We are all reborn, who wants to be the richest man?

Starting from April every year, soybean farmers in the United States begin to get busy.

From south to north, sowing is basically completed in early April in the southern states, half a month later in the central states, and another half a month later in the northern states.

Soybeans are important to the United States, but not that important.

Unlike other countries that have used soybeans as food from the beginning, American people do not like to eat soybeans.

When it comes to supplementing protein, they prefer meat to soy products.

Because soybeans have a bean smell, American Chinese people don’t know how to handle them.

The Americans discovered that the meat they needed could be grown better and faster by raising soybeans, so they began to plant large quantities of soybeans due to market demand.

It can also be said that the United States initially planted crops for the purpose of feeding livestock. It is very sad, but it also shows the national strength of the United States in the early 20th century.

Another reason is that the American people found that soybeans were helpful for them to grow other crops.

Unlike other crops that absorb nutrients from the soil as they grow, soybean cultivation makes the soil fertile.

Because soybeans can coexist with rhizobia, this bacteria can absorb nitrogen from the air and convert it into nitrogen fertilizer for food growth.

So farmers in the United States usually rotate soybeans and corn, half soybeans and half corn. Some also rotate soybeans and cotton.

Large areas of plains are suitable for mechanized operations, agricultural technology is advanced, farmers are willing to rotate crops and increase soil fertilizer, and the local people don't like it.

All these conditions combined have made soybeans the most important crop in the United States, and are the reason why they are now the world's largest exporter of soybeans.

The small town of McCann in eastern Colorado is a famous soybean producing area in Colorado.

Strictly speaking, Colorado is not even one of the soybean-growing states in the United States. Its yield is only 0.5% and its area is only 300,000 acres.

Compared to crop production, livestock production accounts for a much larger proportion of agricultural products in Colorado.

Located on the only main road in the town of Michael, this is the town's business district.

Clinics, supermarkets, restaurants, gas stations, bars and other living and entertainment places are gathered here.

Not only the town of Michael, but all agricultural towns in the United States basically have this layout.

Hill Gas Station, a small gas station with only two gas pumps.

This gas station mainly serves the residents of the small town, and occasionally there are passing trucks that refuel here.

Mrs. Hill is usually the one in charge of the business. Mr. Hill has another job. He is the only veterinarian in the town and nearby towns, so he rarely helps out here and is very busy every day.

"squeak".

An old pickup truck that was built who knows how many years ago stopped at the Hill gas station.

Seeing the visitor, Mrs. Hill, who was watching TV in the house, hurried out to greet him. This was one of her big clients.

"Silas, are you going to buy a new car? Otherwise, it will fall apart one day."

"Save as much as you can, otherwise how would I have built such a big business."

Silas's farm is one of the larger farms in the town of Michael, covering more than 300 acres, probably less than 2,000 acres of land.

The land is large, the various agricultural machinery are larger and more numerous, and the oil consumed each year is also more.

Looking at the several large oil drums behind the old pickup truck, it shows that people came to buy oil before spring plowing.

"If you ask me, you'll have to change it sooner or later anyway, so why not change it now?

Isn't that Nissan pickup truck on sale? It's cheap and fuel-efficient, and it's enough for farm work. Niang's family bought one, and it looks good.

Your car is still usable, but if the discounts are gone and the price goes up in two years, you might as well change it now."

Mrs. Hill put the oil gun in the oil barrel and started to persuade the other party again.

It’s not that she can get any benefits from the other party buying a car, but the aunties from the beautiful country also like to chat.

The pickup truck she was talking about is Nissan Hardbody, also known as hardbody, but it is more familiarly called D21 in China.

This car began to be sold in the United States in 1985 and its sales were very good.

It is originally a compact pickup truck with a very affordable price. Now Nissan is developing a new version of D22, and D21 has also started to reduce prices to clear inventory in order to seize a share of the market.

Silas felt that Mrs. Hill's words made some sense and nodded. "I'll think about it and then go to Niang's house to see his car."

After talking about the car, the two talked about the most important spring plowing in the town.

"Silas, did your family also use Pioneer Seed's genetically modified soybean seeds this year?"

"Yes." Silas nodded. "It's Pioneer 033."

"Which kind of feed beans?"

