RBCT Chapter 54 A Busy Harvest!
Chapter 54 A Busy Harvest!
The farm has officially entered the autumn harvest season.
Xu Ran, wearing a straw hat and carrying a bamboo basket, picked sunflowers with his employees.
The sickle cuts off the sunflower cakes and puts them in a bamboo basket, and they keep cutting like this.
Everyone moved forward together, each person responsible for one row, and wherever they went, sunflowers fell to the ground.
Whenever we work together, the little ones are always there.
Little Gray ran over, wagging its tail rapidly. It seemed to want to help, but it wasn't part of the task of harvesting sunflowers, so it could only follow Xu Ran's feet, offering emotional support.
It was as if they were cheering someone on.
The sunflower cakes were large and thick, with plump sunflower seeds inside.
This year's sunflowers have yielded a completely bumper harvest.
Looks like we're going to have a prosperous New Year!
As everyone worked hard to harvest, the sunflower cakes piled up higher and higher.
On the other side, Xu's father and his two companions were busy harvesting sunflower seeds, and they were almost overwhelmed with work, with a lot of sunflower cakes piled up next to them.
Xu Ran went over to help, pouring the sunflowers from the pot onto the cement ground, spreading them out with a shovel, and letting them dry in the sun.
It's like drying wheat.
To extract oil from sunflowers, they must be dried in the sun; otherwise, water will get mixed in, and the quality of the sunflower oil will be low.
Xu Ran's place is, after all, a small farm, only 20 acres, and it still uses manual labor.
For example, big bosses in Xinjiang typically own 1200 acres of land, invest over ten million yuan, use machines for harvesting, and can earn five or six million yuan a year if the market is good.
It can't compare.
For machine processing, the sunflowers must first be stuck on poles to dry in the sun before being collected and processed.
Xu Ran's small farm doesn't have any machines, so she can simply harvest the sunflowers directly.
After a busy day, we harvested ten acres of land, and the sunflower seeds we threshed were piled up into a small mountain.
Seeing this, Little Grey wanted to rush into the hill, but Xu Ran stopped him immediately:
"Little Grey, this is all food, don't come in!"
Xu Ran's words were rather serious, and upon hearing them, Xiao Hui immediately became obedient.
The harvesting process is over, but there are still many sunflower seeds left to be harvested.
Wang Ping and Xu Ma went to cook, while the others sat on stools and cracked sunflower seeds together.
Sunflower seeds were piled up all over the ground.
According to Xu Ran's estimate, the yield from his one mu of land is about 400 jin.
20 mu of land yields 8000 jin.
Currently, the price of sunflower seeds is high. For sunflower seeds of this quality, he can offer 14 yuan per kilogram, which means that the final sales revenue will be approximately 11 yuan.
After deducting labor costs, one can earn 8 yuan, which is 4000 yuan per mu, a very high level in the planting industry.
But Xu Ran was not satisfied with selling directly.
He felt the profit margin was still low.
If you press your own sunflower oil, you can sell it for a higher price.
Eliminates the intermediary step.
Starting a farm is just like running a business; you have to be careful with your money and find ways to make more money.
Only by taking it one step at a time can we grow bigger and stronger, and create new glories!
The employees took shovels and spread the sunflower seeds evenly on the ground.
Since it was almost night, the sunflower seeds were covered with plastic sheeting to prevent sparrows from attacking them.
After finishing all that, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thanks for your hard work!"
"I made braised pork for everyone as a special dinner tonight."
Xu Ran didn't forget to express her gratitude to her employees.
Although it's just polite talk, that's how you have to be when leading a team. As a manager, you have to say some polite things.
Saying nothing would be considered cold and unfriendly.
"Ran-ge, it's all what I should do!"
"Let's work another day tomorrow and get it all done!"
"With so many of us, we can get it done quickly, no problem."
The employees responded enthusiastically.
Everyone swayed their backs a few times, then got up and went to the cafeteria for lunch.
The aroma of meat wafted from the cafeteria.
After a day of physical labor, the aroma made me even hungrier.
I made extra meat today.
The farm is a small business. Although it is not as formal as a state-owned enterprise, it has all the necessary facilities.
The employees are very satisfied with their jobs and always work very hard in order to keep doing them.
