Chapter 416: The First Snow (Medium)

Chapter 416 -193: The First Snow (Medium)

October 23rd.

The fourteenth day of the ninth lunar month. First Frost.

Naiman County Seat.

The weather forecast predicted a significant temperature drop in Eastern Monan and the Northeast Region in early November, with a high probability of rain and snow.

Consequently, every household was rushing to prepare their winter supplies. Livestock farmers, in particular, who hadn’t stockpiled enough forage and corn kernels, were scrambling to buy from outside sources.

Suddenly, a pickup truck bearing a banner drove down the county seat’s main road, a large speaker blaring:

“Mulan Farm is selling fresh forage, 500 yuan per mu…”

“Mulan Farm is selling fresh forage, 500…”

“Mulan Farm is selling fresh…”

Mo the Third, who was at the entrance of a feed wholesaler ordering corn kernels and soybean meal pellets, heard this and quickly said to the wholesaler’s owner, “Old Liu, just deliver the corn and soybean meal pellets to my place.”

“Got it.” Old Liu squinted, watching the pickup truck pass slowly by the entrance.

Mo the Third hurried over.

By the time he reached the pickup, others had already beaten him to it.

However, the Monan Branch employee in the truck didn’t answer any questions. Instead, he just handed out a sheet of paper detailing the fees, how to process the forage, and other relevant issues.

Mo the Third got a sheet as well. After a quick glance, he immediately jumped into his beat-up van and sped toward Mulan Farm.

When he arrived at the main gate of the Mulan Farm base, quite a few livestock farmers were already there asking questions. Some had even entered with harvesters and dump trucks.

Sales staff, temporarily transferred from the Tamin Chagan Base, were busy receiving the farmers who wanted to buy.

Half an hour later, it was Mo the Third’s turn.

The salesperson was very direct. “How many mu?”

“Does one mu really yield 1.4 to 1.6 tons?” Mo the Third asked quickly.

“If it’s less than 1.4, we’ll make up the difference. How many do you want?”

Mo the Third calculated based on his previous years’ purchases of winter silage. With 1,200 sheep, plus some ewes expected to lamb, he estimated he would need 500 tons of silage.

However, he knew he couldn’t use only soybean vine silage for feed; he needed to mix it with about half corn silage and other dry hay. Therefore, he would need to buy about 250 tons of soybean vine silage. Based on his past experience making silage, 250 tons of silage would require about 280 tons of fresh forage.

With a number in mind, Mo the Third said, “I’ll take 200 mu.”

“Here’s the contract. Fill it out over there. Ask if you have any questions.” The salesperson pulled out a contract and handed it to him. “Oh, and we don’t do credit. Cash on delivery.”

“Got it.”

About ten minutes later, Mo the Third had signed the contract, paid 100,000 yuan, and added the liaison officer’s WeChat. He then hurried off with his copy of the contract.

Just as he stepped out of the main gate, someone grabbed him.

The middle-aged man holding his sleeve offered him a cigarette with a smile. “Brother, need harvesting services?”

“How much?” Mo the Third wasn’t annoyed.

“Eighty yuan per mu for harvesting. If you want transport included, it depends on the distance.” The middle-aged man then handed over a business card.

Mo the Third glanced at the card and nodded. “Let’s add each other on WeChat.”

“Okay.”

「That afternoon.」

After sorting out the other preparations, Mo the Third went to Mulan Base and found his liaison officer.

Led by the liaison officer, he arrived at the plots specified in his contract, designated “TempForage-9-11-15-100M” and “TempForage-9-11-16-100M.”

Mulan Farm’s soybean fields were all standardized plots, typically 100 meters wide and 666 meters long, which equates to a 100-mu plot.

The liaison officer glanced at the stainless steel signpost by the road, then turned to Mo the Third and the private harvesting crew. “It’s these two plots. Please confirm so you don’t harvest the wrong ones. Transport trucks can use the weighbridge for free. You know where the weighbridge is, right?”

“Yes, yes, we know.” The harvesting crew members nodded like chickens pecking at grain.

Mo the Third quickly checked the plot codes on the stainless steel signpost against his contract.

The plot codes actually contained a lot of information. For Mo the Third’s two plots, “9-11” meant the soybeans were planted on September 11th, making their growth period about 43 days as of October 23rd. The “15” and “16” indicated they were the 15th and 16th plots planted on that day, and “100M” stood for 100 mu.

The harvesting crew brought in five combine harvesters, along with tractors, loaders, and transport trucks.

They could harvest 60 mu in an hour.

Mo the Third’s son, who had just been to the weighbridge with the transport trucks, called him.

“Dad, we just crossed the weighbridge. Four trucks, about 86 tons in total.”

“Eighty-six tons? For 60 mu?” Mo the Third counted on his fingers. ‘That’s 1.43?’

Soybean fields all around were being harvested.

There were approximately 22,000 livestock farming households in all of Naiman County.

This year, the county’s total cattle inventory was 560,000 head, with 130,000 head sent to market annually and a base of 390,000 breeding cows. The sheep inventory was 1.17 million, including 15,000 breeding rams.

The entire county required approximately 1.2 million tons of silage for the winter.

And due to the weather, about 250,000 mu of Mulan Farm’s soybeans couldn’t reach their optimal harvest time. These 250,000 mu could yield roughly 380,000 tons of fresh soybean vines, which would equate to about 340,000 tons of silage.

Considering the high protein content of soybean vines that were either pod-bearing or in their flowering stage, farmers couldn’t use pure soybean vine silage to ensure balanced nutrition for their cattle and sheep. At most, it could make up half the feed, but typically it was about one-third, mixed with other forages.

Clearly, the livestock farmers of Naiman County alone couldn’t consume this much fresh soybean vine forage, as many had their own pastures or had already bought their feed in advance.

Fortunately, however, when livestock farmers from the neighboring Red Mountain City heard that Mulan Farm was selling off large quantities of soybean vines, they also rushed over in droves.