Chapter 177 Gradual Change

Chapter 177 Gradual Change

Chapter 177 Gradual Change (Medium Cup)
8 month 6 day.

The soybean harvesting team of Hailufeng Company started harvesting in Meilong Town, west of Magong Town.

However, this time, Hailufeng Company did not subsidize the town's soybean planting, because this was originally a temporary replanting strategy to cope with the drought.

Although there was drought in the early stages of planting, fortunately, there was sufficient rainfall in eastern Guangdong in June and July, so the per-acre yield of the more than 10,000 acres of soybean fields was very good.

Small soybean harvesters quickly eat soybean vines in the soybean field, then knock the pods off the vines, and then use the harvester's built-in thresher to separate the beans from the pods.

The pods and vines are crushed into a fine powder and sprayed on harvested soybean fields.

Several farmers from the Shizhou Village Agricultural Cooperative stood on the roadside not far away, talking and laughing.

"Old Huang, how many kilograms of soybeans do you think we can harvest from this field?" asked a middle-aged man wearing a straw hat while sitting on a motorcycle.

"Probably around five or six hundred." Old Huang, who was smoking, had a smile on his face.

Another middle-aged man in slippers said as he lit a cigarette, "But the purchase price is much lower."

"Haha, just be content!"

"That's right. Boss Jiang won't buy beans from you at a loss. Right now beans from other places only make a little over two yuan a field." Another well-informed young man explained.

"A few more cents would be nice!"

The young man said in a pretentious manner: "Don't complain about the two dollars you have now. It is still unknown whether you will have two dollars in the future."

"Xiao Fan, do you have any news?" Old Huang handed him a cigarette.

Zhang Fan took the cigarette, put it on his ear, and pointed to the north: "Boss Jiang has leased hundreds of thousands of acres of desert in the south of the desert to grow soybeans. If this goes through, do you think soybeans will still be 2 yuan per pound in the future? I think 1 yuan per pound is about right."

"Fuck it! Is this true?"

"So should we still plant the soybeans?" Old Huang was a little confused.

"Kind!" Zhang Fan gave an unexpected answer.

The middle-aged farmer who had just complained about the low purchase price looked at Zhang Fan in confusion: "Xiao Fan, you don't have a fever?"

"Burn your head, I'm normal." Zhang Fan continued, "Did you guys read the cooperative's planting cost announcement?"

Old Huang explained the recent situation: "Huh? I recently went to the fish pond in the next village to help collect Egyptian fish. I didn't pay attention to this matter. What's the situation?"

Zhang Fan then explained the details of the cooperative: "The cost of our cooperative's soybean fields is 300 mu and 6.9 yuan, about 230 yuan per mu. The purchase price given by Hailufeng Company is 2.1 per catty, and we can make about 1000 yuan per mu. And don't you guys find that we don't have to worry too much about the soybeans?"

Hearing this, others also reacted.

"really."

"In order to protect the rice fields, the cooperative pumped water and sprayed pesticides, and this year's production was greatly reduced."

Zhang Fan continued to talk about his judgment: "Even if the purchase price is only one yuan in the future, there is still a gross profit of four to five hundred yuan per mu, and the soybeans can be harvested once every three months. I went to Hongcao Town to see some experimental fields that had not been plowed. The soybeans there sprouted again and are now forming pods again."

"Really?"

"of course it's true."

"How many years can this last?"

"I heard from the agricultural technicians of Hailufeng Company that it seems that you can harvest for five or six years after planting once."

"So doesn't that mean we can collect it three times a year?"

Everyone was talking about it.

At this time, the harvesting team had completed the harvesting of the first soybean field. The transport tractor shook the truck bed back and forth, calculated the volume through the volume scale lines on the truck bed, and then estimated an approximate weight.

Two farmers from the cooperative and two employees of the harvesting team checked the capacity scale of the truck bed together and took out another liter of soybeans for weighing.

After a while.

Two farmers from the cooperative came back with notebooks and commercial bills.

"Lao Zhang, Huo Zhao, what's the situation?"

Old Zhang, holding the notebook, smiled and replied, "We harvested 100 kilograms from 30900 mu, and we have already received the commercial bill."

"How much is it?"

"Can't you do math? 12 yuan." A middle-aged farmer joked while calculating with the calculator on his mobile phone.

“This is a great harvest!”