Busy, busy, busy.
Sunset and moonrise.
The staff have all gone home, and the farm animals are resting.
An owl flew out of the treehouse, perched on a branch, and looked down.
The pigs, cows, sheep, dogs, and chickens on the farm all slept peacefully.
Wild rabbits, weasels, hedgehogs, and similar creatures prefer to be active at this time, as the darkness gives them a greater sense of security.
Xu Ran even took a final stroll around the greenhouse.
Once outside, you can look up and see a sky full of stars.
There is less pollution in the mountains, and less exhaust fumes rise into the air, so the view of the sky is relatively clear.
Although the stars weren't particularly dazzling, they were still awe-inspiring because they could be seen just by looking up.
People in the city can't see the stars.
Some people even say that they can see not only stars but also the Milky Way in their hometown, which many people living in cities simply do not believe.
Where in the sky can you see the Milky Way?
Each has its own unique scenery.
Xu Ran returned to her room, washed up, watched a few videos, and then decided to go to sleep.
His farm account now has over 4 followers, and some people are even leaving comments urging him to update more, wanting to see more roosters and pandas.
But Xu Ran has really been too busy to take photos lately.
I'm too busy with real-life things.
I can only take some more when I have some free time.
Then, he looked at the goods in the store and fell into a deep sleep.
The next day.
Another busy day.
The work remains the same: harvesting sunflowers, threshing sunflower seeds, and then spreading them out to dry in the sun.
They need to be dried in the sun for several more days until they are completely dry.
Xu Ran sent the rooster Mao Ri Xingjun and the little tabby cat to guard the sunflower seeds.
However, both of them had their own ideas.
The little tabby cat is still in its silly stage, jumping around next to the sunflower seeds, completely unaware of what it's doing.
The rooster, however, was caught stealing from its own territory. After patrolling the area for a few steps, it couldn't resist pecking at a sunflower seed to taste it. After finishing it, it realized that this was wrong and continued patrolling. After walking a few more steps, it couldn't resist eating another one.
There's no way around it; a chicken's eating habits are written into its genes.
Every day when a chicken wakes up, it does one thing: stare at the ground and look for food to eat.
They are very strong in combat.
Until the sunflower seeds were completely spread out on the open ground.
Looking at it at first glance, I felt very at ease.
At times like these, sunflower seeds can be packed into burlap sacks and sold as melon seeds, or they can be collected and pressed directly for oil.
Generally, sunflowers are divided into oil sunflowers and edible sunflowers. Xu Ran's top-quality sunflowers have both advantages: they taste excellent when eaten as seeds, and they have a high oil content when pressed for oil.
It has to be top-notch.
The farm kept a lot of sunflower cakes for itself, so it won't be short of sunflower seeds until at least the Lunar New Year.
Everything is ready.
Xu Ran has also made contact with the oil pressing factory.
Everything was taken care of, including empty plastic buckets for oil, labels printed with the "You Ran Farm" logo, and so on.
Xu Ran also held a meeting to brainstorm ideas on how to write a good promotional slogan.
Wang Hai suggested that they call it "5S Grade 1 Pressed Sunflower Oil," since customers wouldn't know what 5S or Grade 1 meant anyway, and it would sound good.
It could even be called 6S Premium.
In response, Xu Ran said, "It's better to be more reliable. Don't try to take advantage of others or over-market. If the traffic backfires, it will be very troublesome. Junzi is a ready example."
Finally, Xu Ran simply wrote, "Purely natural pressing, national-level food safety testing, safe to eat and use."
The small farm is about to produce its first product.
This time, instead of directly producing agricultural products, there is an additional secondary processing step.
This step is crucial for the farm.
"The next step is to see if we can pass Yonghui Supermarket's evaluation."
"It's approved. By partnering with top-tier supermarkets, the brand can gain a foothold with the support of this major player."
"If it doesn't pass the review, they'll just sell it themselves; it'll still be a small workshop."
"Both outcomes are acceptable. Even small workshops can gradually grow; there will always be opportunities."
Xu Ran was making plans in her mind.
As a farmer, he feels pressured every step forward the farm takes.
This is also where the fun and excitement of starting a business lie.
The outcome is uncertain; whether a brand becomes a sensation or remains unknown hinges on a single decision.