by PAUL RAYNER

Agriculture around the world has many similarities. It also has a lot of differences. A trip taken this past week was an attempt to bridge the gap and foster learning about new concepts and techniques.

A group of four Russian farmers – Rustan Batrkhanov, Valeri Dugin, Sergey Gerasimenko, and Alexander Pimenov – with the help of interpreter Olga Nikitina – were doing a tour of Southwestern Manitoba which included stops at Gerald Hildebrand of Hildebrand Brothers farms and Select Seeds owned by Wes and Elaine Froese. According to Rick Morgan of the Canadian International Grains Institute, a non-profit marketing development organization, the idea for these trips originated with the agricultural councillor at the Russian embassy. Russian farmers were interested in coming to visit to learn different techniques from Canadian farmers.

“They are looking at a zero till focus,” Morgan stated, “and they are asking questions on different farming practices here. They are here for a week. They paid to come here and learn. They are interested in how we do things.”

He said the CIGI role was to organize the trips for them. The tour, Morgan said, was fairly varied, including a trip to Atom Jet Industries in Brandon as well as different farms in the area. The present group is the second from Russia to come out, the first arriving in September.

The farmers all come from southwestern Russia. Three are from the Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) region, while Gerasimenko is from Krasnodar near the Black Sea. With Hildebrand and Scott Day, diversification specialist with Manitoba Agriculture Food and Rural Initiatives, the farmers asked many questions and answered others. Nearly any part of a farming operation was of interest to them and comparisons to their methods and situations were also interesting.

For example, their farming tends to be more labour intensive, with as many as 12 people of various responsibilities (mechanics, cooks and farm laborers) working on a 5000 hectare farm. For one thing, most of their equipment is smaller than that used by Canadian farmers. However, larger Western equipment is making its mark alongside more traditional Belarus and DT-75’s, but is very expensive in Russia. A John Deere 9870 combine in Russia would cost $500,000 US, just less than twice its price here in Canadian dollars.

Also, Hildebrand talked of the damage done to their farm by the tornado in 2007, and what the insurance paid for. The Russian farmers said they had similar experiences, except they had to pay for repairs without insurance.

Their climate is also drier, which they say makes it less useful to use fertilizers. As much as 70% of their precipitation comes in the winter.

Morgan said at the end of the week, the visitors would be going to Winnipeg, where they would visit areas like the Canadian Wheat Board, and learn more about zero till. Day said it is part of their effort to learn more techniques about land conservation.

According to Batrkhanov, there were many things they wanted to look at while in Canada.

“We would like to learn about no-till, learn about canola,” he said through the interpreter, “what kind of equipment, and what is most preferable. We want to know what kind of soil there is, how many people work on each farm, and how the grain is shipped.”

Pimenov added that they were looking to gain some experience for their own farms.

“We are looking to see all of the process,” Pimenov stated. “How they produce, where they put it later, their methods of growing and what gives them positive results. We want to find ways to improve our production. We would like to learn from some one else’s mistakes, not ours.”

As it was only their second day of touring, Pimenov said it was hard to point to too many things they had learned yet. However, the similarities between the farms, him saying they grow wheat, sunflowers, peas and corn in his region, might mean there will be much information to take back with him.

As well, there is a plan to turn the trips around, with Canadian farms visiting the Volgograd region this summer. Pimenov looks forward to extending a hand to those who have already done so for him.

“This is very useful communication,” he said. “We are very thankful to Canadian farmer for their openness. We hope it will help us.”

“We look forward to seeing Canadian farmers in Russia. Mutual conversation is always useful.”