"300 mu can earn about 39 yuan. After deducting the cost and adding part of the cooperative's funds, it is about 30 yuan."

"Xiao Fan just calculated that one acre can earn 1000 yuan."

"Unfortunately, there is not much arable land in the south. If you count them, each household only has one to three acres of arable land."

At this moment, the president of the cooperative, Zhang Dashan, also drove over on a motorcycle. Seeing a group of people gathering at the edge of the field, he thought something had happened and hurried over.

After understanding the situation, I realized that these guys were giving orders again.

He quickly asked for everyone's opinion: "Should we turn the soybeans over and plant other crops, or should we keep the roots and continue planting?"

Zhang Fan suggested: "Uncle Dashan, I think it's better to keep the roots."

"Xiao Fan, tell me the reason."

Zhang Fan explained: "I went to the soybean fields in Hongcao Town and saw that Hailufeng Company was trying hybrid crops there."

"Oh? Tell me about it." Zhang Dashan immediately became interested.

"After harvesting soybeans, the surface of the soil is turned over a dozen centimeters, and then corn and sorghum are planted. When I visited relatives there, I listened carefully to what the farmers and agricultural technicians there said."

Zhang Dashan pondered for a moment, then patted the back seat of the motorcycle and said, "Xiao Fan, let's go to Hongcao again. I'm still worried after hearing what you said. Does anyone else want to go over and take a look?"

"I'm going too." Old Huang threw down his cigarette butt and stepped on it.

"Old Huang, I'll take your motorcycle and go with you to see what's going on." The other farmer was quick to climb onto the back seat of Old Huang's motorcycle and patted him on the shoulder with a smile, "Don't dawdle. The sooner you go, the sooner you'll be back."

"let's go!"

The two motorcycles drove along the winding country road for more than half an hour and arrived at the roadside of a large soybean field in the north of Hongcao Town.

Zhang Fan led the way and found his uncle.

Then, led by Zhang Fan's uncle, they came to a large experimental field.

This is a mixed soybean and corn field.

The corn grew very well, reaching a height of about two meters, while the soybean vines entwined at the roots of the corn were shorter, only about eighty centimeters, and had not yet bloomed.

“This corn has been grown for two months?”

"Yes, it was planted in early June and it's been almost two months now. We can harvest it in another month." Uncle Zhang Fan said as he handed cigarettes to several people.

Old Huang took the cigarette and asked, "You can collect it in three months?"

“This is corn for feed.”

"Is it also Hailufeng Company that is going to acquire it?" Zhang Dashan was very concerned about how to sell it.

"Yes, it's Hailufeng Company that's here to collect it."

Old Huang, who had never grown forage corn, lit up a cigarette and took a puff: "Huh... How much is the price?"

"Including the poles, one ton costs 240 yuan."

"so cheap?"

"That's the price. Don't just plant it randomly. The corn for feed needs someone to buy it. If you want to plant it, it's best to go to the dairy farm of Hailufeng Company in Gongping Town. They will buy a lot of corn." Zhang Dashan is more concerned about the cost and profit: "Brother, how much does it cost to plant this acre? How much can you get?"

"For one mu of land, the seeds cost about 80 yuan, and turning the soil costs 150 yuan. I do the sowing myself, and I spent 210 yuan on fertilizer for two months. I estimate that I will need another 50 yuan of fertilizer, and 40 yuan for pesticides. I give them to Hailufeng Company, and there is no harvesting fee."

"By this calculation, it would be about 530 yuan per acre?" Zhang Dashan muttered to himself.

"As for the profit, I heard from the agricultural technicians of Hailufeng Company that this variety of corn can produce about four to five tons per acre for silage."

Zhang Dashan calculated roughly: "960 to 1200 yuan? About half of the gross profit?"

"By the way, uncle, the corn has been harvested. What should we do with the soybeans? Do we have to wait until the soybeans are ripe?" Zhang Fan asked curiously.

"There are two choices. One is to wait one more month and harvest the beans. The other is to sell them to Hailufeng Company for use as feed."

"What about the price?"

"The farmgate price is 600 yuan per ton, and we can harvest about 3 tons."

Zhang Dashan was very surprised: "This? Why is it so much taller than corn?"

