As the golden autumn season arrives with thriving crops and beautiful landscapes, the cornfields across various villages in Jiuhe Township of Yulong County are lush and green, with plump stalks ready for harvest. This marks the prime time for the centralized cutting and sale of whole-plant silage corn. The roar of harvesters echoes through the fields as farmers seize the sunny weather to cut, bundle, and transport their crops. At the silage corn purchasing stations, the bustle of activity paints a vivid picture of a bountiful harvest bringing prosperity to the people.
As a traditionally significant agricultural township in Yulong County, Jiuhe Township boasts fertile land and excellent planting conditions. Its large-scale, high-quality corn production has made it a vital area for premium silage feed in the county, with the Jiuhe Village Committee alone cultivating over 3,000 mu of silage corn. In previous years, farmers faced challenges such as long distances for off-site sales, high transportation costs, and extended turnaround times for payment. This autumn harvest season, Lijiang Niuyangben Agricultural and Livestock Technology Co., Ltd. took the initiative to reach the grassroots level by establishing a purchasing station at the Jiuhe Village Committee office. This setup has eliminated the need for long-distance hauling, reduced intermediate losses, and enabled farmers to harvest, sell nearby, and increase their income quickly, effectively bridging the final mile for turning agricultural products into cash.
At the break of dawn, farmers from various villages in Jiuhe Township rush to make the most of the clear weather, busy cutting silage corn. The processes of bundling and loading are completed in one smooth motion, and trucks loaded with green stalks steadily pull into the purchasing station at Xinhaiyi Village Group under the Jiuhe Village Committee. The weigh-in, registration, verification, and settlement procedures all operate with remarkable efficiency. During the purchasing process, the company maintains transparent accounting and high-efficiency payment, operating a settlement mechanism that prioritizes cash and completes payments within one day, fulfilling the promise of selling today and receiving payment tomorrow. Even in special situations where financial documentation is temporarily delayed, the company never owes farmers a single penny, alleviating their concerns about difficult sales and slow payment recovery.
"I have been growing silage corn for over a decade, and this year has been the most worry-free with the lowest selling costs," beamed Liu Jiafeng, a villager from Xinhaiyi Village Group under the Jiuhe Village Committee. Since 2013, her family has consistently grown 30 mu of silage corn. In previous years, they had to transport their harvest over long distances to Jianchuan for sale, which was time-consuming, labor-intensive, and expensive. Adverse weather could also lead to stalk spoilage, causing significant fluctuations in planting income. Now, with a standardized purchasing station right at their doorstep, they can harvest and sell on-site without the need for stockpiling or travel, greatly reducing planting and selling costs and ensuring that a good harvest genuinely translates into increased income for farmers.
"Silage corn eliminates the tedious steps of threshing and drying, saving both time and labor. Coupled with nearby purchasing and reliable payment, the villagers are highly motivated to plant and sell. Whole-plant purchasing ensures that what farmers grow is maximized into tangible returns," explained Yang Yanmei, deputy director of the Jiuhe Village Committee. Compared to the traditional model of growing and selling regular corn, silage corn offers higher returns and easier sales. This new model of enterprise-designated purchasing has solved the industry pain points of narrow sales channels and low monetization efficiency, effectively revitalizing the local planting industry.
He Zhijian, the head of Lijiang Niuyangben Agricultural and Livestock Technology Co., Ltd., stated that leveraging Jiuhe Township's unique planting conditions and ample production capacity, the company has established its core silage purchasing station here. With an average daily purchase volume reaching 200 to 300 tons and a purchasing period extending beyond 40 days, the company sets no upper limit on purchase quantities, fully ensuring that farmers' crops are collected in full without waste and every grain is secured.
It is understood that Lijiang Niuyangben Agricultural and Livestock Technology Co., Ltd. focuses on the development of the entire highland livestock industry chain. The company operates nearly 4,000 mu of large-scale forage planting bases in Lashi and Baisha within Yulong County, as well as Shuhe in Gucheng District. It consistently provides high-quality forage and professional livestock technical support to local farming entities, contributing to the healthy development of the planting-breeding circular industry.
The collaboration between agriculture and enterprise boosts income, while the circular system of planting and breeding revitalizes rural areas. He Zhijian noted that the company will continue to deepen its cooperation model with farmers, uniformly providing high-quality, high-starch corn seedlings, and optimizing the entire process of planting, purchasing, and settlement services. This will persistently drive farmers to improve quality, increase production, and stabilize income, ensuring that fertile fields continue to yield bountiful harvests and that the harvest is translated into tangible gains on household balance sheets, thereby supporting industrial prosperity to enhance agricultural quality, industry efficiency, and farmers' income.