The genetically modified seeds launched by Pioneer Seeds include the high-fat Pioneer 001, the high-protein Pioneer 003, the high-nutrition Pioneer 011, and the Pioneer 033 which is used as feed beans.

"That's right. According to the data provided by Pioneer Seeds, the planting cost of 033 is relatively low. If the per-acre yield they advertised is really achieved, then planting feed beans would be more appropriate."

In the past two years, the price of beef in the United States has risen, and the prices of corresponding feed, beans and forage have also risen.

Also, Silas's farm is their own farm, which is considered large in this small town, but it is not even a medium-sized farm in the United States.

In terms of cost, growing feed beans is easier to maintain and more cost-effective than those large and medium-sized farms.

"Really?" Mrs. Hill asked doubtfully.

“Are you sure you’re not growing fodder beans just for paving purposes?”

Silas's expression paused when he heard that. He walked to the back of the car to check the refueling situation. This could be considered one of the reasons.

Just this year, in order to promote the cultivation of Pioneer genetically modified soybeans, the Colorado government gave rare and huge preferential treatment.

As long as the land has been used to plant soybeans within two years, it can get subsidies. This subsidy is not calculated based on the land area, but on the yield per mu.

There is a reason for introducing this subsidy policy.

The first is the land that has been planted with soybeans within the past two years. Because the United States likes to rotate soybeans with corn, there will definitely be trouble if the time is set at one year.

Within two years, as long as you have planted soybeans, you can basically be confirmed as a soybean grower.

As for those that were more than two years old, Luo Nianzhong had no plan to let them plant them.

Colorado's geographical environment does not allow for large-scale soybean cultivation. Once soybean cultivation is allowed due to subsidies, a lot of land will be abandoned, and it will be difficult to grow forage grass and develop animal husbandry and the fruit and vegetable industry.

As for the subsidy, it is not calculated based on land area as in the past, but based on yield per mu, in order to encourage the main farmers in small towns like Silas to grow fodder beans.

Pioneer 033 feed beans have just been developed and have been launched on the market before large-scale experiments. Luo Nianzhong is testing them.

If feed beans can really meet previous per-acre yield expectations, it will undoubtedly reduce costs further for Colorado's livestock industry.

Pioneer Seeds can even influence the price of beef across the United States through seeds, which is very important.

In the past, livestock farming used soybean meal. Now I have soybean feed that is cheaper and more suitable for livestock growth. What do you think farmers will choose?

If food can control humans, who says it can’t control livestock?

Don’t you beautiful Chinese people dislike eating soy products? Then I will try another way and control you by controlling the food rations of livestock.

The jerry cans on the pickup were full. Silas checked them and asked Mrs. Hill to settle the bill.

Mrs. Hill frowned and asked in surprise, "Is this little oil enough?"

You have to know that during the spring plowing season in previous years, Silas Farm needed four or five trucks of oil, otherwise how could it be called a big customer.

"It's not possible today. I have to go to Old Paul to get fertilizers and pesticides. We'll deal with the rest tomorrow."

"That new DuPont Pioneer product?"

"That's right."

DuPont Pioneer, this company finally appeared.

Why are the costs of genetically modified crops low? In addition to high seed yields, the other reason is low labor costs, and labor costs refer to pesticides.

The farmers in the United States, or the capitalist farmers, are very different from those in the rabbit country.

Generally speaking, from seeds to fertilizers to pesticides to acquisitions, this set of processes may belong to different companies, but there must be a vested interest relationship.

When you use seeds, they will recommend you what fertilizers and pesticides to use. Farmers have no objection to this at all.

First of all, the products of fertilizers and pesticides are basically the same, and it doesn’t matter which one you use, as long as the effect is good.

As for who to sell to, that’s even simpler.

The selling price of agricultural products in the United States is not negotiated between farmers and buyers, but is set by Wall Street and Chicago futures exchanges.

The price of acquiring the company may be different, but it will not be more than a hundred or eighty yuan per ton.

With seeds, how could Pioneer Seeds give up the fertilizer and pesticide fields?

Fertilizers are easy to explain. Although there are more than 16 elements in plants, only of them are actually needed, namely carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese, zinc, copper, molybdenum, boron and chlorine.

The first nine plants absorb large amounts and are macronutrients.

The last seven are absorbed in smaller amounts and are called trace elements.

Rabbit has all these things now, and the Luo family has already increased their investment.

