My autobiography is definitely not a tragedy! -
Chapter 139 - 115: Survival Base
Chapter 139: Chapter 115: Survival Base
The next morning, Meng Lang followed Mr. Meng to a pig farm located on the west side of the village.
Upon entering the iron gate, they saw a small old man with a cigarette in his mouth, dressed in a blue coat and black rubber boots, carrying a bucket of feed, apparently preparing to feed the pigs.
"Uncle Gen!"
"Yo! It’s Xiao Lang, what brings you here today?"
The old man revealed a deeply wrinkled smile.
Although Uncle Gen was quite a bit older than Mr. Meng, they were peers and relatives within the five degrees of kinship. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say he had watched Meng Lang and his siblings grow up.
"Yeah! I’m back home and came over with my dad for a visit. I heard you guys have been arguing again?" Meng Lang didn’t shy away from the topic and directly asked with a smile.
"Hey! It’s just that trivial matter. A few of us, seeing that the pork market hasn’t been good lately, thought about raising fewer pigs this year and doing some repairs on the farm buildings.
Your dad disagrees. He says the market varies with three days of clear skies followed by two days of rain. He expects the market will bounce back once the next batch of piglets fattens up and says something about expanding the breeding scale to reduce costs. Basically, everyone has their own opinion," Uncle Gen explained.
Well! It was clear as day—one was a conservative traditionalist and the other was a radical younger generation.
"I see, I think both of your points make sense."
"You just know how to play peacemaker," Uncle Gen teased with a laugh.
"Has the pork price been very low recently?" Meng Lang asked.
From his previous grocery shopping trip with Xiao Yu, it did seem like the market price of pork had indeed dropped significantly.
"Yes! Now, live pigs are only 5 yuan per jin. If the price doesn’t rise, we might really be facing a tough year with the northwest wind!" Uncle Gen shook his head with a sigh.
"These price fluctuations are normal. It can’t possibly stay this low forever. The country definitely won’t let everyone do business at a loss, right?"
At that moment, Mr. Meng also came out in a set of work clothes, putting forward his own argument.
Well! In any case, one must trust the party.
"But, we still have to wait for the policy to come out. You can’t rush hot tofu!"
"By the time the policy comes out, the day lilies might have already cooled," said Uncle Gen.
Meng Lang followed behind the two men, wandering around the pig farm. He listened to them bicker with a smile and occasionally lent a hand.
Naturally, the environment of a pig farm wasn’t exactly wonderful, and that indescribable ammonia smell would probably deter 99% of young people.
The pig farm wasn’t very large, occupying about three hundred square meters, and housed a total of more than a hundred sows and seven or eight boars.
Including Mr. Meng, the nominal "general manager," there were 5 workers altogether, all of whom were also shareholders. It was the typical rural self-breeding and self-raising model, which meant no external procurement of piglets, relying on natural breeding and self-sufficiency instead.
Each year the farm sold over a thousand pigs, and the profits earned were highly dependent on the current price of live pigs and the cost of feed.
When the market was good, the profit per pig could be in the hundreds; when the market was bad, it could even result in a loss.
Currently, the pig farm had five shareholders. In the past few years, Mr. Meng’s thirty percent share could net him over a hundred thousand yuan annually—a significant income in the rural area.
In 2016, when the price of live pigs soared, everyone made a good profit from the pig farm. That year, just after Meng Lang graduated, Mr. Meng started to entertain the idea of having him take over the family business.
But as everyone knows, Meng Lang panicked and bolted straight away...
There was the story of the Yanjing University talent who turned to selling pork and made a successful comeback, followed by the neighbor Wugang diversifying and entering the pig farming business.
However, coming home to modernize agriculture, open an online store, or even do live streaming would sound better than pig farming, wouldn’t it?
Like many young people, Meng Lang, fresh out of university and not yet worn down by society, wasn’t content with remaining in the countryside as a professional pig farmer.
In the last two years, Mr. Meng’s attitude had softened, and he started suggesting that Meng Lang find a steady job in a town nearby, such as becoming a government official or a language teacher.
This was mainly because the market had been poor these past two years, and the profit from the pig farm had naturally plummeted.
This greatly dashed Mr. Meng’s ambitious dream of expanding the pig farm into a strong and successful family enterprise.
In fact, over these past two years, the lack of a rise in the price of live pigs was not only due to the increasing amount of imported pork entering the domestic market for profit but also largely attributed to the surge in the supply of live pigs.
Despite the environmental policies of the past two years eliminating a number of pig breeding capabilities, neither the expansion of capacities by rural small and medium-sized pig farms nor the slightly reduced capabilities due to environmental elimination had a significant impact on the supply of live pigs.
