Although it’s not time to start work yet, the two chatted, and still needed to prepare.

For example——

"It’s time to harvest cotton, I’ll take you later."

Cotton?

Qiaoqiao was a bit confused: "Where we used to plant it, it couldn’t be picked until October."

But he wasn’t sure, since those were childhood memories, and they didn’t plant much.

Xiaoyang was also somewhat puzzled, he remembered cotton being harvested between September and November!

At this moment, he clicked on the large screen in front of them, zoomed in on the map, and selected the cotton areas, only then did he open the detailed introduction. After a quick scan, he understood:

"Oh, we mainly deal with agricultural machinery! Missing the season for farm equipment could delay a year, so here we grow [Zhong Mian Suo 141], which is an early maturing summer cotton, ready for harvest in 95 days, ideal in July and August."

"You could grow this there too, and there’s also [Yu Mian 703], which is also very suitable."

Scrolling further down through the introduction to the machinery, he saw a huge machine with something resembling a nine-toothed rake attached to the front, standing imposingly there.

Yang Zhengxi pulled up the picture, rotating the angle to explain to Qiaoqiao:

"This model is the six-row integrated cotton picker we released a few years ago. The advantage is it can harvest five to six hundred acres of cotton a day; from picking to shelling to packaging, it’s an integrated operation."

"The downside is it’s expensive, about 7 million for one. There are relevant policies to assist farmers, like interest-free installment loans, but think about it, 7 million! Typically, no farmer buys this on their own, they rent it, around 200 per acre, depending on conditions each year."

"Also, the fuel consumption is huge, you need to have a fuel truck alongside it when operating."

"Moreover, because of the comb-like mechanism, it cuts off rows of cotton from the branches, then crushes them with serrated axles, using a big blower to separate, and pack... The cotton produced this way can harm the fibers, increasing impurities, requiring high manual sorting later."

"If the requirements are particularly high, for making intimate apparel or bedding, this cotton won’t be chosen because the fibers get damaged during the shelling."

However, currently in the cotton-producing regions of the Borderlands, this kind of machine operation is prevalent, otherwise, relying on manual labor would yield only a few dozen pounds a day, taking months to finish.

Seeing Qiaoqiao’s extra attention, he slightly moved aside, letting him closely watch various introductions on the screen, while standing by giving supplementary explanations:

"Our task these two years is to reduce fiber damage during shelling with these integrated machines and make impurity sorting cleaner."

Below, there was even a video of the integrated cotton picker in action.

Qiaoqiao seriously watched the whole video, now full of envy:

"There’s so much land here, and it’s so flat! We couldn’t use this there."

Yang Zhengxi chuckled: "Your place isn’t a major cotton-producing area—however, there are smaller three-row machines for small farmers, much smaller than this, with half the comb teeth in front."

Consequently, efficiency decreases significantly.

Even the smallest three-row machines wouldn’t be usable where Qiaoqiao was, so Xiaoyang patiently waited for him to finish watching and then eagerly suggested:

"Let’s go! First, I’ll take you to the theoretical training class."

This kind of agricultural machinery requires a professional R license, [Wheeled Combine Harvester License], and also a [Farm Machinery Operation Skills Certificate].

Neither of them had a license, and one was too young to apply for one, so Xiaoyang’s idea of driving the farm machinery was actually about riding as a co-driver during harvest.

Such a farm machine could be equipped with two main drivers and two co-drivers.

Then, when only a little bit of harvest remains, under guidance, they could try hands-on operation themselves.

But despite that, Qiaoqiao was quite satisfied, now entering the adjacent room with Xiaoyang. He fiddled with the computer, starting to play a training video on the screen.

Xiaoyang also explained to him: "We have professional drivers, but since the licenses are universal, they have to test all the machines. To ensure startup efficiency, they also need to review before each start-up."

"Furthermore, they have to take regular exams."

Qiaoqiao stared intently at the instructional material on the screen, nodding along insincerely, hardly caring about these detailed explanations?

Yang Zhengxi watched for a while too, but grew up frequenting the research center, more glances recalled operational patterns, and soon he was distracted again.

Qiaoqiao was so focused that he didn’t interrupt, instead going outside to check the recent work logs, realizing apart from cotton, there was also an outstanding task to harvest daylilies.

Daylilies are harvested continually, and can only be picked manually.

The planting area is small, and machines aren’t in high demand, but companies always strive to meet human needs, hence it stands alone as a direction.

——It can only be a direction.

Because each stem holds multiple daylilies, varying in maturity, it’s impossible to harvest them all at once; they must rely on manpower.

However, nowadays abroad, there are single-blossom cotton-picking robots—just a small machine standing in front of the cotton, equipped with multiple claws. Rotating drill heads using vacuum and rotary suction to pluck cotton from bolls individually.

Exactly the same as the direction of their daylily harvesting research, purely speculative.

After all, manual cotton picking can yield sixty to seventy pounds a day, up to eighty pounds for some. And that robot?

The group has seen it in meetings, fifty pounds a day.

But to say such research and discussion are meaningless is also inaccurate.

After all, when industrial development started, the power of steam was just used to lift a kettle lid.

But—— 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Xiaoyang opened the introduction to daylilies again for a look.

Although picking requires a lot of manpower, first, it can be harvested continuously; second, daylilies have very low management costs during planting and growing, basically rough cultivation.

Thinking carefully, it’s well suited for Qiaoqiao’s family!

Not having enough land doesn’t matter, many crops can’t be grown in succession anyway. Change the variety each year, and it could work?

Wouldn’t they then have extremely tasty pickled daylilies at home?!

Xiaoyang thought about it, opened various experimental varieties within the current farm, to see if there was anything particularly appealing, deciding to compile good information and share it with Song Tan!

As well as various small agricultural machinery developments.

This doesn’t only cater to the land development in mountainous and hilly areas.

Nowadays urban employment is tight, environmental pressure is high, yet rural lands are largely neglected... In the coming decades, with declining newborns, large populations might return to rural areas...

What if they also want to farm?

What if their weak bodies can’t handle digging, requiring easy, practical small agricultural machines?

Like those single-hand rotary tillers online that can’t perform deep tilling.

This seems like a great direction too...

Xiaoyang happily envisioned for a while; if he weren’t planning to start a business in college making games, he’d really like to get into this field.

He also has the potential to become a head of the research center!