A Summary of the pilot work of changing Grain to Feed in 10 provinces and regions

For grain farmers, the autumn harvest season in 2015 was a bit cold: as soon as the new corn came on the market, it suddenly encountered more drastic fluctuations in grain prices, not to mention the shrinking income of their hands, and difficulties in selling grain in some areas.

However, there is also a touch of light in the cold winter: in Yingxian County, Shanxi Province, one mu of corn can get at least 500 yuan of net income, and in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia, the figure is even close to 1000 yuan. How do you achieve good results? The answer is actually very simple, which is to change the utilization mode of corn from traditional grain harvesting and storage to whole plant silage. This is a pilot project launched by the Ministry of Agriculture in 10 provinces, autonomous regions and 30 counties across the country this year, and it is also a new attempt and initiative in the creation of agricultural policies under the background of the current agricultural restructuring.

The pilot project of changing grain to feed is progressing steadily.

Speaking of corn silage, Yang Peiwen, director of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau of Yingxian County, could not hide his joy.

Different from the previous autumn harvest, Yingxian harvested not grain corn but whole-plant silage corn this year. As of early October, a total of 330000 tons of local storage had been collected, and growers immediately received 150 million yuan in cash.

"it's hard to say whether the price of corn is good or not, let alone put cash in your pocket so soon." Speaking of this year's corn market, Yang Peiwen said that the current price of corn in Shanxi is less than 1 yuan per jin, but it reached 1.1-1.4 yuan in the same period last year.

In the pilot county of Shanxi, it is calculated that at least 3 tons of whole plant silage is produced per mu of land, which is 440-460 yuan per ton, that is, 1320-1380 yuan. "and three tons is still a low figure, with a high figure of six tons. Excluding chemical fertilizers, pesticides, water, and the cost collected by the machine, you can get a net profit of at least 500 yuan per mu of land. " Yang Peiwen said that this also saves a lot of processes, such as reducing time costs, labor intensity, and quick return of funds, but also to achieve the transformation of low-and medium-yield fields.

In the pilot county of northeast Liaoning, the deadline for this year's silage harvest has been set for September 28. Because of the severe drought, the harvest of corn is not ideal, but by comparison, the benefit of whole-plant silage corn is still higher. Chen Chong, deputy director of the grassland Department of the Liaoning Provincial Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau, told reporters that the purchase price of corn this year is 0.70-0.75 yuan per jin, with a gross income of 1200 yuan per mu, while the whole plant silage corn can earn 1800 yuan per mu if calculated at 5 tons. In addition, the harvest of complete plant silage corn, local farmers also replanted radish, coriander and so on, and further increased the benefit.

It is understood that so far, 10 provinces and autonomous regions across the country that have participated in the pilot have formulated pilot work plans--

Heilongjiang: 250000 mu of silage corn has been planted in three pilot counties this year, with an actual harvest of 1.09 million tons, of which 600000 tons of silage subsidies have been collected from dairy farms (communities) in pilot counties, with a subsidy standard of 50 yuan per ton. the project has transformed a total of 160000 mu of silage land.

Jilin: on September 11, Jilin Provincial Animal Husbandry Administration and Jilin Provincial Department of Finance issued the "implementation Plan for the pilot work of changing Grain to Feed in Jilin Province".

Liaoning: the silage reported by the three pilot counties is being verified on the spot one by one, and the subsidy funds will be allocated in the near future.

Inner Mongolia: on September 25, the Department of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry of Inner Mongolia Autonomous region and the Department of Finance jointly issued the implementation Plan for the pilot work of changing Grain to Feed to develop herbivorous Animal Husbandry.

Hebei: three counties (districts) of Xingtang County, Weichang County and Saibei Management District were selected to carry out the pilot work of changing grain to feeding.

Shaanxi: the pilot program is being implemented and the approval of subsidy funds is also under way.

Gansu: the implementation plan of the pilot project of changing grain to feed in 2015 was reported on September 21. At present, the implementation plan of Liangzhou, Ganzhou and Huanxian has been reported and can be approved and implemented in November.

Qinghai: at present, according to the pilot program, 330000 tons of forage grass has been silaged, accounting for about 70 percent of the task. this year, it is expected to receive 350000 tons of silage forage grass and 200000 tons of oat hay, exceeding the annual pilot task of subsidizing 450000 tons of forage grass.

Ningxia: the project acceptance work in each pilot county is being carried out in an orderly manner, and it is expected that the acceptance work will be completed in the near future.