The real substantial impact on the live pig market supply and demand came from large-scale agricultural and animal husbandry groups.
According to statistics, in the first quarter of 2018, the domestic agricultural and animal husbandry listed companies saw a staggering 135% surge in live pig supply!
The scale of these agricultural conglomerates was already considerable, but their pig breeding and supply volumes were continuing to surge at an alarming rate, further bolstered by the cost advantages of large-scale farming.
Their growing pig breeding and slaughtering volumes were squeezing the survival space of small and medium-sized pig farms in rural areas.
According to predictions, this year, the supply of pigs by large-scale breeding conglomerates will increase by at least 20%, while the output of small rural pig farms will plummet by at least 15%.
It was precisely because of the continuous explosive growth in pig supply that the balance between supply and demand was disrupted.
From the start of the decline in pork prices in 2017, by 2018, pork prices took a drastic plunge!
In transitioning from an agricultural nation to an industrial one, "sheep eating people" is an unavoidable issue.
Industrialization naturally improves production efficiency, and thus the more industrialized the country, the fewer agricultural and pastoral workers are needed, leading to massive bankruptcies among farmers.
Considering that there are still 40% of rural population in the country, their bankruptcy, coupled with insufficient job opportunities in towns, would pose a significant social risk.
Therefore, many times, it’s not that Country Hua is incapable of engaging in large-scale farming and breeding like developed countries abroad, where a single button press sets machines roaring into action, followed by reading newspapers and sipping coffee.
It’s that such actions would deliver a devastating blow to the small-farm economy.
Everything needs a transition, and managing a large country is like delicate cooking; overstepping can lead to serious missteps.
But this is only a temporary compromise of the times; as long as society continues to progress, the trend toward large-scale production is irreversible.
Standing atop a high hill, gazing down at the workshop below and the surrounding rolling hills, Meng Lang jotted and sketched in the notebook he carried with him.
"I say, what exactly are you here to do today?" came Mr. Meng’s voice from behind.
Meng Lang turned his head to look and didn’t know when Mr. Meng had followed him up.
Mr. Meng glanced at the notebook in his hand, "Those who know would think you are my son, those who don’t would think you’re an inspecting official."
"Oh, nothing much, I was just thinking that under your wise leadership, the pig farm is thriving, but the pollution issue is quite severe."
"Nonsense, what pig farm doesn’t pollute the environment?" Mr. Meng rolled his eyes.
"Hmm! So, for the future of green mountains and clear waters in Meng Family Village, I plan to arrange an investment for you, to transform this into an eco-friendly pig farm!"
Meng Lang made a sweeping gesture with his hand.
"Here’s the pig farm, over there we can build a few biogas pools and fecal waste treatment areas, dig an artificial lake downstream to breed fish, build several fruit and vegetable greenhouses adjacent, and turn that mountaintop into a free-range area to keep chickens and ducks to enrich the diet..."
"Stop, stop, stop!" Mr. Meng interjected with a sense of puzzlement. "Investment? Where are you going to find the investment?"
"Do you think I don’t know what an eco-friendly farm looks like? But do you realize how much money that would require? Do you want me to transform a small pig farm into an eco-friendly operation, or has water gotten into your brain?"
"Hmm..." Meng Lang considered for a moment, then asked, "I remember Dad, you own a 30% share, right? How much did you guys invest in this factory in total?"
"About 150,000 or so, why?"
"150,000... Well, I have two proposals, first is to purchase their shares for double the original investment amount, switching to hire contractual workers.
Second is to wait for the investment to come in and dilute their shares proportionally, what do you think, Dad?"
"You really can bring in the investment?"
Seeing Meng Lang seriously discussing the matter, Mr. Meng was somewhat uncertain if the young man was joking.
"Would I lie to you? Do you see me as someone who likes to boast? It’s just that our company is indeed looking to break into the breeding industry."
After some thought, Mr. Meng, perhaps considering that Meng Lang’s company’s boss really had the means, hesitantly asked, "How much investment can you bring in?"
"The first phase of investment... let’s say 10 million," Meng Lang pondered.
Mr. Meng’s eyes bulged, 10 million? And that’s just the first phase?
This pig farm has only a 150,000 investment, and you are talking about a 10 million capital injection?
Is this a matter of diluting shares? This is more like being washed away in a flood!
"No, what exactly does your company’s boss want to do?"
What does he want to do?
Meng Lang let out a slight sigh.
What else to do but try to build a sanctuary for surviving the apocalypse...
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