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Ilderton, Ontario | I had the opportunity to spend 4 months in Russia in 1994. I was there on a joint venture to help improve the grain handling infrastructure on state run farms. Our group was there specifically building grain drying and storage facilities, but my involvment became needed due to the first phase of the project which involved the sale of Canadian built "Western Combines". The combine which was built in Portage La Prairie, was the result of Linimar's purchase of the Massey Ferguson design.
Although I am not a fan of the Massey, they were a huge improvement over the domestic built combines. These 120,000 acre farms would replace 100 combines with 5-6 of the Western Combines. With the huge increase of field productivity, came the next phase of the project which was to build a grain handling infrastructure to compliment these efficiencies.
During this period the combine factory in Chelyabinsk was being retooled to assemble the Western Combine. The only stipulation the Russians insisted upon has to power these units with a russian engine. I'm not sure of the overall success of this venture, since my time ended before these combines reached the field, and communication infrastructure was limited to landline telephones connecting through a switch board as late as 1995, complicated by my lack of russian language skill. Unfortunately, I have lost touch with my contacts over time to find out how things currently are. | |
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Russia's machinery market
