On a visit to AGCO

The AGCO Company arranged a familiarization trip to its plants in the US for the best dealers of Russia and Ukraine. Making a successful debut as a dealer last year, AgroCentre today is one of the leaders in sales of the Challenger equipment in Russia.

The tour programme included visiting several states of the US where AGCO company's Challenger manufacturing facilities are. In the state of Kansas, the delegation attended the AGCO Hesston plant. That's where WR series self-propelled seeders, rotary grain harvesters, reaping machines, balers and roll pickers are manufactured. Each day, the plant turns out 10 to 15 units of equipment, 30% of which are exported, while the remainder remains in North America.  

At the AGCO Sunflower plant, Kansas, the guests watched the manufacture of Challenger tilling and seeding equipment. The manufacturing process is highly automated, for instance, all welding is done by robots. In a day, the plant turns out more than 15 machines!

The visit to the world famous Tractor Test of Nebraska independent laboratory proved to be very interesting. The laboratory tests tractors and supplies advice on their use. The Russian speaking group also enjoyed a visit to the Power Museum of tractors. 

Touring the AGCO Jackson manufacturing plant, Minnesota, the guests familiarized themselves with a product assembly line, and subassembly and subsystem manufacturing lines. The plant's specialty is manufacture of the Challenger self-propelled equipment. This includes caterpillar tractors (1,500 units per year), wheeled tractors (1,000 units per year), sprayers (150 units per year), and fertilizer distributors (500 units per year). The AGCO Jackson president greeted the dealers from Russia and Ukraine and answered all the questions that interested them.

A meeting with foreign colleagues from the Zeigler dealer centre proved very productive. This focused on the specifics of work in farming markets of Russia and the US.

In addition to plants, the dealer delegation visited the Broberg Farm in the state of Nebraska where the AGCO equipment is widely used.

“The trip gave us a chance to better learn the Challenger equipment, its manufacturing specifics and advantages over the counterparts,” relates Nikolai Bashkirov, head of the equipment orders department of the AgroCentre LLC. “This will help us, the dealers, to further promote the Challenger brand in Russia.”