Today was the weekly agricultural excursion for my students. We visited the largest John Deere/agricultural machinery business in Russia, Ekoniva. Ekoniva was founded in 1994 and has grown strong over the past 16 years. They have now expanded to ownership of several farming operations, including seed production and dairy cattle, with plans to move into beef also.
We began with a brief tour of all of the facilities in the Moscow unit (there are several branches strategically located throughout Russia) and then moved indoors for a presentation by the founder and primary shareholder of the company, Stefan Duerr. Stefan came to the Soviet Union as a young man for training from West Germany. His innovative thinking has led the company to more than 15 years of growth, employing more than 1,500 people. Ekoniva is a major employer of many grads from the program at Moscow State Agro-engineering University. It is growing heavily into the service sector.
After enjoying the presentation, hot tea and some refreshments, it was time to fight the sub-zero (Celsius) temperatures while each of our students had an opportunity to drive one of the large John Deere tractors. I believe all of the students learned a lot from this excursion and had fun at the same time (especially the French students as they conquered the snow mountains)... see pictures.
The Snowdiving Frenchmen
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