter wheat varieties of the company – EN Voin and EN Perseus – have been listed in the State Register of Plant Breeding Achievements. Experts recommend them for growing in risky farming zones.

Among spring wheat varieties from EkoNiva's portfolio, Ural agricultural producers mainly opt for Licamero. The variety tends to deliver bumper crops of 5-6 tonnes per hectare, which is 20-30% more than that of the competitors. Another popular choice is peas, the high-yielding varieties with a good protein content Rocket, Jackpot and Trendy in particular. They are not prone to lodging and are easy to harvest. There is also demand for barley and lentil seeds, and interest in soya beans is slowly awakening. As for the latter, the participants in the trade fair were offered varieties with exceptional yield potential and a protein content of at least 42% from the Group's own breeding programme: EN Argenta, EN Akcent and EN Argument.

Since the Urals region keeps stepping up livestock farming, the focus of attention is forage grasses, especially the extremely nutritious and frost-resistant alfalfa varieties Dakota and Paola. Besides, a number of local farms have already appreciated all the advantages of EkoNiva's pedigree heifers, and the demand for them continues to rise. Since 2008, the company has been successfully engaged in pedigree cattle breeding having formed a productive and healthy herd. The average output of one milking cow exceeds 33.5 kg of raw milk per day.

The attendees of Ural-Agro 2023 had fruitful meetings, made useful contacts, signed contracts and reached agreements on further cooperation.