Raising White Geese Under the Grape Trellis: Combining Planting and Breeding Kills Two Birds with One Stone
A grape trellis is set up inside the greenhouse, with clusters of plump green grapes hanging from it, while flocks of white geese walk among the grapevines below, pecking at the green grass as they go. This is the scene this writer recently observed at the Funan Mingfeng Planting Professional Cooperative.
"The more than 30 mu of Summer Black grapes in the greenhouse will be ready for market soon." Shi Peng, head of the cooperative, explained that Summer Black is a relatively popular variety. The entire vineyard covers 108 mu, and more than half of it is planted with this variety. The Summer Black grown in this greenhouse is of higher quality than ordinary Summer Black.
Mingfeng Planting Professional Cooperative is located in Huatuo Natural Village, Zhangzhai Town, Funan. Mid-conversation, a chorus of "honk, honk" rang out, and a flock of large white geese swaggered past this writer.
"I raise the large white geese to control weeds." With just a brief explanation from Shi Peng, this writer understood immediately. In recent years, consumers have favored pollution-free green agricultural products, so Shi Peng set up greenhouses and tried growing grapes and free-ranging poultry in an ecological circular way. Shi Peng told this writer that the more than 400 geese in the vineyard greenhouse were released when the greenhouse was built, mainly white geese, and they survive by eating the weeds under the trellis, eating wherever they go. At first, he worried these large white geese would peck the grapevines or eat the grapes, but after careful observation, he found they are very picky eaters and are only interested in juicy tender grass. "This way, there is no need to spray herbicides, labor is saved, and no fertilizer is needed."
The geese eating grass not only controls weeds, but the goose manure can also fertilize the grapes, which is a good case of killing two birds with one stone. Shi Peng explained that by October, when no green grass grows in the field, he plans to sell the mature white geese and interplant vegetables under the grape trellis. "There is no worry about selling the white geese; buyers come to the field and take them directly. The meat of this free-range goose is of high quality and very popular. The price is expected to be about 8 yuan per jin, much higher than ordinary white geese."
Besides the plump Summer Black grapes in the greenhouse, this writer noticed that the Shine Muscat, Beauty's Finger, Red Fuji and other grape varieties outside the greenhouse are growing even more promisingly and will also be ready for market in just a few days, catching the grape season.
Shi Peng plans to rely on the transportation advantage of being near the provincial road to develop a leisure picking business. "Summer Black sold wholesale can only fetch 6 yuan per jin, but if picked on-site it is at least 10 yuan per jin." Shi Peng told this writer that this year's Summer Black yield per mu is conservatively estimated at 3,000 jin, with an income of more than 30,000 yuan per mu. By this calculation, a vineyard of more than 100 mu brings in at least more than 3 million yuan per year.
Shi Peng seemed somewhat excited about the figure of more than 3 million yuan. It turns out that Shi Peng had worked away from home for more than 20 years, and seeing land transfer in his hometown flourishing, with many locals making their fortunes through planting and breeding. In 2014, Shi Peng returned home ready to make a big effort, and transferred more than 100 mu of land in succession to plant grapes. However, grapes generally only bear fruit after 2 to 3 years, with a full harvest in the third year; in other words, the first two years were mostly investment in the vineyard, with basically no returns, and only this year has a bumper harvest come. "Actually, a yield of 4,000 jin per mu could also be achieved this year; but blindly increasing production would 'exhaust' the grapevines and lead to reduced yield the next year." Shi Peng held a grape stem in front of him and told this writer that the stem is too thin now, and once it grows thicker in a few years, a yield of 6,000 jin per mu will be no problem.