The conversion of grain corn to whole plant silage has obvious efficiency.

When it comes to silage, we are no stranger, but when it comes to whole-plant corn silage, I believe many growers and farmers are not necessarily familiar with it. To put it simply, corn is no longer harvested, and corn stalks are all used as silage.

Yuzhu, a professor at China Agricultural University and a post scientist in the national forage industry technology system, told reporters that the whole silage corn has luxuriant stems and leaves, tall plants, and its yield is 2-3 times that of ordinary grain corn, and its price is higher than that of ordinary grain corn + straw. In addition, the cutting period of the whole plant corn is 15-20 days earlier, which may increase the land utilization rate of many kinds of half-season crops, at the same time, facilitate the mechanized production and reduce the processing cost.

According to the current average level, 400kg grain and 440kg straw are harvested in one mu of common corn, and the total income is about 1000 yuan. If the whole plant silage corn is calculated according to the biomass output of 3.5-4 tons per mu, the total income is 1200-1500 yuan.

Han Runying, director of the Science and Technology Office of the Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science in Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia, told reporters that due to different harvest positions, the biological yield of silage corn is 5 tons / mu and that of seed corn is 0.6 tons / mu. This year, the price of corn in Tongliao is about 0.80 yuan per jin, and one ton is 1600 yuan, plus 100 yuan per mu of straw, the net income of common grain corn per mu is 565 yuan. According to the current average purchase price of 450 yuan / ton, the net income of commercial silage corn per mu is 1755 yuan, which is 1190 yuan more than that of planting ordinary grain corn. Of course, the transport distance needs to be taken into account.

In the process of breeding, compared with the traditional feeding method of separate forage and concentrate, the economic benefit of corn whole plant silage is also very obvious. According to Tang Hongcheng, person in charge of Shandong Xianglong Niu Sheep Donkey breeding Base, the feed cost of a beef cow can be reduced by 900 yuan. According to the 50% meat production rate of a beef cow, a 600kg adult beef cow produces 300kg meat, which translates to a corresponding reduction of more than 3000 yuan per ton of beef.

Wang Mingli, a researcher at the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, calculated an account for the reporter. For a lactating cow with a yield of about 5 tons per unit area, the "high quality forage + concentrate" feeding mode is better than the traditional "straw + concentrate" feeding mode. the daily milk yield can generally be increased by about 1.5 kg, the milk protein and milk fat rate are significantly increased, while the incidence of dairy cows is significantly reduced. On the whole, a cow can increase its benefit by about 2000 yuan per year.

In addition to economic benefits, the ecological benefits of whole plant silage corn are also obvious. The whole plant silage of corn not only needs not to consider the secondary storage of straw, but also avoids the environmental problems caused by straw burning.

Yang Fu, a professor at China Agricultural University who is committed to silage research, said that vigorously promoting the conversion of grain to feed is to achieve "improving soil and increasing grain." The introduction of forage into the field can improve the medium-and low-yield fields, increase the content of soil organic matter by about 20%, and increase grain output by 10% and 18%. Second, it can achieve "saving grain and increasing efficiency". Every 5% increase in the proportion of herbivorous livestock and meat can save about 14 million tons of grain, which is about 44 million mu of arable land. Third, it can achieve "increasing grass and livestock." The development of grain to feed is equivalent to the development of nutrient agriculture, the same soil and water resources, if the production of forage (forage crops), biological yield can be increased by more than 30%, harvested energy is 3-5 times more than grain, protein is 4-8 times more than grain. Therefore, the development of grain to feed closely combines planting and breeding, grass and livestock, product safety and environmental safety, in line with the principle of the unity of ecological, economic and social benefits, and in line with the development direction of international animal husbandry.

The industry calls for the deepening of the pilot project of changing grain to feed.

In accordance with the requirements of the pilot project of changing grain to feed, the state finance gives each pilot county an average annual subsidy of 10 million yuan, with an implementation period of three years. However, in the view of Xie Zhuo, director of the forage workstation in Shanxi Province, the financial subsidy of 10 million yuan for each county is obviously not enough. He also admitted to reporters that at present, there are mainly three major problems in promoting the conversion of grain to feed: "difficulties in guiding farmers to adjust production, difficulties in forage collection and storage, and difficulties in enterprise turnover." It is difficult to guide farmers to adjust production, on the one hand, because farmers are unwilling to adjust the land and recommend it, on the other hand, there are subsidies and benefits for growing grain, and the benefits can not be reflected immediately, so farmers' enthusiasm for recommendation is not high. Forage harvesting and storage is difficult because there is a time limit for forage harvesting and storage, but due to the influence of labor and harvesting machinery, it is often difficult to complete forage harvesting and storage in a short time, resulting in a great waste. The difficulty of enterprise turnover is due to the fact that enterprises need a lot of funds to purchase forage grass and develop production, but at present, banks are lack of policies on enterprise working capital loans, and there are many difficulties in enterprise operation.