"Because soybean beans and bean vines are more valuable, if it weren't for the fact that about one-third of corn stalks are mixed in, the pure soybean vines and beans would be worth about 800 per ton." Uncle Zhang Fan flicked the ash from his cigarette and added:
"If we harvest soybeans and corn together, we can get 3 tons of pure corn fodder and 3 tons of soybean fodder mixed with corn stalks. We can sell one acre for about 2520 yuan, making a profit of 1800 yuan."

Zhang Dashan thought: "This is already very good. If we harvest once every three months, we can harvest four times a year."

Zhang Fan's uncle shook his head: "The agricultural technician said that we can't plant like this. The land won't be able to bear it."

"Uncle, what do the agricultural technicians of Hailufeng Company suggest? How should a piece of land be cultivated in a year?"

Uncle Zhang Fan took out a wrinkled technical instruction manual from the plastic bag in his pocket. "They said that we can grow crops all year round in Lingnan, but we have to arrange it reasonably. For example, we can plant pure soybeans from March and harvest them in mid-June. We can interplant corn at the end of June and harvest corn and soybeans as feed at the end of September. We can interplant Huanuo No. 1 wheat in early October. The temperature is low in winter, and wheat blocks some of the sunlight. Wheat and soybeans will mature in mid-February of the following year and can be harvested together."

Old Huang scratched his head and said, "Grow wheat? Our village has indeed promoted winter wheat planting in recent years, but the yield per mu is only more than 300 kilograms, which is too low."

“That’s why we have to broadcast it in a mixed format!”

Zhang Dashan took the agricultural technology manual and flipped through it carefully. Then he saw the page about harvesting wheat together and frowned, "Lao Lin, if we harvest wheat and soybeans together, won't they be mixed together?"

"No, the agricultural technician said that Hailufeng Company has several harvesters that can separate soybeans and wheat. Even if they are mixed together, they can be sieved."

Old Huang was shocked and doubtful: "With such high-intensity planting, is there really no problem with the land?"

"It doesn't seem so. I heard that it's the soybeans that have done the trick. As long as we let the soybeans rot in the fields after three years and add some fermented organic fertilizer every year, we can ensure the nutrients in the fields."

In fact, they were worrying too much.

Unlike other crops, Senzu soybeans not only increase the nitrogen content in the soil through root nodules, but also crazily absorb elements such as phosphorus and potassium in fertilizers.

However, in the current domestic grain crop planting process, the effective utilization rate of chemical fertilizers is only about 30-40%. Of the remaining 60-70% of chemical fertilizers, part will be deposited in the soil, and part will flow away with rainfall and irrigation.

During the flooding process, the Senzu soybean is like a water pump, but it not only absorbs water, but also absorbs elements such as phosphorus and potassium from the water and soil, thereby enriching these elements into the root tubers as nutrient reserves needed for growth.

Taking Lingnan region as an example, during the planting process, if the three-season plan is adopted, it is basically necessary to apply fertilizer three times. Pure soybeans do not require fertilizer; the amount of fertilizer used in corn and soybean mixed planting is similar to that of general single corn planting; and for wheat and soybean mixed planting, the amount of fertilizer used will increase by 10-20%.

That's why it's so different.

That is to avoid fertilizer waste. During the winter wheat season, the climate in Lingnan becomes relatively dry. After fertilizing and watering, phosphorus and potassium basically remain in the fields. The remaining fertilizer for wheat is eaten by soybeans.

The nutrients such as phosphorus and potassium stored in the root tubers of soybeans in winter are about twice what the soybeans need in one season.

Therefore, there is no need to apply chemical fertilizers for the pure soybean season next year.

During the corn and soybean mixing period, the reason for applying fertilizer is not for soybeans, but to supplement the corn. Because a large part of the phosphorus and potassium that are easily absorbed in the soil are enriched in the root tubers of soybeans, and the corn roots cannot penetrate the soybean root tubers, so additional fertilizer is needed.

However, 50% of the chemical fertilizer applied during the corn-soybean mixed planting season will be absorbed by soybeans, and the nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium stored in the soybean roots will not be consumed.

According to this situation, the roots of the Senzu soybeans planted in Lingnan will have a surplus of about 1.5 seasons of phosphorus and potassium and about 1 season of nitrogen every year.

After accumulating until the winter of the third year, specific root rot fungi are used to infect the soybeans. After the roots of the soybeans are completely rotten, the nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and organic nutrients stored for about three years can be released into the soil. This is also the fundamental reason why Senzu soybeans can produce nutritious soil.

The land where you plant Senzu beans will become more fertile as time goes by.

