Chapter 253: Feed

The next day after waking up, Zhou Yimin habitually checked the 1 Yuan purchase in his mind’s supermarket. Today’s 1 Yuan items were: 100 jin of feed, 100 jin of palm oil, 100 braised ducks, and 100 jin of cotton.

Feed?

Zhou Yimin was momentarily stunned—he hadn’t expected something like that to show up.

His first thought was of the chickens being raised in the village.

Feed-raised chickens might not taste as good, but they grow fast! And in times like these, fast growth is all that matters. Who even cares how good it tastes?

Palm oil, also known as palm kernel oil, is a tropical woody plant oil and currently the most produced, consumed, and traded vegetable oil in the world. Alongside soybean oil and canola oil, it’s considered one of the “three major vegetable oils of the world” and has a history of over 5,000 years as an edible oil.

To be honest, Zhou Yimin didn’t really like the taste of it.

But in this era, any kind of edible oil is a treasure. No one’s picky.

He planned to bring it back to the village.

Right now, the village was undergoing major “infrastructure” work. Lacking oil and water just wouldn’t do.

Seeing the cotton, Zhou Yimin finally noticed that the weather had started to cool.

After brushing his teeth and washing his face, and eating a bit of food, he drove his truck over to Zhoujiazhuang.

At that time in Zhoujiazhuang, under the direction of the old village secretary, the villagers had already harvested the baby bok choy and string beans. They were just waiting for Zhou Yimin to arrive so they could start loading the truck.

They didn’t have to wait long—Zhou Yimin soon arrived at Zhoujiazhuang.

When Zhou Xucai saw the truck coming, he immediately shouted, “Yimin’s here!”

Everyone nearby was startled by his sudden outburst.

Zhou Xuqing complained, “Lao Cai, did you have to shout so loud?”

Everyone had been busy building the reservoir. They were already tired enough, waking up at four or five in the morning to harvest vegetables, and after they were done, they’d still have to go back and help with the construction.

“Yeah, I finally managed to sneak in a quick nap and you woke me up again,” another villager added with a grumble—though he didn’t seem too upset.

Zhou Xucai quickly apologized, “Sorry, sorry!”

While everyone was still reacting, Zhou Yimin had already parked the truck.

“Thanks for the hard work, everyone,” Zhou Yimin said. “Let’s load up the truck.”

Since he came by himself this time, he didn’t bring anyone from the accounting team. Zhoujiazhuang could handle the weighing themselves—there wouldn’t be any issue of under- or over-reporting.

“Come on, let’s load up! Once we’re done, we have to get back to building the reservoir,” the old village secretary clapped his hands and called out.

“Oh, by the way, there are two barrels of oil and two sacks of feed in the back of the truck—go ahead and unload those. That’s palm oil. Send one barrel to the school, and you all can use the other one. As for the feed, it’s for the chickens,” Zhou Yimin instructed.

The old secretary and the others lit up with joy as soon as they heard that.

They were short on oil and water for all the heavy labor!

As for the feed, many of them were hearing about it for the first time.

“Well? Hurry and unload it!” the old secretary shouted.

He mentally made a note of the cost—he’d reimburse Zhou Yimin for it later.

“Yimin, this feed is for chickens? How much do we give them each time?” the old secretary asked, clearly unfamiliar with it.

“You’ll have to figure out the exact amount yourselves. I’m not really sure either. I just know that feed speeds up the growth of poultry,” Zhou Yimin replied.

As everyone knew, China’s feed industry had started late. Before the Reform and Opening-up, people’s knowledge of feed was basically nonexistent, and the farming industry was progressing extremely slowly, still stuck in primitive conditions.

At this time, rural farming was mostly done by scattered households—your family raises three to five chickens, mine raises a pig. That was how it was. And most of the feed came from kitchen slop mixed with wild greens.

If memory served, it wasn’t until 1979 when the Charoen Pokphand Group entered the Chinese market that commercial feed truly appeared in China.

Mention Charoen Pokphand, and most folks born in the ’70s and ’80s might think of CP Variety Show or CP Plaza. But in truth, the group began in the grain industry and gradually expanded from grains to feed, to farming, and trade, eventually becoming a diversified conglomerate.

This group was the first to “eat the crab” of commercial feed in China.

For a long time, China’s commercial feed industry was monopolized by foreign companies. Feed remained a mysterious product—its formulas, production, and effects on animal growth were all unknown.

It wasn’t until four Liu brothers from Sichuan founded the first domestic feed company that the foreign monopoly began to break.

After more than a decade of accumulating experience, and thanks to pioneering entrepreneurs who paved the way, China’s feed industry developed rapidly.

By the 21st century, China’s feed technology had undergone a full transformation—from production monitoring to formula tech to raw material quality control. Everything was refined. Production processes became more sophisticated, and feed formulations more precise.

China’s feed industry had reached its most glorious era.

After hearing all this, the old secretary and the others looked at those two sacks of feed with blazing eyes.

Something that could make chickens grow faster? That was absolutely a good thing! They’d been worrying about how long it took to raise chickens. The first batch would take at least six months to mature!

Everyone quickly moved to unload the oil and feed from the truck.

The old secretary had someone carry the feed along with him to the chicken-raising area on the mountain.

Zhoujiazhuang’s villagers started working in earnest.

All that produce had covered the ground, but with so many hands, it didn’t take even an hour before the truck was fully loaded.

Seeing that the truck was packed, Zhou Yimin said, “Alright, I’ll take the vegetables back first.”

“Yimin, wait a second. Could you give me a ride to the commune while you’re heading that way?” the brigade leader asked.

“Sure, but what are you going to the commune for?” Zhou Yimin asked.

“I need to apply for blasting caps. Engineer Xu said if we had those, the construction progress would go much faster,” the brigade leader explained.

“Alright then, hop in!” Zhou Yimin nodded.

After all, it was on the way—and even if it wasn’t, he wouldn’t have refused the brigade leader’s request.

The brigade leader hopped in quickly. Getting a ride like this? He’d be able to brag about it for days. After all, in the entire capital, only major factories like the steel plant had trucks.

Walking from Zhoujiazhuang to the commune would take over an hour. Even by bicycle, it’d be more than half an hour. But with a truck, it only took a little over ten minutes.

Once they arrived at the commune, the brigade leader was reluctant to get off.

But after he did, he stood a little straighter—he even felt like he walked with more swagger.

When the commune staff saw a truck full of vegetables pull in, they were mildly shocked. Usually trucks only came for deliveries, and very rarely otherwise—especially not dropping off just one person.

Some even thought it might be some official coming for an inspection and rushed out to greet them, only to find it was just the brigade leader from Zhoujiazhuang.

Even their own commune didn’t have a truck—at most, a few tractors.

And in the countryside, owning tractors was already considered high-end. The more tractors a commune had, the more powerful and confident it was—and the louder they could speak.

With everyone’s eyes on him, the brigade leader stood straighter than ever, feeling a real sense of pride.

(End of Chapter)