Chapter 372 - 178: Gradual Change

Chapter 372: Chapter 178: Gradual Change

"I’m going too." Old Huang threw his cigarette butt on the ground and stomped it out.

"Old Huang, I’ll ride with you. Let’s go check it out together." Another farmer, quick-witted and even quicker-handed, hopped onto the back of Old Huang’s motorcycle. He chuckled and patted Old Huang’s shoulder. "Don’t dilly-dally. The sooner we go, the sooner we’ll be back."

"Let’s ride!"

The two motorcycles twisted and turned along the country roads for over half an hour before arriving at the edge of a large soybean field in the northern part of Red Grass Town.

Zhang Fan led the way to his maternal uncle.

Then, with Zhang Fan’s uncle leading, they came to a large experimental plot.

It was a field where soybeans and corn were intercropped.

The corn was growing exceptionally well, standing about two meters tall. In contrast, the soybean vines winding around the base of the corn stalks were much shorter, only about eighty centimeters high, and had not yet flowered.

"Has this corn been growing for two months?"

"That’s right. We planted it in early June, so it’s been about two months. It’ll be ready to harvest in another month." As he spoke, Zhang Fan’s uncle offered cigarettes to the men.

Old Huang took a cigarette. "Harvested in just three months?"

"This is corn for animal feed."

"Does Hailufeng Company buy this too?" Zhang Dashan was very concerned about how to sell the crops.

"Yep, Hailufeng Company is the one that comes to collect it."

Old Huang, who had never grown forage corn before, lit his cigarette and took a drag. "So... how is the price calculated?"

"They count the stalks and all. It’s 240 yuan per ton."

"That cheap?"

"That’s the price. And don’t just plant it on your own. You need a buyer lined up for forage corn. If you want to plant it, you’d best go to Hailufeng Company’s dairy farm in Gongping Town. They’re the ones who buy corn in large quantities."

Zhang Dashan was more interested in the costs and profits. "Brother, what’s the cost to plant one mu? And what’s the approximate yield?"

"For one mu, the seeds cost about 80 yuan, tilling the land is 150 yuan, and I did the sowing myself. Two months of fertilizer cost 210 yuan, and I estimate I’ll need another 50 yuan worth. Pesticides are 40 yuan. And since Hailufeng Company is buying, there’s no harvesting fee."

"So, if you add it all up, it’s about 530 yuan per mu?" Zhang Dashan muttered to himself.

"As for the yield, I heard from Hailufeng Company’s agricultural technician that for this variety of corn used for silage, one mu can produce about four to five tons."

Zhang Dashan quickly did the math. "960 to 1,200 yuan? So a gross profit of about half?"

"Right, Uncle. After the corn is harvested, what happens to the soybeans underneath? Do we have to wait for them to mature?" Zhang Fan asked curiously.

"There are two options. One is to wait another month and harvest the beans. The other is to sell them along with the corn to Hailufeng Company for feed."

"And the price?"

"The farm gate price is 600 yuan a ton, and you can harvest about three tons."

Zhang Dashan was stunned. "What? Why is it so much higher than the corn?"

"Because the soybeans and the vines themselves are more valuable. If it weren’t for the mix including about one-third corn stalks, pure soybean vines and beans could go for around 800 yuan a ton." Zhang Fan’s uncle flicked the ash from his cigarette, then added:

"If you harvest the soybeans and corn together, you can get 3 tons of pure corn silage, and about 3 tons of soybean silage mixed with corn stalks. Per mu, you can sell it for about 2,520 yuan and make a profit of 1,800 yuan."

Zhang Dashan calculated in his head. ’That’s already really good. If you can harvest every three months, you could do it four times a year.’

Zhang Fan’s uncle shook his head. "The technician said you can’t plant like that. The land wouldn’t be able to take it."

"Uncle, what did the Hailufeng Company technician recommend? How should one plot of land be planted over a year?"

Zhang Fan’s uncle pulled a crumpled technical guide from a plastic bag in his pocket. "They said that here in the Lingnan Region, crops can grow year-round, but you have to plan it properly. For example, start in March by planting a pure crop of soybeans, and harvest them in mid-June. At the end of June, intercrop corn, and by the end of September, harvest the corn and soybeans for feed. In early October, intercrop ’Huanuo No. 1’ wheat. With the low winter temperatures and the wheat blocking some of the sunlight, the wheat and soybeans will mature around mid-February of the next year and can be harvested together."

Old Huang scratched his head. "Planting wheat? Our village has been promoting winter wheat for the last few years, but the yield is only a little over three hundred jin per mu. The profit is too low."

"That’s why you have to intercrop!"

Zhang Dashan took the agricultural technical guide and studied it carefully. When he got to the page about harvesting wheat, his brow furrowed. "Old Lin, if you harvest the wheat and soybeans together, won’t they just get all mixed up?"

"No, the technician said Hailufeng Company has some harvesters that can separate the soybeans and wheat. And even if they do get mixed, they can be sifted."

Old Huang listened, a mixture of surprise and doubt on his face. "With such intensive planting, is the land really going to be okay?"

"Apparently not. They say it’s thanks to these soybeans. As long as you let the soybean plants rot in the ground every three years and add some fermented organic fertilizer annually, you can maintain the soil’s nutrients."

In truth, their worries were unfounded.

Unlike other crops, the Immortal Soybeans didn’t just add nitrogen to the soil through their root nodules; they also frantically absorbed elements like phosphorus and potassium from fertilizers.

In conventional crop cultivation, the effective utilization rate of chemical fertilizers is only about 30–40%. The remaining 60–70% either gets deposited in the soil or is washed away by rain and irrigation.

During flood irrigation, the Immortal Soybeans acted like a water pump. But they didn’t just suck up water; they also absorbed elements like phosphorus and potassium from the water and soil, concentrating them in their root tubers as a nutrient reserve for growth.