After all, domestic farmers use a relatively large amount of chemical fertilizers, which provides additional nutrient accumulation for Senzu soybeans.

Therefore, in a three-season planting plan like the Lingnan region, the amount of fertilizer used per unit output decreases rather than increases.

This is the benefit of improving the effective utilization rate of fertilizers.

Hybridizing Senzu soybeans can increase fertilizer utilization rate to about 80%, which is the highest in the world.

It is equivalent to using one part of fertilizer and achieving twice the effect.

Zhang Dashan and others were not aware of the inside story, so they were worried that such high-intensity planting would cause the soil to become barren.

In fact, before the roots of the soybeans rot, the organic matter content in the soil will indeed decrease.

This is why the technical manual recommends adding organic fertilizer every year.

As for the source of organic fertilizer.

Hailufeng Company's Gongping Town dairy cattle breeding base and the microbial fuel cell technology to be developed next year will provide a steady supply of organic fertilizer to the surrounding farmland.

Cow dung, straw and waste from agricultural product production used in microbial fuel cells will contain 20-30% cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, as well as a large amount of glucose, monosaccharides, vitamins, aromatic compounds, minerals, etc.

Battery waste liquid can be used as raw material for biogas fermentation and reused.

After Jiang Miao came back, he restarted the relevant experiments.

He found that using microbial fuel cells to ferment battery waste to produce biogas could increase biogas production capacity.

The main reason for this is that there are still a lot of glucose, monosaccharides, amino acids, aromatic compounds and minerals in the waste liquid, plus residual cellulose and hemicellulose, which saves the biogas fermentation bacteria the time to decompose cellulose and hemicellulose.

If it is a normal one cubic meter of wet cow dung, it can produce about 50 cubic meters of methane.

One cubic meter of waste liquid from microbial fuel cells can produce 120 cubic meters of methane, an efficiency increase of 240%.

In addition, microbial fuel cells generate a large amount of heat during the metabolic power generation process. If not handled in time, this waste heat will cause the temperature in the battery room to soar.

Therefore, these waste heat can be introduced into the biogas fermentation system through the hot water circulation system, thereby maintaining the high temperature during the biogas fermentation process.

However, Jiang Miao has calculated the heat generated by microbial fuel cells. In the winter south of the Yangtze River, this heat can basically be surplus and thus supplied to the biogas fermentation system.

If it is in the area north of the Yangtze River and south of the Yellow River, in winter, the waste heat of microbial fuel cells can basically meet their own reproduction needs and achieve self-sufficiency.

However, in the areas north of the Yellow River, especially in the northeast and south of the desert, the heat generated by the microbial fuel cell system is not enough in winter, especially when the outside temperature is below minus 10 degrees Celsius.

In this case, an engineering solution can be adopted, that is, an underground power generation room is used, and insulation is achieved by covering the ground with soil.

As long as the thickness of the covering soil reaches 1 meter and the plastic film is added, the internal temperature can basically reach 0-5 degrees Celsius. Combined with the waste heat generated by the microbial fuel cell itself, the internal temperature can reach above 20 degrees Celsius.

As long as the designed biogas fermentation system is placed above the microbial fuel cell power generation room, it can not only keep warm, but also reduce the heating energy consumption of the biogas fermentation system. In fact, the biogas fermentation bacteria themselves will also generate heat.

As for the Huaihai Plain, a semi-basement can be set up, while the microbial fuel cells and biogas fermentation systems in the Yangtze River Basin and the Pearl River Basin can be completely set up on the ground.

Especially in the summer in the Yangtze River Basin and the Pearl River Basin, the high temperature environment will make it impossible for the waste heat of microbial fuel cells to vent.

This requires utilizing the waste heat by reasonably increasing the scale of the biogas fermentation system.

In summary, in the future, the sludge and liquid biogas produced in microbial fuel cells and biogas fermentation systems can be used as high-efficiency organic fertilizers, and the production volume will be very large.

After all, Hero Dairy raises so many dairy cows, and there is a large amount of agricultural waste that can be used, so there are too many raw materials for organic fertilizer.

As long as the whole system is up and running.

In the future, we can even consider gradually reducing the use of chemical fertilizers to reduce production costs.

As an enterprise, production costs and production efficiency determine the foundation of the enterprise.

Hailufeng is essentially a high-tech enterprise rather than a traditional agricultural company.

(End of this chapter)