Organic Farm Author: Farmer is flying

Chapter 65: The United States

The Boeing 747 passenger plane slowly landed at Chicago International Airport, and Associate Professor Tian Chuan and Associate Professor Zhao Jiawei stepped off the plane and entered the airport terminal with the flow of people. From there, they'll connect for flights to John Deere's headquarters, in Morin, Illinois, which is the same as Chicago. Wei Wenqiang will also join them here and go to Morin together.

Near the entrance of the departure hall, they met Wei Wenqiang, who had arrived early. Wei Wenqiang looks like he is twenty-seven or eighteen years old, about one meter seven tall, with a strong body, wearing casual clothes, looking a little casual. He was very familiar with Professor Zhao, and as soon as they met, he gave Professor Zhao a warm hug, which made Professor Zhao a little uncomfortable.

Then he greeted Tian Chuan, shook hands, and asked with concern: "Mr. Tian, Mr. Zhao, you have worked the road." We'll fly to Morin in two hours, can we handle it?"

As he spoke, the corners of his eyes glanced at Tagawa from time to time. Tian Chuan smiled: "There shouldn't be any problem, we slept all the way on the plane." ”

In his previous life, Tagawa had flown this route many times, and he had summed up the trick of rest and jet lag, which was to sleep on the plane, not sleep before take-off or after landing, and survive the 12-hour jet lag. This time they flew in business class, which was spacious, and after putting the seats down, the two of them had a good night's sleep, and it was the morning in Chicago, and they had completely lost the fatigue caused by staying up late in advance.

At this time, Tian Chuan saw that Wei Wenqiang was still peeking at him, and couldn't help asking, "Senior Brother Wei, is there anything wrong with me?"

Wei Wenqiang was also direct and said, "No." It's just younger than I thought it would be, and something unexpected. ”

Professor Zhao said beside him: "Wen Qiang, don't underestimate Tian Chuan, although he is not very old, he is very capable. He started from scratch completely on his own ability, earned hundreds of millions of assets, and accumulated a very rich knowledge, which I can't help but admire. To be honest, I initially treated him as a student support, but now I have gradually changed to a boss mentality. ”

While waiting for the plane, as well as on the plane to Morin, Tian Chuan kept asking Wei Wenqiang about the data collection of the cotton picker. and told him who he was coming this time. Hearing such a name with Chinese characteristics as the agricultural machinery service company, Wei Wenqiang couldn't help laughing: "Haha, this name is good." The name of the original machinery manufacturing company is indeed easy to make people wary, and it is a competitor at first sound. ”

Located on the north-central plains of the United States, Illinois is a large agricultural state. The main crops are corn and soybeans, and cotton is also planted in large quantities. Unlike China, where the majority of farms are farmed, each farmer manages about 150 hectares of land, and farming and harvesting rely almost entirely on mechanized operations, and agricultural machinery is widely used. Located in the northwestern hills of Illinois, Moline is a city dominated by agriculture, mining, and railroad transportation. The headquarters of John Deere, the world's largest agricultural machinery company, is located here.

On a plane from Chicago to Maureen, you'll see vast expanses of farmland stretching out across the vast plains, dotted with the occasional town. The snow and ice in winter have not yet completely melted, and there is a bleak atmosphere. When he came out of the airport, the first thing Tagawa felt was the outrageously fresh air, and when he inhaled it, his internal organs seemed to be full of vitality. Now that the country's economic construction is in full swing, in order to make up for the gap in economic strength with the developed countries, the country has almost completely abandoned the protection of the environment, and the Tagawa River, who lives in the Beijing-Tianjin region, where the work is developed, seems to have forgotten the blue sky and white clouds of his childhood, and the sand and dust that fill the whole spring seem to be only covered by the wind.

After arriving in Moline, Tagawa did not rush to contact John Deere, but took a taxi at the airport and asked the black driver to drive him around the city to get a brief understanding of the local environment. Molin City is not large, Tian Chuan estimates that its area is about the same as Yongyang Town, the population is much smaller, there are few high-rise buildings in the city, most of the buildings are one or two floors, which seems very loose. As the car passed by John Deere, the black driver proudly introduced the huge enterprise. John Deere ranks high in the world's top 500 companies and is strong. At its headquarters in Moline, there is a traditional agricultural showroom, as well as a store for agricultural machinery products, where almost all of its agricultural machinery products can be seen and bought. The headquarters building is the most magnificent building in the entire city of Morin and can be seen from a great distance.