Does anyone know about urea bags? Before the 70s, urea from the island country occupied the absolute market.

The same is true for many fertilizers. It’s not that we can’t produce them, but that the technology is not good enough and the cost is too high.

However, the situation changed after the 70s. European and American countries opened up their technology and equipment to rabbits, and the country quickly used its accumulated foreign exchange savings of US$43 billion to introduce various equipment.

Of the first 26 large-scale modern factories built, 13 were fertilizer factories, with fertilizer output increasing from 1.3 million tons in the 80s to more than million tons in the s.

After entering the 4.5s, the Far East Group entered the market and invested a lot in the fertilizer industry. In less than ten years, the output has exceeded million tons. Now, not to mention self-use, even exports have begun to earn foreign exchange.

Compared with chemical fertilizers, the scientific and technological content and technical accumulation of pesticides are more important.

Ever since Luo Nianzhong pushed for the approval of genetically modified soybeans two years ago, he has never fallen behind in the layout of pesticides.

First, it merged with Copeland to divest Pioneer Seed's pesticide and fertilizer business, and then formed DuPont Pioneer with DuPont's pesticide and fertilizer business.

DuPont definitely accounts for the majority of this, as the business gap between the two companies is too huge.

In order to get more shares, Luo Nianzhong paid US$1.8 million to acquire a 42% stake in Pioneer Seeds.

It was impossible to just keep the money there, so DuPont Pioneer began its global layout and set its sights on Ciba-Geigy, a chemical company in Basel, Switzerland.

Ciba-Geigy was formed in 1970 through the merger of Ciba and Geigy.

Ciba is a century-old company that originally produced cloth dyes. In the 20th century, the company began to enter the field of antibacterial and anti-rheumatic drugs.

In 1954, Ciba began producing insecticides and entered the pesticide field.

Geigy has a longer history, having been founded as early as 1758. Like Ciba, it initially engaged in the dye business.

In 1935, Geigy began producing insecticides and planned to set up a pharmaceutical department.

In addition to having a certain position in the medical fields such as psychiatric drugs, diuretics, and epilepsy, it also has remarkable achievements in the field of pesticides.

In Europe, although Ciba-Geigy cannot be considered the top company in the pesticide field, it is also first-class and has its own market throughout Western Europe.

Ciba-Geigy's most famous product is DDT, which was developed in the 40s and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

After the merger, Ciba-Geigy did not give up its pace of innovation. In 1980, they founded Ciba Vision, the world's first company specializing in the manufacture of contact lenses and cleaning and protective solutions.

It has also made progress in the field of pesticides and medicines, and is one of the largest pesticide and medicine industry giants in Northern Europe.

DuPont Pioneer and Pfizer Squibb jointly acquired the company for US$11.3 billion.

This is also one of the reasons why Luo Nianzhong was able to obtain so many shares in DuPont Pioneer. It is hard to say who took advantage between DuPont and Luo Nianzhong.

DuPont gave up more shares, but still firmly held the right to speak.

Although Luo Nianzhong has made a strong presence in the pesticide field, he did so in exchange for his shares in Pfizer Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Cash plus stocks, or stocks of the world's largest pharmaceutical group, otherwise would Ciba-Geigy easily agree to be acquired?

Pfizer Bristol-Myers Squibb acquired Ciba-Geigy's pharmaceutical division for $1.8 million and $ million in stock.

DuPont Pioneer acquired the remaining business for US$4.5 million. After the acquisition, DuPont Pioneer sold the non-pesticide chemical business to DuPont Chemical for US$2.47 million.

For the time being, this is a collaboration that benefits all four parties, as Pfizer Bristol-Myers Squibb, DuPont Pioneer, and DuPont Chemical have all supplemented their own businesses.

The original shareholders of Ciba-Geigy acquired shares in the world's largest pharmaceutical company.

As for Luo Nianzhong, it cannot be said that he suffered a loss, because the Luo family has basically completed the upstream and downstream layout in the agricultural field.

It's not that I haven't thought about going it alone and abandoning DuPont.

However, there are only a few companies in the world that can enable Pioneer Seeds to quickly complete its layout in this field, and they are either from Germany or the United States.

Don’t even think about acquiring these companies with funds. Many people in the United States will not allow another pesticide giant to rise easily, so it is better to bring in DuPont.