THE EMPLOYEE FRIENDLY & STABLE EMPLOYMENT IS THE GREATEST VALUE

About: Mr. László BÓDI

Agricultural engineer. He has been working for Tedej Zrt. and its predecessor Hajdúnánási Állami Gazdaság for 5 decades. This is his first and only workplace. He has been the CEO of the group for over 36 years.
Together with his well-prepared staff, he has developed the farming cooperative into a diverse, nationally recognized, modern, innovative and environmentally conscious company.
He is a community builder.
He focuses on the continuous improvement of his employees’ welfare.
„The dedicated worker with an attachment to Tedej is the best labor force” – he says.

– During the COVID19 pandemic we did our job, but a lot more disinfectants were used. We disinfected in an organized and attentive way, paying particular attention to people and to the buses transporting our employees.

We reduced the passenger transport and the visits to the minimum. Our correspondence, internet and phone traffic has become much larger than usual.

We arranged two-shift work-schedule at our livestock farms.

Animal health regulations and a strictly observed technological discipline have been non-negotiable requirements of our livestock sector from the very beginning. In this field the coronavirus situation has not brought anything new.

With this approach, we have been able to keep the African swine fever away from our farms. The pathogen has not appeared in the wild boar population of our environment, either.

Diversification is the basis of our farming. The advantages can be really felt in difficult times.

The main activity of our green and innovative company that operates on an area of 6,400 hectares (including an irrigated area of 1,000 hectares) is livestock farming. We work with almost 6,000 cattle, including 2,000 Holstein-Friesian diary cows and meat breed cows – Limousin and Charolais – as well as with their breeds. We produce 16 million liters of milk every year and we send 600 tons of premium quality beef cattle mainly to export markets.

The annual output of our pork sector is 3,400 tons.

Most of our crop products are used in our livestock farming and in our animal feed plant. We sell the winter wheat and the maize that are surplus. An increasingly dominant plant of our crop structure is alfalfa, most of which is processed as dried feed for animals.

We grow fruit on 105 hectares, first of all apple, sour cherry, cherry and plum. From the best fruits we produce fruit juices that have won Hungarian Product Grand Prix.

Our modern plantation plays a significant role in labor force employment thanks to its high demand for manual work.

Our construction, liquid fertilizer and animal feed manufacturing activity, as well as hunter, equine, angling and conference tourism typical to our region complete our production structure.

Our company closed a good year in 2019, which provided a solid foundation for the start of this financial year.

This was the situation in which coronavirus reached us and brought along special and unpredictable changes.

A number of surveys show that the markets of livestock products have decreased by up to 30%-40% since March and the purchase price has followed it with significant reduction. We, of course, feel the impact. The wholesale price of milk and meat in Hungary is close to the production costs. We have practically no room for maneuver in this field.

Our high-quality beef sector based on Limousin, Charolais and, in the last two years, Blue Belgian breeds may be about to change…

Pasture grass is a relatively cheap source of feed for beef cattle but we have significant problems in this area.

Previously used for rice production, our approximately 400 hectares of pasture – that can be doubled in size – could be made suitable for irrigation. Landscaping, sewerage system, extraction of water from the Eastern Main Canal could be solved. However, as this area is part of a nature reserve, it cannot be included in intensive pasture management now; it cannot be irrigated, and chemicals and fertilizers are prohibited. Partly due to this situation, the area is covered with harmful and destructive weeds, and it is losing its importance in product protection.

Naturally, we keep the relevant provisions and legal regulations, but in the meantime, we look for mutually acceptable solutions, make reasonable suggestions, submit our requests one after the other and keep argueing.

Professional pasture management and grazing can help the management, care and utilization of grasslands.

The emphasis is on professionalism and asserting the relevant ratios between adequate livestock numbers and pasture capacity.

Weeding and the spread of species that tolerate grazing are expected in overgrazed areas.

Undergrazing favors the growth of taller grasses and shrubs.

In other words, we want to contribute to an appropriate, value-creating pasture management of neglected areas on the basis of mutual benefits.

Feed management that determines production costs and, ultimately, profitability is at the heart of our work. We can count on UBM in the activities of our compound feed plant operating in an HACCP process control system and in our feed management. Our relationship started at the time of the foundation of our companies, almost 25 years ago.

We consider our UBM friends our professional partners who recommend a specific, clear program even in difficult times, and we also have a joint venture with them.

Their prices are mutually beneficial and competitive. Their word, the terms of their contract and the quality of their services are a guarantee even now, in the coronavirus pandemic.

The employee-friendly Tedej is one of the most important employers in the region. Adequate pay, social care, empathy to understand people’s problems, attention, continuous improvement of their well-being with our opportunities are the basis of our work.

Even in the days of the coronavirus emergency, we found that the dedicated Tedej worker was the best workforce. We knew and experienced that even in difficult times we can rely on our 250 permanent employees.

It is good to hope, to believe and to know that we can count on our joint strength.

We put together this joint strength!

The coronavirus created a new situation. We need to think about changing attitudes, shifting emphasis, and rearranging priorities in several respects.

Not only in our company, but also in our private lives.

Our vision is unchanged: we are building Tedej into an even more modern, efficient and worker-centered company. To this end, our task is to make better use of our existing professional, intellectual and human resources.

Professional training, willingness to act, cooperation: these values will help us through the troubles brought about by the virus.