Chapter 418: The First Snow (Medium Cup)

“It’s so cheap! Only 400 yuan per mu.”

“How many jin per mu?” Old Radish offered cigarettes to the men.

Hoba took a cigarette. “Around 2000 to 2100 jin.”

A thought suddenly occurred to Old Radish. “You’ve come from so far away. How will you transport it all back?”

“My maternal uncle has a silage yard over in Zhelimu. I’ll borrow his facility to make the silage, then ship it back to Hailar.”

Lighting his cigarette, Old Radish took a drag and exhaled. “You guys are really lucky. We came too late, so we can only buy the finished silage and hay from Hailufeng Company.”

“How much does that cost?” Hoba asked curiously.

“Dry fodder is 1800, silage is 680. Shipping not included.”

Hoba looked at Old Radish, who was known for being shrewd. “Isn’t that a lot more expensive?”

“Not at all. The quality is different.”

Hoba instantly understood. “That’s true. The soybeans from Hailufeng Company’s own fields were covered in densely packed pods. The quality is indeed exceptionally high.”

“Are you free for lunch? We could grab a bite nearby.”

“Sounds good! Let me go check on this morning’s harvest first.”

“We’ll go with you. I’d like to take a look around, too.”

Hoba glanced at the cigarettes in their hands and reminded them, “You can look around, but everyone needs to finish their cigarettes first. You’re not allowed to bring cigarettes or lighters inside, or you’ll be fined.”

“That strict?” The burly man thought Hailufeng Company was overreacting.

“It’s very dry in there, so it makes sense they’re worried about fires.”

A moment later, they had all finished their cigarettes and stamped out the butts.

They drove over from the west gate of the base. At the entrance, they packed their cigarettes and lighters into a bag and stored them in a locker before the security guard would let them through.

The pickup truck drove for half an hour before reaching a soybean field in the most remote part of Mulan Base.

The leaves on the soybean plants were still lush and green, but they would surely turn yellow and fall off quickly once a major cold snap arrived.

Hoba spoke with the harvest crew for a moment, then gave them a case of cola.

When he returned, he saw Old Radish and the others eating beef jerky by the pickup. He opened a bottle of cola, grabbed some disposable cups, and poured one for each of them.

The burly man asked with a laugh, “Don’t you have a few cases of kvass in your truck? Bring some out for us to drink.”

“No, no. The local police have been cracking down on drunk driving lately.” Hoba shook his head vigorously.

“I’m not driving, so it doesn’t matter.” The burly man grabbed a large bottle of kvass from the truck bed, twisted off the cap, and chugged a third of it. “BURP…”

“It’s so dry out here. My mouth is parched after just a short while,” Old Radish said, taking a sip of his cola. “No wonder they don’t allow any fire sources inside. Once these soybeans are fully mature, a single spark could start a fire you’d never be able to put out.”

“Exactly,” the burly man agreed wholeheartedly while chewing on his beef jerky. He had previously thought Hailufeng Company was overreacting, but he hadn’t expected it to be this dry.

Hoba leaned against the pickup with his cup of cola. “Old Radish, do you think these Immortal Soybeans could be grown back where we’re from?”

“I’m not sure, but it should be possible,” Old Radish said, scratching his scalp, which was itchy from the static in the dry air.

A younger, more well-informed man chimed in, “You definitely can. I saw Hailufeng Company’s online planting guide. We can grow it in our region, too, but you can only get one harvest of soybeans per year, or two to three cuttings of the stalks.”

Old Radish stroked the stubble on his chin. “That’s not bad either. A yield of about 2.3 tons of fresh fodder per mu. Two cuttings would make it 4.6 tons. A third cutting would probably be difficult, considering the frost-free period in our region is only 100 to 130 days.”

“So you guys are thinking of planting these soybeans?” Hoba asked.

“We’ve had the thought.”

“But no one back home has grown them yet. It’s better to wait and see how things go first.”

Instead of answering, Old Radish changed the subject. “The prices for both fodder and concentrate feed have dropped a lot this year. How are your costs over in Hailar?”

“They’re manageable. We’re barely breaking even on beef cattle, but the profit margins on mutton sheep and lambs are decent. Probably ten to twenty percent higher than previous years. How about you?”

“About the same.”

“This year is much easier than the last two.”

“Beef prices were too low the past couple of years, and ranching costs were too high. A lot of people were thinking of getting out of the business.”

Hoba suddenly remembered something. “Old Radish, do you have any lambs you’re looking to sell?”

“Lambs? The Du family has a batch of Hu sheep lambs, about 200 of them. Are you interested?”

“It’s not for me, it’s for a friend. He wants to expand his operation,” Hoba said, pouring Old Radish another cup of cola.

“I’ll get in touch with them for you when I get back.”

“Could you check with a few other families for me, too? My friend is looking to raise two or three thousand, and he’ll need some breeding rams as well.”

“No problem.”

Across the vast soybean field, ranchers stood around in small groups. Some watched the harvest crew at work, others chatted in relaxed tones, while some famishedly ate their food. There were even a few talking loudly on their phones.

For these ranchers, the coming winter was shaping up to be a relatively easy one.

On the one hand, even though beef and mutton prices had fallen, their own ranching costs had been brought down as well.

Because beef cattle had a longer rearing cycle, they were only just breaking even.

However, mutton sheep, with their shorter rearing cycle, saw a significant increase in profits—even more than before the large-scale importation of foreign beef and mutton.

As long as their profits were secure, the ranchers didn’t have much to worry about.

In fact, confidence was soaring for many ranchers, and they were already planning to expand their operations.

This was one of the benefits of gaining control over the soybean market. Many ranchers who followed market trends could sense that with the decline in domestic production costs, both the livestock industry and the consumer meat market were poised for a major boom.

Now was the perfect time to get in on the action.