Ecological Farm Author: Farmers are flying

Chapter 68: Guest

The next day, Tagawa broke up with Professor Zhao's teachers and students and drove alone in a rented jeep towards Steve's farm.

Steve receives a call from Tagawa from the farm gate and, along with his wife Jenny, brings his son George and nine-year-old daughter Anne to the door to greet him.

After the greetings, Tagawa presented the self-portrait disk he had painted last night as a gift, and Steve's family was very happy and said that they would definitely put it out. Tagawa gave George the ball he received yesterday and the gloves he used to catch the ball, and the little guy was very excited, so he asked Tagawa to sign the ball and the gloves and put them on the bookshelf in his room.

After chatting for a while about last night's exciting game, Tagawa offered to visit Steve's farm. "I also run farms in China, but on a very small scale, and the two main purposes of this visit to the United States are to buy agricultural machinery and to visit American farms," he said. I would like to be able to visit your farm and learn about the production technology and management experience of the farm. Steve happily agreed.

Stevie's farm is an hour's drive from Chicago, located on the Chicago River, and covers more than 500 acres, more than 3,000 acres in China, more than two square kilometers. The farm is flat and mainly grows corn and soybeans. On the west side of the farm there is a hill of more than fifty acres, planted with apple, pine and oak trees. A large number of apples and pine nuts are produced every year.

They got into Steve's car and drove along the path through the farm. Steve gave an introduction to Tagawa while driving. The farm's land is divided into three parts, two for soybeans and corn, and one for fallow, that is, each land is planted with soybeans for one year, corn for another year, and then for a year of rest in turns to maintain the fertility of the land. The method of fallow is widely used in the United States, where arable land is abundant, but it is unthinkable in China, where arable land is scarce.

Now that the planting season has not yet arrived, and all the land is vacant, Steve has recently been sorting out and overhauling ploughs and agricultural machinery such as seeders and sprayers in preparation for the upcoming planting season.

When asked about the exact operation of farming, Steve said, "Growing corn and soybeans is very simple, first ploughing the land with a tractor, then sprinkling fertilizer, rotary tillage to level the land, seeding with a seeder, spraying herbicides, and then waiting for the seedlings to emerge." Field management is easier and generally does not require watering, corn needs to be fertilized once in the middle of the process, and soybeans are not. The furrow applicator used for topdressing fertilizer is also driven by a tractor. ”

"If there are insects in the middle of the process, you need to spray pesticides. Spraying can be done using a sprayer or an airplane, and I usually rent an airplane to spray. Aircraft spray faster and more evenly, but because it may affect areas other than farmland, the spraying effect on the edges is not very good, and sometimes it needs to be resprayed by spray trucks. ”

"Harvesting is the easiest, using a harvester in a few days. The harvester can crush the straw and scatter it in the ground as fertilizer while harvesting. ”

"After the corn cob is recovered, it is dried, threshed and dried, and it is the finished corn, which can be sold. In addition, there are two sales models, one is to sell before harvest, and the buying feed company is responsible for harvesting. The other is to sell the corn early in the planting process, and the planting risk is also borne by the buyer, which has the lowest returns, and many farmers would rather insure the corn than sell it this way. ”

Tagawa got out of the car and observed the land and found that the land was very fertile and loose, and it seemed that fallow and soybean planting had a good effect on the conservation of the land. He also looked at the planting density, and felt that it was about the same as the density in the country. Judging by the fertility of the soil, the yield should not be small.

At this time, Steve added that "the price of crops is too affected by futures, and in many years there will be a lot of good harvests, but there will be losses, we are at the beginning of the food supply chain, the profits will never be high, no matter what our income is, the middlemen who control the purchase price and the capitalists on the stock exchange will always leave enough profits for themselves." ”

After looking at the cornfield, they came to the high hill forest on the west side. The apple groves are not very large, less than ten acres, and the fruit trees are in high yielding period, producing large numbers of apples each year. When it comes to growing apples, Steve is full of regret, he says: "Apples require too much work, and this apple grove usually needs two people, and when it is busy, it has to hire people temporarily." Apple's price is also volatile, and revenue fluctuates greatly. It is also susceptible to disasters such as hail and high winds. In addition, the harm of birds, insects, etc., can not be sprayed during the maturity period, which is very troublesome. ”

Tian Chuan asked, "Your orchard uses a lot of machines to operate, and the labor efficiency is already very high. In our country, the work in the orchard is almost entirely done by hand, and a worker takes care of a maximum of one acre of apple orchards, working more than twelve hours a day with no days off. When picking fruits and putting on protective bags, it takes several times more people to complete it in time. ”

"Most of my apples are sold to food factories for jam, and they don't want the appearance of the fruit, so I use mechanized picking, using a tree shaker to shake the fruit off the tree, and then using a collector and a washing machine to collect and wash it, which is very efficient," says Steve. It's just that the price is very low. If it is sold as a fruit, it needs to be picked manually, which is too expensive and difficult to sell. ”

Spring was coming, and in Steve's orchard, workers were already doing work such as pruning and pest control. Tagawa saw that the fertilizer had arrived, and he was about to apply it.

