Chapter 326 - 163: Vibrant with Life (Middle)

Chapter 326: Chapter 163: Vibrant with Life (Middle)

By May, the persistent drought had made water shortages across the south increasingly severe. The North, however, was a different story. The basins of the Yellow and Liao Rivers experienced unusually heavy, continuous rainfall, leading to severe flooding in some areas.

Only Shanmei and a small part of the Gannan region remained largely unaffected by water shortages.

For example, the work of grafting old durian scions was proceeding in full swing.

The second batch of 100,000 tissue-cultured, genetically modified Ceiba speciosa saplings had been grafted between March and April of this year. Therefore, the ones in this batch that had been on their Ceiba speciosa rootstock the longest—for over two months—were now ready to be grafted with mature Golden Pillow durian scions.

The work of grafting Golden Pillow durian scions onto the 100,000 genetically modified Ceiba speciosa trees was estimated to be complete by the end of June.

This batch of double-grafted trees would flower by the end of the year and begin to bear fruit in March of the following year. The fruit would ripen between June and August, but to preserve the trees’ strength, the overall yield would be limited to 50%.

Jiang Miao was currently at the Durian Plantation in Gongping Town, accompanied by Du Liheng, the deputy manager of the planting division, who had come along for the inspection.

Within the nearly 50,000-mu Durian Plantation, vast numbers of Ceiba speciosa trees had been growing for over half a year. They had not only adapted to the soil of the new area but were also thriving.

This success wasn’t solely due to the Ceiba speciosa’s natural resistance to poor soil, drought, and its rapid growth. It was also thanks to Jiang Miao, who had developed a professional soil improvement plan tailored to the trees’ genetics, complete with a specially formulated fertilizer, which allowed them to recover and grow so quickly.

The Ceiba speciosa trees, initially two meters tall, had now reached heights of nearly three meters after more than half a year of recovery and renewed growth.

As they strolled through the terraced orchard, they saw that an average of 30 Ceiba speciosa trees were planted per mu. The ground beneath them was now covered with a lush carpet of Purple Alfalfa, which had been sown at the end of February.

Despite being under a tree canopy and on mountain terraces with limited water, the Purple Alfalfa was already beginning to flower across large swathes of the plantation.

Generally, the growth cycle for conventional Purple Alfalfa in the Lingnan Region is much shorter than in the North. An early harvest is possible 52 to 60 days after sowing, with subsequent harvests every 45 to 50 days. With sufficient water and fertilizer, it can be harvested four to five times a year.

However, the new variety of Purple Alfalfa developed by Hailufeng Company was a special case.

The advantages of these two varieties were their drought and shade tolerance, allowing them to thrive in the undergrowth on the mountainside. The trade-off, however, was their relatively slow growth. They could typically be harvested 70 days after planting, though this could be pushed up to around 50 days with ample sunlight, water, and fertilizer.

The terraced fields received lateral sunlight, and since the Ceiba speciosa trees had not yet reached full maturity, the gaps between them were still large, allowing plenty of light to pass through. Furthermore, when the trees were watered and fertilized, the Purple Alfalfa underneath also reaped the benefits.

As a result, this Purple Alfalfa was ready for harvest around day 54.

However, the farm hadn’t harvested it yet. For one, Hero Dairy’s high-quality dairy farm was still under construction. For another, Purple Alfalfa is at its highest quality—meaning its crude protein content is at its peak—when harvested during the early flowering stage.

Currently, this field of Purple Alfalfa had reached the budding stage, with a small portion already beginning to flower.

The purpose of Jiang Miao’s visit to Gongping Town Farm was to inspect the cultivation of the Purple Alfalfa and other fodder grasses, as well as the beekeeping operations.

The Network Department had also sent people over to conduct an inspection.

"Liheng, you need to gradually fine-tune the fodder cultivation here in Gongping Town."

Du Liheng nodded. "We’re currently working on figuring out the optimal planting cycles."

This was no simple task.

Gongping Town Farm currently cultivated four types of fodder: Purple Alfalfa, white clover, corn grass, and ryegrass. These four were paired together—for example, Purple Alfalfa with ryegrass, and white clover with corn grass—to ensure balanced nutrition for the dairy cows.

Raising dairy cattle is different from raising beef cattle. Beef cattle can be given more concentrated feed like soybean meal and corn, with a corresponding reduction in roughage like hay and fresh grass. However, feeding dairy cows too much concentrated feed can easily lead to excessive acidity in their rumens, resulting in poisoning or even death.

Furthermore, the roughage itself shouldn’t be too uniform. Ideally, their diet should include hay, fresh grass, and silage, composed of different fodder varieties like Purple Alfalfa paired with ryegrass, and white clover paired with corn grass.

To guarantee the farm produced a consistent supply of all fodder types each month, they had to carefully manage the planting cycles and stagger the planting of each crop.

This required studying the local climate, the planting environment, the growth cycles and characteristics of each variety, and also scheduling planting to avoid times when the orchards were being sprayed.

Therefore, without a one- or two-year adjustment period, it would be no easy feat to perfect this process.

This was especially true in an open-air environment with its many uncontrollable factors, such as this year’s prolonged drought, an early winter, or an unusually warm winter. All of these could affect fodder growth, which meant that production plans needed to include a certain amount of flexibility.

Of course, if they were growing in high-tech smart greenhouses, they wouldn’t need to worry about external climate issues. But using smart greenhouses to grow fodder was a money-losing proposition.