How can straw return to the field be made more efficient? Agricultural machinery operations need more effort
In 2015, the central government allocated 800 million yuan to support and encourage the promotion of soil improvement techniques and increase soil organic matter content, among which "comprehensively promoting integrated straw return technology" is one of the main uses of this funding. Pan Wenbo, deputy director of the Planting Industry Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, told reporters that in recent years, local governments and agricultural departments have vigorously promoted straw return, which has received positive responses from farmers, especially large grain growers, family farms and other new types of business entities. In the Huang-Huai-Hai region of Shandong and Hebei, as well as Jiangsu, Anhui and other provinces in the south, the results have been relatively obvious.
To do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools. Straw return depends on agricultural machinery leading the way, requiring the coordinated use of harvesting and cutting, mechanical pulverization, deep plowing and return equipment, and it also needs to be adapted to local conditions. At the end of May, the reporter accompanied the "Cross-regional Demonstration of Straw Return Agricultural Machinery Operations" organized by Shandong Changlin Group, and visited parts of Shandong and Jiangsu provinces on the ground to learn about the difficulties and breakthroughs in promoting integrated straw return technology.
High agricultural machinery prices are unaffordable for some farmers
In order to seize the farming season and secure a bumper harvest, the time for crop rotation must be shortened as much as possible. How to handle crop straw is an ancient question of traditional agriculture. In the southern rice regions, there is the problem of harvesting early rice and returning it to the field while rushing to transplant late rice; in North China, the transition between wheat and corn stubble faces an even larger problem of straw disposal.
In the past, under the household-based planting model, straw was generally used by being gathered and taken home as firewood, burned at the edge of the field, or used as livestock feed. In the process of moving from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, the "ancient question" has gained a new answer, namely "straw return," with the use of large machinery solving the problem.
Yu Jiahua, general manager of Shandong Changlin Group's Ingersoll Rand company, said, "Mechanization as a carrier is a tremendous advance in productivity. But traditional small machines cannot meet current needs. Relying on 90 horsepower or 120 horsepower with a small rotary tiller? That cannot solve the problem."
At the Jichang Agricultural Mechanization Service Farmers' Professional Cooperative in Tancheng County, Shandong Province, some relatively old tractors and implements are placed. Chairman Zheng Jichang told the reporter that mechanical harvesting of nearby crops is basically his responsibility, and some machines have been modified by him to be simple and practical. When asked why he does not replace them with new implements, he felt that new machines are relatively expensive, often tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands [yuan], creating financial pressure.
At the machinery storage point of a farm in Lianyungang City under Jiangsu State Farms Group, there are brand-new and semi-new agricultural machines of various horsepower, including John Deere C230, 3518, Dongfanghong 1204, 1304 and other models; there are also various supporting implements for sowing, fertilizing and loosening soil. This year the farm also plans to purchase a batch of new implements to better handle the straw return problem. The farm manager said: "High-horsepower, well-equipped machinery is the most useful, and of course the price is also high. Only those with economic strength can afford it."
Why is the ban on straw burning repeatedly violated rather than stopped? Mr. Wang from the farm's agricultural machinery service station told the reporter that the current straw recovery procedure is relatively lengthy, involving baling, loading, transporting and so on, with relatively high costs. Part of the recovered straw is not smoothly utilized, and together with the habits formed by farmers over thousands of years, these are the reasons straw continues to be burned.
High horsepower has great power; whether the choice of implements is appropriate is very important
On May 31, the weather cleared, and Shandong Changlin Group's Ingersoll Rand company began on-site demonstration operations at the Jiangsu State Farms farm. Pointing to the pulverized straw, Yu Jiahua said that some straw still has problems after being pulverized and returned to the field, including shallow stubble burial and straw being left too long. This farm is located south of the Qinling Mountains-Huaihe River line and grows two crops a year, planting wheat in the first half of the year and rice in the second half. Around June 5, wheat is harvested on a large scale, and around June 10, rice transplanting begins, with only about a week in between. If wheat straw is not thoroughly pulverized when returned to the field, it will affect rice transplanting.
Farm staff member Mr. Zhang said: "This year the farm introduced rice pot seedling placement and mechanical transplanting technology, which has the characteristics of fast greening and seedling establishment, high survival rate, longer seedling age and low planting soil requirements. But if the straw is not thoroughly pulverized, the survival rate of rice transplanted onto the straw by machine is low." According to local farmers, straw that has not been thoroughly pulverized floats on the water surface and can also affect the growth of rice seedlings.
Staff from Shandong Changlin Group told the reporter that the implements brought for this demonstration operation included notched disc harrows, stubble-clearing rotary tillers, hydraulic reversible strip plows and so on. After crop harvest, the straw is mechanically pulverized, and then through tillage the pulverized straw is directly turned and pressed into the soil. If the implements are properly selected, the straw is chopped and mixed with the soil. After many consecutive years, this can improve the looseness and permeability of the soil, restore soil organic matter, and thereby achieve the effects of building soil fertility, improving the soil and reducing fertilizer application.
This farm has a total cultivated area of about 150,000 mu. This demonstration operation was carried out on a contiguous plot of 17,000 mu in one production area. The plot is large, allowing 160 and 260 horsepower large agricultural machines to fully operate. Technical personnel in the production area felt on site that "the pulverization effect of the implements is good, far superior to past agricultural machinery operations of 110-130 horsepower." Some observers at the site also believed that high-horsepower agricultural machinery is expensive and consumes a lot of fuel, so whether it is cost-effective to use still requires calculation.
From agricultural machinery design to field operation, attention must be paid to the integration of agricultural machinery and agronomy
Yu Jiahua believes that while operators understand agricultural machinery knowledge and technical operations, they should also have some understanding of the habits of different soils and crops. For example, sandy soil is relatively soft, so there is no need to choose too high horsepower for tillage; while clay soil is highly sticky when wet and relatively hard when dry, so high-horsepower machinery is not necessarily easy to use either. "The design concept for our implements comes from agronomy, and we carry out customized production according to different conditions and situations such as crops, soil and climate in different regions."
Shandong Changlin Group was originally an obscure small enterprise in Linshu County with net assets of no more than 10 million yuan. Under the leadership of chairman Zhang Yihua, it developed into a large national private group company integrating four core business segments: agricultural machinery, engineering machinery, high-precision casting and high-end hydraulic components. What it relied on was business development concepts such as adapting to users, adapting to agricultural conditions and adapting to the market.
"Changlin starts from a certain point. Although it is a single spark, it can ignite a field of hope," Yu Jiahua said. Continuously developing implements suited to the current situation and identifying the characteristics of Chinese-style conditions, even down to the characteristics of a region or a piece of farmland, is one direction for future technological innovation-driven development in the agricultural machinery field.
"Large areas of land require skilled operators who are familiar with the environment. We say that to farm the land, first work the soil, and after working the soil, cultivate people. Working the soil means making the soil environment suitable for the growth of seeds and seedlings, and cultivating people means training new types of operators." Regarding the current gap between old and young operators in the mechanization process, Yu Jiahua expressed concern.
At the farm's agricultural machinery storage station, the reporter met a young post-80s young man, Hu Gang, repairing agricultural machinery. His home is in Huachuan County, Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, and he already has many years of cross-regional operation experience. Hu Gang said: "Over time, I have come to understand the temper of the land and operate it more skillfully."