Chen Liang, senior pastor of forage regulation department of Ningxia Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Department, also told reporters that the state financial subsidy funds are indeed limited, but limited to the financial resources of local governments, there is no additional subsidy funds at present.

In terms of subsidy standards, the storage subsidy standards of Ningxia grain feeding pilot districts and counties vary greatly this year, with 22 yuan per ton in Litong District, 50 yuan per ton in Helan County and 70 yuan per ton in Shapotou District. For some large-scale local enterprises, the storage capacity is capped at 400000 tons.

On the issue of inconsistent subsidy standards, Chen Liang explained to reporters that at present, the three districts and counties in Ningxia are all allocated according to the amount of breeding, and they have indeed capped the reserves collected by enterprises, that is, the reserves collected by a single enterprise cannot exceed 400000 tons. Because "too many monks are in short supply", the government needs to take into account the overall interests of growers in the three districts and counties.

In this regard, Yuzhu analysis said that at present, the distribution of market interests in the process of whole-plant corn silage is uneven, including landowners, seed dealers, agricultural material dealers, machinery and equipment owners, growers, breeding enterprises, middlemen, insurance companies, etc., often growers' interests can not be guaranteed and bear greater risks, so government management departments should take the initiative to undertake the functions of coordination, organization, service, supervision and so on. In order to realize the benefit sharing of all parties concerned.

Yang Fu believes that: first, it is necessary to accurately grasp the industrial positioning and strengthen the combination of "planting and breeding" on how to solidly promote the conversion of grain to feed. Forage cultivation should be closely combined with herbivore breeding, and the whole industry chain production system of planting-forage processing-organic meat and milk production-halal food processing (by-product processing)-trade (logistics) should be established. take sightseeing pastures as the main body to develop modern leisure tourism, create ecological, circular, organic, efficient and high-value farming industry; second, strengthen scientific and technological support and establish an integrated technical system of grass and livestock. Focusing on the respective characteristics of grass and livestock, we should focus on the three major safety (food security, food security, ecological security) and four key directions (product safety, output efficiency, resource conservation and environmental friendliness). Overall planning to carry out technical research and technical support, such as breeding of grass and livestock varieties, development and utilization of forage and non-grain feed resources, biological fermented feed preparation, grass-animal energy (fertilizer) cycle, high-efficiency coupling of grass and livestock, etc. Improve the land output rate, labor productivity and resource utilization rate, and establish a technical system for the integration of grass and livestock. Third, it is necessary to strengthen policy support and the combination of industry, university, research and application, support a number of large-scale enterprises such as commercial forage cultivation, processing, sales and logistics, and promote industrial development.

"although at present, the conversion of grain to feed is only a pilot project in 10 provinces and autonomous regions, the future development trend is to promote it throughout the country." Wang Mingli told reporters.

On November 2, the Ministry of Agriculture issued the guidance on Maize structure Adjustment in the "sickle bend" area. It is clear that by 2020, the corn planting area in the "sickle bend" area, which accounts for about 1 percent of the country's perennial corn planting area, will be stable at 100 million mu, more than 50 million mu less than at present, with emphasis on the development of silage corn, soybeans, high-quality forage grasses, miscellaneous grains and beans, spring wheat, economic forest fruits and ecological functional plants. We will promote the close integration of agriculture and animal husbandry and the deep integration of industries, and promote the improvement of agricultural efficiency and industrial upgrading. The "opinion" points out that this area is a typical dry farming area and an advantageous area for the development of animal husbandry, the ecological environment is fragile, the corn yield is low and unstable, and optimizing the corn planting structure in this area is not only an active act of adaptability, but also a strategic and positive adjustment.

This shows that under the strategy of "food security", livestock feed grain has been brought into policy consideration, establishing a complete ternary planting structure of grain, opening up the circulation channels of the planting and breeding industry, and prolonging the industrial chain. improving comprehensive efficiency has become an important starting point for building a new agricultural structure.