The apple orchard is surrounded by large pine and oak forests, all of which are tall trees. "This grove was planted by my father when he was younger, and now it's an adult grove, and the annual income from selling pine nuts is the easiest income on the farm," says Steve. There is basically no special management here, as long as you come to the pine tower every autumn to collect pine nuts. ”

When he arrived at the oak grove, Steve stroked a thick oak tree and said, "The oak tree was already ready to be cut down a few years ago, and the wood can be sold to make barrels." But I grew up watching these oak trees grow up, and I already have feelings, and I am reluctant to cut them down. I wasn't short of money, so I kept them. ”

"I built a log cabin in the woods and sometimes came to stay for one night. The children sometimes bring their friends to play, and everyone loves it. ”

When he came to the cabin, Tagawa immediately fell in love with this mythical place. Shaded by trees, a small wooden house painted green and earthy yellow stands quietly, and the winter sun shines through the sparsely branched trees after the leaves have fallen, and sprinkles on the wooden house and the surrounding open space, creating a warm and peaceful feeling. When the snow melts, the ground is covered with a thick layer of leaves that have not yet completely rotted, and you can imagine the golden color of the ground when the leaves fall in autumn.

Tagawa took out his camera and took pictures of the scenery here, and he couldn't help but fantasize that he would have to build such a forest and such a wooden house on his farm in the future.

They did not enter the hut, but simply walked through the woods and returned to the house. It was close to noon, and the lunch prepared by the hostess Jenny was about to be ready, and Anne had just called and called them to go back to dinner.

Lunch is a burrito, with a soft and hard crust and a filling of beef, chicken, vegetables, etc., with two kinds of sauces, spicy and non-spicy, and it tastes great. Tian Chuan is in the final stage of growing his body, and he has been practicing kung fu and exercising for a long time, and the amount of food is amazing, seven or eight burritos in a row, apple pie as a dessert, and finally a large plate of vegetable salad, which directly killed Steve's family in seconds.

Steve smiled and said, "Tian, your appetite is really good. When I played more than a decade ago, I had to eat so much. Now that the amount of exercise is small, I can't eat anymore. ”

After a short break after dinner, George asks Tagawa and Steve to play baseball. The three of them went to the grass outside the house, practiced throwing and catching the ball for a while, and then Steve proposed, "Tian, you can practice swinging the bat." You have a lot of power and you should be able to hit a good ball. You know what? The pitchers and receivers on the average team are good hitters. ”

Tagawa and the others came to the simulated field where Steve drew a line, Steve first taught him the batting posture, and then corrected Tagawa's movements, Tagawa learned quickly, and after a few minutes, he began to practice batting, with George Jr. as the referee.

Steve's house had a practice net, a small goal-like net between home plate and George in place of a catch, and a fence around to prevent the ball from being hit too far.

Steve is a good pitcher, serving from easy to difficult, sending out one ball after another, and Tagawa selectively swinging the bat. At first, I didn't hit at all, but then I gradually improved in practice, and the probability of hitting gradually increased. After nearly an hour of continuous practice, the probability of him hitting a good ball has exceeded a third, and this is still a combined result that includes the intention of hitting a bad ball at close range.

Tagawa's physical fitness is very strong, and after practicing hitting the ball for an hour, he is not too tired, and he wants to continue practicing, but Steve can't shoot anymore. Tagawa pitched the ball to George and helped him practice batting.

After playing for a while, Tagawa asked Steve to take him to the tool room to see the agricultural machinery.

The tool room is actually a huge garage, with five large houses in a row, with a door on one side that is the same width as the space inside. In front of the door is a large square with hardened dirt floors.

When Steve opened the door, Tagawa saw that the five warehouses were full, one was a huge 150-horsepower tractor, one was a 50-horsepower small tractor and rotary plows, seeders, sprayers and other farm tools, one was an apple beater, one was a flatbed trailer, and the last one was a workshop, where a lot of manual work on the farm was completed. Large, sturdy agricultural machinery, such as ploughs, is placed on the edge of the square outside the door.

After watching the agricultural machinery, several people returned to Steve's house, and after drinking afternoon tea, it was close to evening, Tian Chuan got up and said goodbye to Steve's family: "Thank you for your family's sumptuous hospitality, I had a very pleasant day." I'm flying to New York tonight, and I have to say goodbye now. If you have the opportunity to go to China, please contact me and I invite you to visit my home. ”

After just one day of getting along, Tagawa and the Steve family became good friends, and the Steve family felt a little reluctant, Tagawa said: "I will definitely come to the United States again in the future, and I will definitely come back as a guest then." ”

Tagawa had already vacated his hotel room early, drove back to Chicago, found the car rental agency's office at the airport to return the car, and prepared to fly to New York that night.