Being among the leaders has become a familiar matter for the Ostromechevo farm. The agricultural enterprise is not only the flagship of the agricultural sector of the Brest district; at the regional and national levels it also looks very respectable. The motto of the Ostromechevo people, “Only forward!”, has not lost its relevance. The director of the agricultural enterprise, Oleg Burak, together with the workforce, is constantly moving the farm toward new heights.

This is proven by the high results that the Pribuzhye farm demonstrates year after year. The Ostromechevo team carried out the harvest campaign quite well. Twenty-seven harvesters were involved in the grain harvest, and 18 of them each threshed over a thousand tons. The total grain threshing amounted to nearly 24,600 tons of grain. That is practically a third of all grain collected in the Brest district. The yield was 51 centners per hectare. As for winter rapeseed, they managed to harvest over 4,300 tons of oilseed. The yield exceeded last year's by 4.6 centners and amounted to 32.9 centners per hectare.

The livestock industry is developing confidently. For many years, a cattle growing and fattening complex has been operating efficiently, and 7 dairy complexes are working successfully. In total, Ostromechevo has about 17,000 head of cattle, of which nearly 3,900 are the dairy herd. For the first eight months of this year, the farm achieved an average daily weight gain of 912 grams, and more than one kilogram in the fattening group. Gross milk yield approached 30,000 tons of milk, milk yield per cow amounted to 7,771 kilograms (+398 kg compared to the same period last year), and the average daily milk yield reached 30 kg. Eighty percent of the milk was sold as “extra” grade, and its marketability was almost 95 percent.

Of course, such results became possible thanks to the coordinated work of the entire team. More than 800 people currently work at the enterprise. Responsible and hardworking, they move their native farm forward every day. It is not surprising that it was the agro-town of Ostromechevo that was chosen this year as the venue for the district Dozhinki festival.

The workers of Ostromechevo have repeatedly won district and regional competitions and have also received awards at the republican level. Among those honored at the district Dozhinki festival was driver Dmitry Panavoychik. He has been working at his native farm for more than 20 years. “For me this is already my fourth harvest campaign: this season I transported more than 1,200 tons of grain. Fortunately, there were no breakdowns; I prepared the vehicle well. Our agrotown has been transformed for Dozhinki: it has become even better and more beautiful. In general, one can live and work well here,” the experienced driver is convinced.

At the regional Dozhinki, a letter of gratitude from the Prime Minister of Belarus was presented to tractor driver and machine operator Vladimir Rezanovich. He has 26 years of work at Ostromechevo behind him. In his early years, he worked on a combine harvester together with his father Andrei Ivanovich, and now his son Stanislav is his assistant. A true family dynasty! “For me, the past harvest season was already my 25th. I harvested all grain crops and rapeseed, and threshed more than a thousand tons. Of course, the weather affected the harvest: there were quite a few burned-out areas due to drought and heat. But we coped. To be honest, I don't regret working in agriculture. The work, though not easy, is important and necessary,” the machine operator noted.

Materials prepared by Nikolai YARMOSHUK, photo by Alexander SHULGACH