If silage corn is to grow, later-stage purchasing must keep up

In recent years, friends abroad would always ask me before returning home whether I needed them to bring back some milk powder. Six or seven years have passed since the melamine incident, and the national dairy industry is gradually recovering from the heavy blow. The dairy industry and the livestock industry are inextricably linked to agriculture, especially grain production.

During interviews, many livestock experts said that using silage corn as feed is the simplest way to increase dairy cow milk production and improve milk quality. Many large domestic dairy farms rent and contract land to grow silage corn, thereby providing better feed for their cows.

At present, corn's function as a staple food has basically been replaced by feed and industrial processing, with about 70% of corn used as feed and about 25% used for industrial processing. Rather than calling corn cultivation "growing grain," it would be better to call it "growing feed" or "growing raw materials." The feed grown in these cases is all grain corn, while silage corn is extremely scarce.

By conservative estimate, China's silage corn planting area could reach between 4500 and 5000 wan mu, which leaves enormous room for structural adjustment in the "sickle bend" region. In China's summer-sowing regions, silage corn yields about 4 to 5 tons per mu, while in spring-sowing regions the yield is about 5 to 6 tons, and the price of high-quality silage corn is about 0.4 yuan per kilogram. Calculated this way, the effect of growing silage corn on increasing farmers' income is evident.

Despite such benefits, farmers in many regions are still unwilling to grow silage corn. The biggest problem troubling them is: the fear that no one will buy it. If the dairy industry grows and strengthens, it can drive the silage corn planting industry, and an adequate supply of silage corn can in turn promote the rapid development of the dairy industry. These two industries should form a virtuous cycle in which both are fully connected, yet because of a single word, "fear," it has become a "dead cycle."

From planting, transportation, fermentation and storage to the final feeding, silage corn requires an interlocking chain to deliver the silage corn from the field into the cow's mouth. From breeding silage corn varieties, to planting, and then to the livestock industry, only by forming a complete industrial chain can the industry operate soundly, allowing silage corn to drive the dairy industry and the dairy industry to pull along silage corn.

Dairy cows are the consumers of silage corn; whatever cows like to eat and whatever produces good milk, breeders will select and breed accordingly. While breeding specialized silage corn varieties, it is also necessary to rationally lay out silage corn planting regions and livestock regions so that upstream and downstream connect smoothly. Structural adjustment in the sickle bend region is not simply a matter of switching from growing grain corn to growing silage corn; it is even more necessary to start from every link of the industry and, following the development logic of the industry, properly carry out the technology system, industrial layout, and supporting policies and regulations one by one.

Compared with grain corn, silage corn has both similarities and differences. Today the silage corn industry is like an infant, needing care, needing support, and even more needing nutrition. From varieties to planting and then to harvest and processing, a complete set of technology research and development systems is the backbone of silage corn industry development; rational and effective layout and arrangements that accurately connect with downstream pave the way for industrial development; and sound support policies and rules and regulations escort industrial development.