The owner of the business AZ in Šaptinovci near Našice cultivates 300 hectares of land and owns 5 buses, one of which she drives herself. Their goal, she says, is to turn to smart agriculture, and last year, with Timac Agro fertilizers, they achieved top results – the oilseed rape yielded 5 t/ha.
Our choice was either to give up on everything or push on,” says farmer and entrepreneur Melita Abičić from the small town of Šaptinovci near Našice, who found herself in front of a wall after her husband’s accident at work in 2008 and his further inability to work.
Today she is a proud owner of the AZ business, processing 300 hectares of land, of which one hundred hectares are in private lease, while the rest is their ownership. Although farming dominates, it is not their only activity. Namely, they also have trucks and buses for passenger transport, one of which she drives herself.
The beginnings date back to 1989 when her husband opened a business. Even then, he was cultivating land, and together with his parents, they expanded the business to include transportation in construction. However, agriculture has always been the foundation. The family’s story from the very beginning involves the husband’s brother and parents, and the love for the land has been passed down to the children.When she’s not there because of the bus, her daughter is her right hand. And the son, although a high school graduate, has mastered all the machines and jumps in whenever he can. During the harvest season, everyone is in the field – Melita, her daughter, son, and employees. No one chooses tasks, everyone does everything.
On some plots, rapeseeds yielded 5 t/ha.
Although they do not yet irrigate their crops, it is on their wish list for some future incentive measures. Despite the drought, last year they achieved outstanding results, especially in oilseed rape, which yielded up to 5 tons per hectare on some plots, marking their best result to date.
“We were very satisfied with the achieved results. I would be lying if I said that the fertilizers we use, which come from Timac Agra, do not make a big contribution to this,” she believes. She adds that she has been collaborating with them for about ten years, since they entered the Croatian market, and that she will certainly continue this collaboration, as the difference in the crops is visible.”
The harvest of rapeseed is being carried out these days as well, and the yield is repeating – on some plots it has produced more than 5 t/ha, but the final results will wait for the completion of the harvest.
Last year, they achieved 4 tons per hectare on sunflowers, and although corn was on somewhat poorer soils, it yielded around 12-13 t/ha. ‘We use their microgranules and foliar fertilizers, as well as biostimulants. We have also taken fertilizers for post-sown soybeans, as this has proven to be very good for us.’ He particularly emphasizes Seactiv Gold, which helps crops cope better with stressful conditions that occur during the growing season, such as high or low temperatures, lack of moisture, and so on, and Seactiv Axis, which also stimulates the development of the vegetative part of the plant and affects the plant’s defense against stressful conditions, which, we agree, is essential today.
Her goal is – smart agriculture
When she decided to become a bus driver, she explained how after acquiring the first one, the need grew, and the business progressed, leading her to decide to get a license and buy one for herself.
“I can tell you – it’s nice, but I prefer to sit in a tractor and go to the field. It’s less stress and burden. My heart is full when I see the crops grow. And when they fail, it hurts, but you know you’ve given your all,” says Melita. She adds that before the emergence of African swine fever, they kept black Slavonian pigs by their small pond (2 boars and about 10 sows), but it became a burden due to the enforced protective measures. Her daughter wishes to acquire horses and turn the pond into a tourist oasis, but they will consider it further.
“There is not a day when I have nothing to do. Either I’m working or I’m on the phone coordinating jobs with transportation and fieldwork,” says positive and ambitious Melita, who has taken on yet another challenge – building apartments by the sea and expanding her business into tourism.
Her wish is to move towards smart agriculture because, as she says, they are still relatively young and like to try something new. They have acquired a fully digitized seeder, rented a satellite, regularly conduct soil analyses, and want to improve their production daily.
Crops are doing well, biostimulants protect against stress.
Timac’s sales representative, our ‘Deda’ as we call him, Alen Zebić has supported us in all of this and we are very grateful to him. From him, he says, they do not only receive professional support, he is there whenever needed and they have established a very high-quality relationship.
“I am there every third or fourth day, I already know what their fields are, I regularly visit them and, based on the current situation, I give a suggestion on what should be done,” Zebić adds. He says that it works well, that they achieve good results on all crops. Especially on the aforementioned rapeseed, where good oiliness was obtained, some diseases and weeds were avoided in the late phase of plants.
She says that they faced a challenge this year because the planting was delayed due to heavy rainfall, but in the end, everything managed to work out and the plants currently look good.
The crops, Melita claims, are in very good condition despite the lack of rainfall and high temperatures. Corn and sunflowers are doing excellently, while soybeans are not doing as well due to poor germination that almost all producers have encountered this year.
Mrs. Melita recognized the advantages of biostimulants and our well-known micro-granulated fertilizers that provide a strong initial growth and development of roots, especially in corn,” he said.
How cultures will hold up until the end of the season remains to be seen, but Melita, as always, stays positive.