After a little over an hour, the taxi stopped in front of a four-star hotel. Wei Wenqiang paid the fare and tip, and the black driver was very happy and said to them: "Chinese friends, I wish you a wonderful journey, God bless you." ”

Wei Wenqiang checked in for several people at the hotel, entered the room to drop off their luggage, and everyone gathered in Tian Chuan's room to discuss the next step. In Tian Chuan's arrangement, Wei Wenqiang was the guide of himself and Professor Zhao when they were in the United States, and he would be responsible for all the contact with the locals. Professor Zhao's English is not very good, he can barely understand it when he communicates slowly, and it is difficult to speak, Tagawa's English is quite good, but he doesn't want to expose this too early, and in the communication with John Deere, this may be a surprise gain.

The three of them had a casual meal at the hotel restaurant at noon, and in the afternoon, Wei Wenqiang called Bob, the sales manager of John Deere that Tian Chuan had contacted when he was in China. Bob was very welcoming and sent a Lincoln car to pick them up at the hotel.

Bob is a white young man in his thirties, tall and strong, his body has not yet gained weight like the average middle-aged person in Europe and the United States, and he looks very capable. He has a hearty personality and a gentle baritone voice that makes him speak standard American English very beautifully. Bob is the kind of person who brings people good feelings as soon as they meet, and a few ordinary greetings, mixed with an American joke or two, quickly close the distance between the two sides in the embarrassing reaction of Tagawa and Professor Zhao to the joke.

Bob first introduced the situation of the cotton picker that Tagawa was most concerned about. John Deere currently sells three mainstream models of cotton pickers, namely 9940, 9960 and 9965. This is the representative model of the fourth generation of cotton pickers of John Deere Company, of which the 9965 type is the latest model that was only listed last year, is the world's first five-row cotton picker, with the function of automatically adjusting the height of the cotton picker head and adjustable row spacing, equipped with a 250 horsepower high-power diesel engine and a large-capacity fuel tank, sufficient horsepower, a refueling can last a day, 30 acres of picking work can be completed per hour, and the work efficiency is equivalent to more than 1000 cotton pickers.

Tian Chuan led Professor Zhao and Wei Wenqiang to take a closer look at the structure of the cotton picker, and clearly understood its working principle and the differences between several machines, and then Tian Chuan said to Bob: "Mr. Bob, thank you very much for the wonderful explanation you brought us, so that I have a clearer understanding of the products I am about to buy, but I still have some questions. ”

Bob said, "Please, I'll help you out, and if I'm not clear, I'll ask our technicians to answer your questions." ”

"I wanted to be able to see these machines in action so that I could get a better sense of their superior performance. Maybe the current season is not suitable, but you know, if you wait until the cotton picking season, this cotton picking season is about to pass. ”

"No problem, we have video footage of the machine at work. As he spoke, he led Tagawa and his entourage to a meeting room and used VCD to show several people the working videos of these three cotton pickers. The video was shot very professionally, and the harvest effect was very clearly displayed in front of several people.

In the end, Tagawa asked a few questions that he was most concerned about:

"I saw that the leaves of the cotton had fallen off in the cotton fields picked in the video, and I guessed that it might be the result of spraying some kind of defoliant. You know, in our country, mechanical cotton picking has not yet been popularized, how do we get this defoliant? Or in other words, what pesticides are needed to cooperate with the work of cotton pickers?"

"Is the cotton picker suitable for different varieties of cotton?"

"In order for the cotton picker to work properly, what do you need to pay attention to in the cotton planting process? I came to buy the cotton picker so early in order to determine the planting requirements before the cotton planting begins. ”

"Is the operation of the cotton picker complicated? Does it require special training? How do you provide training and after-sales service to us on the other side of the world?"

"I just learned that the working speed inside the cotton picker is very high, can there be a fire at high speed, how did you avoid this serious problem?"

