Chapter 371 - 178: Gradual Change (Part 2)

Chapter 371: Chapter 178: Gradual Change (Part 2)

August 6th.

The Hailufeng Company’s soybean harvesting team began their work in Meilong Town, west of Magong Town.

This time, however, Hailufeng Company did not subsidize the town’s soybean cultivation. This was because the crop had been planted as a temporary measure, a strategy to cope with the drought.

Although they had faced a drought during the initial planting season, Eastern Guangdong fortunately received ample rainfall in June and July. As a result, the yield from the over 10,000 mu of soybean fields was excellent.

Small soybean harvesters moved quickly through the fields, devouring the soybean stalks. They threshed the pods from the stalks, and then an internal separator shelled the beans from the pods.

The pods and stalks were pulverized into a fine powder and sprayed back onto the harvested fields.

A few farmers from the Shizhou Village agricultural cooperative stood by the roadside not far away, chatting and laughing.

"Old Huang, how many jin do you think we’ll get from this patch?" a middle-aged man in a straw hat asked from his motorcycle.

"Should be five or six hundred," replied Old Huang with a grin, puffing away on his cigarette.

Another middle-aged man in flip-flops lit a cigarette and added, "But the purchase price is a lot lower."

"Heh, you should be grateful!"

"Exactly. Boss Jiang isn’t going to buy your beans at a loss. Right now, the farm gate price for beans from other regions is just a little over two yuan," a well-informed young man explained.

"Even a few mao more would be nice!"

The young man adopted a knowingly profound air. "Don’t complain about two yuan now. Whether you’ll even get two yuan in the future is anyone’s guess."

"Fan, you hear something?" Old Huang asked, passing him a cigarette.

Zhang Fan took the cigarette, tucked it behind his ear, and pointed north. "Boss Jiang leased hundreds of thousands of mu of desert in Monan to grow soybeans. If that takes off, do you think soybeans will still be two yuan a jin? I’d say one yuan a jin is more like it."

"Damn! For real?"

"Then should we even keep planting soybeans?" Old Huang’s mind was reeling.

"We plant!" Zhang Fan gave a surprisingly firm answer.

The middle-aged farmer who had just been complaining about the low price looked at Zhang Fan in confusion. "Fan, you running a fever?"

"Fever your ass, I’m perfectly fine," Zhang Fan retorted. "Have you guys seen the co-op’s notice on production costs?"

Old Huang explained his situation, "Huh? I’ve been busy helping harvest Egyptian Fish at the ponds in the next village, so I haven’t been paying attention. What’s up?"

Zhang Fan then laid out the co-op’s details. "Our co-op’s cost for the 300 mu of soybean fields is just over 69,000 yuan, which is about 230 yuan per mu. Hailufeng Company is buying it at 2.1 yuan per jin, so we’re making about 1,000 yuan in profit per mu. Besides, haven’t you guys noticed how low-maintenance these soybeans are?" ℴ

Hearing this, the others started to see his point.

"That’s true."

"The co-op had to pump water and spray pesticides to save the rice paddies, and the yield still dropped a lot this year."

Zhang Fan continued with his assessment, "Even if the purchase price drops to one yuan in the future, we’d still make four or five hundred yuan in gross profit per mu. Plus, you can get a harvest from these soybeans in just over three months. I went to Red Grass Town and saw some of their experimental fields where they didn’t till the soil. The soybeans sprouted again and are already forming new pods."

"Really?"

"Of course, it’s true."

"So one planting can last for years?"

"I heard from one of Hailufeng Company’s agricultural technicians that one planting can be harvested for five or six years."

"Doesn’t that mean we can harvest three times a year?"

Everyone started chattering excitedly.

Just then, the harvesting team finished the first soybean field. A transport tractor shook its trailer back and forth, using the volume markings on the inside to calculate the capacity and estimate the total weight.

Two farmers from the cooperative and two employees from the harvesting team inspected the volume markings on the trailer together, then took a one-liter sample of the soybeans to weigh.

「After a while.」

The two farmers from the cooperative returned with a notebook and a commercial bill.

"Old Zhang, Huozhao, how did it go?"

Old Zhang, holding the notebook, replied with a smile, "We got 30,900 kilograms from 100 mu. We’ve already received the commercial bill."

"How much is that?"

"Can’t you do the math? It’s 129,780 yuan," another middle-aged farmer teased, tapping on his phone’s calculator.

"That’s a pretty good harvest!"

"For 300 mu, that’s almost 390,000 yuan. After deducting the initial costs and the co-op’s administrative fees, that leaves about 300,000."

"Just like Fan calculated. A profit of 1,000 yuan per mu."

"It’s a shame we don’t have much arable land here in the south. When you divide it up, it only comes out to about one to three mu per household."

Just then, the head of the cooperative, Zhang Dashan, rode over on his motorcycle. Seeing the group gathered by the field, he thought something was wrong and quickly approached.

After finding out what was going on, he realized the guys were just holding court again.

He quickly asked for everyone’s opinion. "Should we till the fields and plant something else, or leave the roots and let the soybeans regrow?"

Zhang Fan suggested, "Uncle Dashan, I think leaving the roots is better."

"Fan, tell me why."

Zhang Fan began to explain, "I’ve been to the soybean fields over in Red Grass Town. Hailufeng Company is experimenting with intercropping there."

"Oh? Tell me about it." Zhang Dashan was suddenly interested.

"After harvesting a crop of soybeans, they do a shallow till of about ten centimeters and then plant corn or sorghum. I heard the farmers and technicians there talking about it in detail when I was visiting relatives."

Zhang Dashan mulled it over for a moment, then patted the back seat of his motorcycle. "Fan, let’s take another trip to Red Grass and see for ourselves. I’m still not convinced just hearing about it. Anyone else want to come along and have a look?"