Landkom has returned in force to spring planting, on which it burnt its fingers two years ago, sowing more than twice the area it initially told investors to expect.

The Ukraine farm operator said it had sown 18,584 hectares with, in the main, corn, soybeans, sunflowers and wheat, beating both an 8,000-hectare estimate given last October and raised guidance in March.

The raised area comes a year after Landkom said it had "no plans to plant spring wheat again in the near future", after a "very disappointing" harvest, blamed on a wet summer, which fuelled a jump to $56.0m in losses for 2008.

However, helpful weather, which allowed all sowings to be completed within the optimal planting window, persuaded Vitaliy Skotsyk, the group's new chief executive, to give spring grain sowings another chance.

Efficiency drive

"It had worked for him before and was something he was keen to do again," a person familiar with the company said.

"Weather meant he was able to get right on with it, even though he had a smaller team this year."

A cut in staff prompted by the group's losses, combined by the extra plantings, have translated into a halving in costs, on an employee-per-hectare basis.

The group's overall sowings for harvest this year are, at nearly 40,000 hectares, 38% higher than last year's.

Spreading the risk 

Spring plantings are, in general, viewed as helpful for farm operators from an operational perspective – spreading the workload for employees and machinery over a wider period, and the drain on cashflow.

Mr Skotsyk, who farmed in the UK and US before returning to Ukraine, added that the spread of Landkom crops beyond a historic diet of rapeseed and wheat, into sunflowers, sudan grass and oats, would also reduce the risks inherent in focusing on fewer crops.

Landkom shares closed 1.5% lower at 8.5p in London.