"As a relatively sophisticated and complex machine, what are the more common failures? What are the parts that are easily damaged? How long is the general fault maintenance cycle? You know, in a year, the cotton picking season is only a short little more than a month, and every day of shutdown will bring huge losses. ”

"From your previous introduction, I learned that the picking ingot and decottoning tray inside the cotton picking head have high working intensity and slender structure, which should be relatively easy to damage. How long do they last, and what do you do to ensure their quality?"

Tagawa's questions cover a wide range, from product quality to after-sales service, from the key points of use to key technologies, varied, many questions involve the confidential technology of the machine, Bob answered carefully, but inadvertently, or revealed a lot of Tagawa they care about the knowledge. Wei Wenqiang, as a translator, and a doctor of mechanics who has lived and studied in the United States for five years, has some problems that are more difficult to translate. Fortunately, Tian Chuan was basically able to fully understand Bob's words, and when Wei Wenqiang's translation of the content of his own questions was inaccurate, he would occasionally pop up some English words to supplement, and finally the process of communication went smoothly.

The exchange lasted for more than an hour, and by the time the exchange ended, Tagawa seemed quite satisfied, with a smile on the corner of his mouth. In Bob's expectant gaze, Tian Chuan, as he wished, bought two 9965 cotton pickers and a supporting baler, with a total payment of more than 900,000 US dollars, plus tariffs, equivalent to more than 8 million yuan. Professor Zhao and Wei Wenqiang thought that he only needed one machine, but Tian Chuan's idea was to dismantle one and keep one, dismantle it for research and imitation, and keep the one intact for comparison with the products he will develop in the future, and at the same time, he will actually use it for several years in the process of development to collect first-hand information.

After signing the purchase contract, he immediately notified the domestic Lian Jingjing to make the payment, and asked John Deere to deliver the goods as soon as he received the payment.

It was busy until more than seven o'clock in the evening, the matter of cotton picker procurement came to an end, although Bob hated overtime, but he liked the sales commission very much, and the generous commission encouraged his enthusiasm for work. After the contract was signed, he hosted a banquet for Tagawa and his entourage on behalf of John Deere Company.

Dinner was booked at a French restaurant in the city of Morin. On the way to the restaurant, Tian Chuan whispered to Professor Zhao and Wei Wenqiang if they were familiar with European dining etiquette, and Professor Zhao shook his hands helplessly, he had never eaten Western food. Although Wei Wenqiang has studied in the United States for five years, he has no choice but to be shy, and the most familiar restaurants are McDonald's and KFC, and he has only been in the formal Western restaurant once, and he is basically not familiar with Western food etiquette. Tian Chuan himself knows something, after all, he has traveled to Europe and the United States many times in his previous life, and he has eaten and seen a lot of times. He had no choice but to tell the two of them to learn from Bob and do it himself.

When they went to John Deere's company, they dressed very casually, and for this formal dinner, they went back to the hotel and changed into formal clothes. The dinner was sumptuous, from soup to meal to main course to dessert, and it took nearly two hours to finish. The environment of the restaurant is elegant and quiet, the waiters are very attentive, and they fully appreciate the hospitality of Bob as the host. At the same time, Professor Zhao and Wei Wenqiang, the teacher and student, also fully experienced the embarrassment of not knowing table manners.

After returning to the hotel, talking about the dinner, Professor Zhao commented: "Although I ate very hard, although I didn't eat enough, although I was a little ugly, I still gained a lot from this meal." First, I basically learned how to eat Western food. Second, you can brag about it when you go back. Third, I know that I can't understand the menu in a French restaurant at all, so don't go in without an acquaintance. ”

Wei Wenqiang also said: "I have been in the United States for five years, and now I can confidently tell people that I have eaten Western food after I go back." ”

In order to take care of the two, Tagawa did not eat well. Fortunately, he knew the amount of food in the French restaurant and his own meal, and when he asked Bob to help him order, he ordered an extra steak for himself, and finally filled his stomach. Because they didn't know how adaptable Zhao Wei and his teachers were to Western food, they didn't dare to help them more, and the two of them complained.