Alina island: in agriculture you have to be realistic

Alina and Mihai Istrate manage three vegetable farms for a total of 1,000 hectares, located in the County of Ilfov. In the property they have two farms, a 560 hectares and the other 150 hectares, which cultivate wheat, rapeseed, peas, sunflowers and corn.

The last few years have been extremely dry. In 2020, they only collected 1.9 tons of wheat per hectare. The year 2021 was better, but 2025 was a disastrous year for spring crops, so this year they only have 88 hectares of corn, increased the surface with autumn crops and, To preserve water from the ground, on about 400 hectares grown with wheat and rapeseed they gave up the plow.

Istrate alinaAdministrator Farm Anabia International: «First, Aram in all autumn crops. This year, I only did a minimum transition with the Horsch tiger farmer for the culture of wheat and for the culture of rapeseed I made a dismissal with Horsch Joker, to level the ground, to incorporate the debris of the plants and then I went to SoW.

In conditions of this year, with water deficit in autumn, on the plots in which we have carried out minimal works, the rapeseed increased more uniformly than the plots in which the ground was prepared conventional and I sown in dry soil.. «

In both crops, wheat and rapeseed, a surface soil processing with Horsch Joker 8 RT was performed, immediately after collection, to close the capillaries and the conservation of water in the ground.

Setting the Culture of Colza

The sowing of rapeseed has been completed August 30, 2025. Preliminary culture was wheat. Precipitation from the institution of culture until the end of March-when the photos were taken, it was 190 l/m2 and were administered by 150 kg/has a complex of fertilizers DAP 18-46-0, in depth, at 18 cm, with the focus at the turn of Shower 6.35 TD.

Setting the culture of wheat

Preliminary culture was sunflower. Precipitation from the institution of culture until the end of March-when the photos were taken, it was 190 l/m2 and were administered by 150 kg/has a complex dap 18-46-0 fertilizers, located near the seed, also with the focus at the turn of Shower 6.35 TD.

They invested in high performance equipment

The institute spouses created their first agricultural company in 2009, when they did agriculture for about two years. With Fiery They started working ten years ago and have a «total trust» report, says Alina Istrate. At the beginning they purchased a combination and tractor used, from Schroeder Company in Germany, Mew of Mewi, therefore, since their farm has grown financially, purchased new machines, in leasing, which helped to grow from year to year.

Currently, the entire technology of soil elaboration and sowing earthly and predatory crops are made exclusively with Horsch machines. In 2016, they also purchased a 280 HP Fendt 828 tractor and from January 2025 they also have a 1050 profipplus, 517 HP, purchased together with the Focus Horsch Sowing 6.35 TD.

Two good reasons they do profitable investment In large capacity machines for a medium -sized farm: Less employees and performance of the machine.

«It is not enough to invest in high performance machines if you have the human factor, i.e. the operator. Our advantage is that my husband is passionate about technique and agricultural machinery and it is he who works on these cars. We divide our duties and, due to the lack of qualified personnel, we have learned to appreciate even more the performance of complex and high -capacity machines, because it is clear that if you have a large machine to work throughout the surface, you need a single operator. We are working in total about a thousand hectares and we have to do all the time and quality work«Says Alina is the ister.

With the machines they have, they manage to work with the whole area of ​​1,000 hectares only three people. Alina Istrate recognizes that sometimes it also helps, if you need to drive a trailer and even know how to set GPS tractors and calibrate the sowers.

The biggest problem right now?

Alina Istrate: «The biggest problem seems to me that prices are. In previous years, we maintained part of the cereals, in particular wheat, in the warehouse, and I sold in January, because, in principle, the price increased during the winter. This year, the grain I sold from the field with 1.65 she the kilogram and what I sold from the warehouse I gave 1.5 she the kilogram and that because I sold soon. Now the prices are even lower. What we can do is try to have constant productions, to have more stability, which is why we put multiple autumn crops and work with high performance equipment.«