Chapter 49 Sowing
"Glorious Seed Industry?" Guo Yang didn't expect that Lao Xiang would recommend his former employer.

There probably aren’t many people who would bring business to their old employer!
Lao Xiang nodded calmly.

"According to the Ministry of Agriculture's random inspection results, the quality of alfalfa seeds currently circulating in the northwest market is worrying, with a pass rate of only 40%."

"The pass rate is so low?" Guo Yang was surprised.

"Currently, the entire alfalfa seed production is in a scattered and disorderly state, with backward technology and a lack of cleaning equipment, resulting in the widespread purity of seeds circulating on the market."

"The germination rate is low, the content of other plant seeds exceeds the standard, the quality is worrying, and the seeds are fake and inferior..."

"As a professional seed company, Huihuang Seed has its own production base and seed sorting equipment, so the quality of its seeds is not a problem."

"In addition to Huihuang Seeds, Ning Province Oasis Grass Industry Co., Ltd. has also introduced alfalfa varieties from abroad in the past two years and established a 1-acre high-quality alfalfa seed production base and a 2-acre alfalfa production demonstration base."

Hearing this, Guo Yang looked a little surprised.

“Are there many professional alfalfa planting and production companies in China?”

As far as he can remember, he first knew about the plant called alfalfa after the "baby milk powder" incident in 2008.

Lao Xiang shook his head.

"Compared with the expected future domestic demand for high-quality forage, this number of companies is not that large."

"Moreover, these enterprises were founded around 2000 and were the first batch of 'pioneers' in the alfalfa industry. They have insisted on taking the path of specialization, scale and marketization since their inception."

"But at present, we can only barely maintain the business, and the total annual production of commercial alfalfa is less than 10 tons."

"Most companies are in a period of confusion at this time."

Alfalfa is known as the "king of forage grasses". It has high nutritional value and good palatability. It is the most favorite and economical forage grass for various livestock.

The world's alfalfa cultivation area exceeds 6 million mu, but most of it is grown in developed countries, where it is an important part of their "three-pronged" agricultural planting structure of grain, cash and feed.

Taking the United States as an example, alfalfa is one of the four most widely grown crops in the United States, second only to corn, wheat and soybeans, with an annual output value of US$2001 billion in 81.

Alfalfa is grown commercially in all states, and seed is produced in more than 20 states.

And neighboring Canada has exported more than 3000 tons of alfalfa seeds every year for more than a decade.

In addition to being used in traditional animal husbandry, alfalfa can also be used as biofuel for power generation, or used for soil bioimprovement due to its high nitrogen content, and can also be used for the industrial production of enzymes.

In my country, alfalfa seed production is mainly concentrated in Gansu Province, Shaanxi Province, Ningxia Province, Inner Mongolia Province, Xinjiang Province, Shandong Province and other places.

Seed yield is obviously related to region. The alfalfa seed yield in the Northwest irrigation area is high and of good quality, making it suitable for seed production.

Among them, Long Province has always been the province with the largest alfalfa planting area in my country, accounting for about one-third of my country's alfalfa planting area for a long time.

The cultivated area in 1998 was about 560 million mu, while by 2023, this figure will be more than 1200 million mu.

However, at this time, most companies and farmers planted alfalfa to meet their own needs, and it basically would not enter the market for circulation.

When Guo Yang learned that Huihuang Seed Company was in trouble, he thought about acquiring it and then entering the seed industry from forage.

But in the end it failed.

At this time, it is inevitable that it feels a little strange to think about purchasing alfalfa seeds from Huihuang Seeds.

"With our order for 100 million kilograms of alfalfa seeds, will the business conditions of Huihuang and Oasis Grass Industry improve a lot?"

Lao Xiang thought for a moment and gave a positive answer.

Guo Yang was very conflicted at this time, mainly because he still had the idea of ​​acquiring Huihuang Seed Industry in the future. In addition, he knew that the domestic grass industry had just emerged, the grass product market was still small, there were still few farms and feed mills that could buy alfalfa products, and the profit of grass products was also low.

Huihuang Seed and Oasis Grass both have their own alfalfa planting and processing industry chains. Would it be considered aiding the enemy in disguise if Alfalfa bought their seeds?

But after thinking carefully for a while, Guo Yang decided to purchase alfalfa seeds produced by professional companies such as Huihuang and Oasis.

His purpose of growing alfalfa is to improve saline-alkali land, obtain natural energy and buy seeds. The alfalfa industry is just a stepping stone.

He also knows that in the next few years, with the increase in residents' income, changes in consumption habits, and the expansion of the consumer group, my country's production and consumption of meat, eggs and milk will all show rapid growth.

As a basic industry, the grass industry will surely usher in a booming development!
Moreover, overseas, China, with its small land area, is the largest importer of grass products in the world. South Korea and some Southeast Asian countries are also traditional importers of alfalfa products.

Although we are facing many difficulties now, the future market is broad!

After figuring it out, Guo Yang asked Lao Xiang to contact Huihuang and Oasis Grass Industry first.

Before leaving, he gave 100 kilograms of 'Alfalfa No. 1' seeds to Lao Xiang.

……

After three days, expand the seed field.

After careful preparation by the workers, the entire field has become extremely flat, and all the soil, stones and weed roots have been cleared away.

The soil that was too loose after deep plowing in the early stage was compacted with a harrow 2 to 3 times to make the soil layer sink, meeting the requirement of being loose on the top and solid on the bottom, and the loose soil layer basically did not exceed 3cm.

Doing so will help the seeds germinate and reduce water evaporation from the lower soil.

At this time, Lao Xiang also distributed the original seeds of 'Alfalfa No. 3' that had been exposed to the sun for three days to the workers.

Generally speaking, the sowing materials produced in seed production fields should be original seeds or original original seeds, and there are requirements for selection purity, germination rate, thousand net weight, hardness rate, etc.

But the original seeds of 'Alfalfa No. 1' are provided by the seed store, so naturally there is no problem.

After discussion between Guo Yang and Lao Xiang, they finally chose hole sowing, with a sowing depth of 1-1.5cm.

If the seeds are too small and planted too deep, germination will be affected and the yield will be directly affected.

As for the amount of seeds used, according to Lao Xiang, under the condition of relatively good soil fertility and irrigation conditions, the average density of alfalfa growth in the second year should be 2 plants per mu.

It should not be too thick, but the thinner the better.

To achieve this density, the seed amount per mu is just about 1 jin, which is just enough to sow 100 mu of seed field.

In addition, the sowing density can be controlled in the later stage through various management measures such as thinning, fertilization, and irrigation.

Just because of the preciousness of 'Alfalfa No. 1', Guo Yang would rather spend more time on transplanting if it becomes too dense in the later stage.

After sowing, the seed field was lightly pressed again to make the soil tightly combined with the soil, which was conducive to the seeds absorbing water and germination and preventing root hanging.

Then the water is poured in.

Just at this moment, the cell phone in Guo Yang's pocket rang.

After the call was connected, Yu Honghai's loud voice was heard.

"Brother Guo, your Fendt 930 has arrived. I will ship it to you later!"

"I want to come to your base this time too. You have to treat me well. It took me a lot of effort to get the Fendt 930 and the complete set of Claas silage machinery."

(End of this chapter)