HAZELNUTS OF UKRAINE-2025. Harvesting is in full swing.

Instead of a preface: According to an ancient legend in Ancient Greece, the rod of the god of commerce Hermes was made of hazel. This hazel rod, crowned with a pair of sacred snakes, turned anything into gold with one touch... Hazelnut is not something unfamiliar to Ukraine - it is a cultivated (cultural) form of hazelnut, which was bred through selection to obtain industrial crops. So, can hazelnut enrich gardeners by touching their hard-working hands?...

In recent years, hazelnuts have become increasingly popular among Ukrainian farmers and horticultural enterprises. Ukraine has favorable climatic conditions for growing this crop, which opens up great prospects for the development of industrial hazelnut farming and the establishment of industrial gardens.

Currently, the high-tech company "FILBERT" constantly demonstrates modern agrotechnologies for growing hazelnuts, innovative approaches in organizing harvesting and further technological processing. However, the topic of the meeting with the company's CEO Maksym Sheiko was primarily devoted to preparing for the harvest and its beginning.

Like any other crop, hazelnut cultivation requires a precise approach to the selection of the variety and systematic care of the plants. When creating the garden, the Filbert company preferred the American method - growing hazelnuts in the form of trees with a trunk 60-70 centimeters high. Hazelnut plantations on the farm are distinguished by relatively wide row spacings - 5-6 m. The distance between plants in a row is 3 m. That is, the planting scheme is 6*3 m or 5*3 m. This is not just a classic option for forming plantations for subsequent mechanized harvesting. Significant volumes of plantations and a chronic shortage of workers determined the strategy - mechanization of the harvesting process.

Of course, garden care is an important aspect, but the final result also depends on the correct harvesting of what is grown. But in order to harvest nuts without loss in quantity and quality, it is important to prepare the soil surface in advance.

"We carry out this soil surface preparation annually and in advance," says Maksym Sheyko. "It is especially necessary to carefully prepare the garden surface for mechanized harvesting. After all, weeds and an uneven surface can hinder the process of efficient operation of the equipment."

Herbicidal root rods are used to combat root growth. This is a unit that is attached to a tractor or sprayer. It is equipped with a photocell that “reads” information about the root area while driving. Thanks to this, the herbicide is dosed, only the overgrown shoots are sprayed with the drug. And at the same time, the process is mechanized. With areas such as those of “Filbert”, it is impossible to process them manually.

Next, no less important technological operation is the processing of the rows with a hammer garden tiller, which is powered by a powerful Joan Deere tractor. With the help of this unit, the soil surface is leveled. This is fundamentally important, since hazelnuts are collected from the surface of the earth.

To harvest nuts, you can use both self-propelled combines and mounted equipment that attaches to a tractor.

"Considering the strategy we adopted for mechanizing harvesting," says Maksym, "we immediately purchased a self-propelled Italian combine harvester FACMA C300S, which we used to harvest in previous years. The self-propelled combine harvester provides efficient and fast harvesting. Our craftsmen made the trailer bunkers for the combine themselves - they cost us much less than their branded counterparts."

But with the growth of plantations and the increase in yield, one combine harvester was no longer enough. Therefore, this year, the company "FILBERT" purchased a more powerful, brand new self-propelled combine harvester FACMA SEMEK1000.

This is definitely a new generation combine - counter-rotating brushes, a double rotary sieve, a screw separator contribute to increasing the productivity and quality of hazelnut harvesting, minimizing losses. The driver is also provided with appropriate modern working conditions - a ROPS/FOPS cabin, air conditioning, video camera, GPS system.

Maksym Sheiko kindly provided us with a video of the operation of these combines: FACMA C300S and FACMA SEMEK1000 in the garden of the company "FILBERT" to continue his yesterday's video report on the progress of the harvest.

However, it is not only the coordinated rhythm of the combine harvesters and the quality of hazelnut harvesting in the agro-enterprise's orchard that distinguishes the current HAZELNUT-2025 harvest.

As a technically gifted manager of a modern, highly efficient enterprise – NPO “FILBERT”, Maksym Sheiko continued to improve the technological cycle of primary (post-harvest) processing of hazelnuts at the processing plant.

But more on that in the next report – currently the FUNDUK-2025 harvest is in full swing. So let's wish the General Director of LLC "NPO "FILBERT" Maksym Sheiko and his team a quick harvest and a good harvest.

...And by analogy with the ancient legend about the hazelnut rod of the god Hermes - may the harvested hazelnut harvest ensure stable profitability of the enterprise and increase the motivation of hardworking gardeners.

President of the Ukrainian Walnut Association G. Yudin

Ukraine, Odesa region, LLC "NVO "FILBERT".