Training the Heavens

Chapter 236 Expansion
A provincial leader then visited the ranch and praised it in person, saying, "Xiao Xu, your ranch is really well run. Everywhere I go, there's a vibrant scene of life and everything flourishing. I'm really pleased."

"This is all thanks to the support of the leaders," Xu Lingjun said modestly.

"It would be great if all the projects we support could go as smoothly as yours." The leader sighed. Since the reform and opening up, they have not been complacent and have tried to make some changes. Unfortunately, due to various reasons such as being located in the inland, conservative thinking, and an insufficiently active economy, the results they have achieved are very few. Xu Lingjun can almost be said to have the most outstanding results.

Comparing the two, he had higher expectations for Xu Lingjun, so he talked about the province's current predicament. "When the production contract system was first implemented, the ranches in our province were doing a little better, with significant improvements in various indicators. But in recent years, they have started to decline again. The rate of increase in output has continued to decline, and some ranches have even experienced a decline."

Xu Lingjun nodded. "This is inevitable, because animal husbandry still requires scale. If the scale is too small, the potential is relatively limited, and it is impossible to make significant improvements. Because many investments have costs, individuals and families often find it difficult to afford this expenditure."

"Yes, for example, the foreign fine breeds I just saw. Everyone knows that these fine breeds of cattle and sheep can be brought in and raised, and then exported to exchange for foreign currency. But how many ranches can afford the expense of introducing fine breeds? This is not a small amount." The leader immediately realized what Xu Lingjun was talking about.

After chatting for a while, feeling that the groundwork was almost laid, the leader began to probe, "I see that our ranch has basically used up all the available pastures. If we allocate a few more pastures to you, can you continue to expand your production scale and increase exports?"

"That's true in theory, but grassland alone cannot generate productivity. It must be well managed," Xu Lingjun answered cautiously.

Since the leader said so, he must want to allocate grassland to the ranch. However, most of the current grasslands are owned by owners. Allocating grassland is equivalent to merging with other ranches. Xu Lingjun may not want all the ranches.

Blind expansion of enterprises is not necessarily a good thing. If there are too many problems with the ranch allocated by the leaders, it is better not to have it.

"Of course, of course. Our ranch is doing so well because we have a capable management team!" The leader simply spoke out. He asked his secretary to take a map and pointed to several nearby ranches. "These ranches are not doing well right now. If you are willing to take them over, we will allocate them to you and let you manage them!"

"As for the original management team, you don't have to worry. They will all be transferred when the time comes, and they will definitely not hold you back!" The leader now has high hopes for Xu Lingjun, so naturally he wants to help clear the obstacles for the development of the ranch.

"If that's the case, then we are willing to accept it!" Xu Lingjun was worried that these people would spoil the whole barrel. Now that the leader has provided a guarantee, there is nothing to worry about.

For the animal husbandry industry, we can find ways to obtain talent, good breeds, and technology, but grassland is a unique resource. Even if we have money, we may not be able to get it in a few years. Now that the province is willing to allocate grassland, we must seize this opportunity.

If we think about the long term, in the future, not only in this province, but also in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Northeast China and other places, a large number of ranches will face operational difficulties. If Xu Lingjun can set a good example in advance, perhaps ranches in other provinces will ask him to contract them, just like paper mills all over the country are competing to invite Ma Shengli to contract them.

By then, we will be able to build a large agricultural group with grasslands across multiple provinces. This window period is not long, and it will be too late to wait until companies like Yili and Mengniu grow and become stronger.

If they could seize this window of opportunity and take the initiative, there would be no Yili or Mengniu, and the domestic dairy industry would be spared from so many troubles in the future. "Okay, then we'll quickly address the remaining issues with these ranches and strive to hand them over to you in a clean and tidy manner." The leader was delighted and immediately began making arrangements.

After a while, these ranches were handed over to Xu Lingjun one after another. All the troublesome people left, and the herders were eager to join in. The welfare of the Chi Lechuan Ranch was well-known for its good benefits. Now they followed too. Isn't that a pie in the sky?

Xu Lingjun read out the ranch's rules and regulations to them at the meeting. Most people had no objections. These rules were actually not that strict. It turned out that all the ranches had such regulations on paper, but they were not strictly enforced.

Now that they have the carrot of dividends dangling in front of their noses, everyone is willing to strictly abide by these rules.

In recent years, the ranch has cultivated a lot of talents. Young people such as Guo Lei can now stand on their own. Li Xingfa, Zhang Zengxiang and others have also made great progress. Xu Lingjun selected a group of talents and sent them to these ranches to manage them permanently. He also recruited some people from these ranches to work in the factory.

These ranches quickly got on track, the animal husbandry industry developed rapidly, and some new factories were built to carry out deep processing of the ranch's output. They turned losses into profits in the first year, and the output value increased significantly in the second year, which was an impressive achievement.

The provincial leaders were very pleased and found Xu Lingjun again, wanting to allocate more pastures to them and build the Chi Le Chuan Ranch into a star enterprise in the province.

When Xu Lingjun went to Beijing for a meeting, he met leaders from other provinces. They also showed great interest in the model of the Chi Lechuan Ranch and wanted Xu Lingjun to contract a ranch from their place.

The scene that was envisioned earlier gradually became a reality. Xu Lingjun was not carried away by the victory in front of him, nor did he feel the urgency due to the window period. He immediately agreed to all the requests, but instead selected several ranches with better conditions to start trying.

There is still a shortage of talent in the Chi Le Chuan Ranch, and the current transportation and communication conditions are not perfect. It does not yet have the conditions to establish a national group enterprise. If it expands blindly, it will only end up like Ma Shengli. It is better to take a steady approach first.

In this way, Chi Lechuan Ranch first contracted two ranches in Inner Mongolia and Hebei for pilot projects, and then spent another two years to digest these four ranches.

The formal large-scale expansion only began when these four ranches were on track, the talent pool of Chi Lechuan Ranch was further enriched, the working model was further matured, and the domestic environment was further relaxed.

　There is another chapter after dinner

　　
　
(End of this chapter)