Around 50 students from 17 Voronezh and Belgorod universities have visited EkoNiva’s enterprises based in Voronezh oblast. The future agronomists, herd managers, veterinarians, machine operators, engineers, technologists and tourism officers got to know all business segments of the holding through lectures arranged by the Group’s specialists and participating in an entertaining business game.

The acquaintance with the company started from Dobrino dairy. All the students were highly impressed by the scale of the enterprise from the very beginning of the tour as it was the first time they hit a modern farm of EkoNiva’s. The visitors saw how calves are housed, what feeds are given to cows, how the herd management and milking on the rotary are organised.

‘I noticed how clean the dairy is. The sand beddings are regularly loosened up, the barns are scraped and the feed bunks are maintained in good order. What’s truly essential is that the animals are well kept here, they are very friendly to people and communicable’, says Diana Dobroskokina, student of Rossosh College of Meat and Dairy Industry.

The tour went on to the cheese plant located in Shchuchye village – this is where milk from Dobrino dairy becomes the raw material for hard and semi-hard EKONIVA cheeses. The specialists-to-be observed how a special robot treated cheese wheels with a salt solution and a starter culture containing Brevibacterium linens.

Later, the students headed to EkoNiva-Chernozemye dealership where the company employees showcased novelties of farming machinery, elaborated on the current activities and producing spare parts under the in-house brand Agroznak. As per today, over 2,500 items are manufactured under this brand, including oils and lubricants, filters, transmissions and their parts, sealings, fastenings, chains and other components.

‘It is of utmost importance that the production is entirely Russian, so our clients will not have to wait long until they get their spare parts and be worried about machinery downtime when the season is in full swing’, says Aleksandr Bogomolov, Head of Engineering Department at EkoNiva-Chernozemye.

At the conclusion of the eventful day, EkoNiva’s employees gave several educative lectures on basics of cattle nutrition, peculiarities of growing fodder crops, technological processes, quality systems and marketing.

The obtained knowledge helped the students in the business game which summed up the day. The young people were divided into four teams and given a task to invent a new dairy product considering specific input factors. All teams successfully defended their cases and were awarded souvenirs. They also received a unique opportunity to have an internship at the company’s production sites.

‘This event let us improve our relations with Voronezh and Belgorod universities, increase the loyalty to the company and popularise agriculture along with the processing industry. Most importantly, we have met talented students who are on track to become professionals and work at EkoNiva’, notes Natalya Zvereva, Deputy Head of HR Department at EkoNiva-Food.