Chapter 292 - 151: Root System

Chapter 292: Chapter 151: Root System

The man in charge of this base was Wu Song, the deputy manager of the Monan Branch. He was a local. Wu Song was just his Han name; he also had another, Narisu Wuliangha.

"Da Song, what’s the current situation at the base?"

Having had dinner together the previous night, Jiang Miao naturally knew the man’s name and nickname.

Wu Song replied with a wry smile, "Boss, we don’t have enough people on the construction team right now. We’ve just enclosed the area with concrete posts and barbed wire and placed four container homes here."

"You can hire local construction crews and have them arrange the construction of the sheep and cattle sheds as soon as possible." Treading on the soft sand, Jiang Miao reached the top of a dune.

As far as the eye could see, the desert dunes here were taller and more densely packed.

Adjacent to their land was the 33,000-mu Silver Sand Bay Scenic Area, where tourists were riding in off-road vehicles, experiencing the allure of the vast desert amid the biting wind.

"The dunes in this part of the desert are too large. Let’s not try to reshape them. We can just sow soybean and alfalfa seeds directly."

After his field inspection, Lü Weibin had discovered that the area of mobile sand dunes here was vast. He’d suggested this to Jiang Miao the previous night. "That’s what I was thinking, too," he now said.

Besides the beans themselves, which could be used for oil and feed, the soybean plants could also be used as forage, with an effect similar to alfalfa.

So, after his inspection, Lü Weibin decided on a more lavish approach: directly intersowing alfalfa and soybeans without reshaping the dune terrain.

After about 80 days of growth, the crops would be harvested, and the fresh plants and pods would be ground into a meal. This could be fed directly to the cattle and sheep or used to make silage.

Of course, the consequence of not reshaping the terrain was that some of the soybean plants and alfalfa would be in areas inaccessible to mechanical harvesters.

But that was of little consequence, as the unharvested plants could be used for grazing. The cattle and sheep could simply eat them on the spot.

Thus, for these 350,000 mu of desert, the plan was to transform easily modifiable areas into large-scale, mechanized soybean fields. The more difficult terrain would be stabilized with straw checkerboards, sown with soybean and alfalfa seeds, and used as pastureland.

Lü Weibin had already dispatched a team to conduct an aerial survey of the Tamin Chagan Desert with drones, mapping its rough topography. The large mobile and semi-mobile dunes accounted for about 70,000 mu, which expanded to roughly 100,000 mu when including the surrounding areas.

Wu Song took a sip of water. "Boss, I think we should get a batch of straw checkerboard-laying vehicles."

"Agreed. Send a list to the purchasing department."

His lips chapped, Liu Zhiben rubbed the sand from his irritated eyes. "Boss, if we can only transform 200,000 mu of desert this year, I suggest we sow the remaining area with a mix of soybeans and alfalfa. We have plenty of seeds, after all."

"Arrange it as you see fit."

Lü Weibin took off his sunglasses. "If we go with that plan, Boss, I think we need to purchase a fleet of large combine harvesters. We can hire local teams, but they don’t have the capacity to meet our needs. Even the teams from the Beidahuang Group harvest at around the same time we do. Factoring in the distance, we could risk missing our harvest window."

Jiang Miao agreed that this was a sensible plan. "Run the numbers. Try to purchase large, high-efficiency combine harvesters to minimize the number of drivers we need to hire."

"Understood." Lü Weibin added with a smile, "And actually, if we invest in our own fleet of large combines, other growers in the area will surely need them as well. We could earn extra income from harvesting fees."

"Don’t worry about the cost. The money we spend now will be earned back with interest before we know it."

Getting a mouthful of sand, Jiang Miao hurried down from the dune and rinsed his mouth with bottled water. The wind and sand were relentless in Zhelimu City this time of year, especially on the desert’s edge. It only took a moment to be covered head to toe in dust.

They climbed into the pickup truck.

Jiang Miao tried to make light of the situation, saying with a laugh, "When we come back next year, we probably won’t be seeing all this wind and sand."

"That’s very likely." Lü Weibin had seen how the Immortal Bean series performed in the lab’s sand plots.

"Boss, you might be disappointed," Wu Song said with a wry smile. "The sandstorms here are caused by local conditions, but also partly by our neighbors to the north. Even if we turned the entire Monan sandy desert into grassland, it would only reduce the sandstorms, not eliminate them entirely."

"The Northern Desert?"

"That’s the place."

The men continued to chat.

A short while later, the convoy arrived at another location, also along the Yangxumu River.

The sign at the entrance had been replaced. The new one read: Hailufeng Company (Monan Branch) Kulun Breeding Base.

They entered the breeding base.

Inside, numerous Small-tail Han sheep were bleating.

After they got out of the car, a thick stench of sheep and cow dung, mixed with a faint scent of fresh grass, assaulted their nostrils. The locals were so used to it they barely noticed, but the smell hit the newcomer Jiang Miao so hard his head spun. It took him a few minutes to recover.

"Boss, the smell from the sheep pens is a bit strong." Lü Weibin handed him a small bottle of White Flower Oil.

Jiang Miao took a whiff of the oil and felt his head clear. "This smell... it’s definitely rough for someone who isn’t used to it."

Wu Song changed the subject to distract him. "Boss, this breeding base was an investment by a company from Jin Nan. However, with beef and mutton prices staying low for the past two years, the company ran into financial trouble, so we acquired it."

"How many cattle and sheep can this base support?" Jiang Miao asked, looking at the numerous empty pens.

Wu Song replied, "It has the capacity for 15,000 sheep or 5,000 yellow cattle. However, the previous company’s feed supply was inadequate. Combined with the low meat prices, their livestock numbers have been dwindling for the past two years. Right now, we only have 1,700 Small-tail Han sheep."

"We need to expand and get this base operating at full capacity." Jiang Miao then turned to Liu Zhiben. "Zhiben, you arrange for the necessary facilities. Feed processing equipment, organic fertilizer fermentation systems, veterinary equipment—get it all sorted out as soon as possible."

"No problem." Liu Zhiben nodded.

In truth, Hailufeng Company’s entry into the Monan livestock industry had both pros and cons.

The pro was that with mutton and beef prices at a low, it was easy to acquire lambs and calves in large quantities. They could even purchase a significant number of breeding sheep and cattle.

The con was having to contend with those same sluggish market prices.

However, for Hailufeng Company, the current market prices were hardly a concern. In the worst-case scenario, they could use grass from their own pastures, which would drastically cut costs.