Chapter 538: In Danger
August 27, Xinghe year 2.
Oceania, southeast of Kangaroo Country.
This is the core agricultural area in the area. Wheat, cotton and sheep ranches are all highly concentrated in this area.
The climate types here are mainly Mediterranean climate, temperate oceanic climate, subtropical monsoon climate and subtropical grassland climate.
Core cities such as Sydney and Canberra are also in this area.
It can be seen that the local climate is relatively suitable for human life.
However, the Kangaroo Country was in an extremely dry state at this time. The southeastern region, which was the core agricultural area and human settlement, had not seen rain for more than half a year.
If the southeastern part could still rely on groundwater for a while, the large artesian basin in the central part would be completely dry at this time.
Even if we continue to dig deep wells, there is still no way to alleviate the local drought.
A freshwater lake in the Great Artesian Basin, with only the cracked lake bottom and some weeds growing tenaciously in the mud on the lake bottom.
More than a dozen surrounding ranches had to urgently apply to dig wells.
Although the Kangaroo Country has strict regulations that prohibit ranches and farms from digging wells at will, especially machine wells, in the face of the current large-scale drought, only temporary well digging permits can be issued.
Old David, the rancher of David Ranch, did not look very happy when he saw the groundwater coming out of the well.
On the contrary, there was still an lingering sadness on his face.
Because the temperature at this time is very low, only minus 11 degrees Celsius, and the latitude of his ranch is around 37 degrees south latitude, and the temperature has not been so low in the same period of previous years.
This extremely low temperature stopped the growth of grass on the pasture and even caused frost damage.
Low temperatures and drought have become common conditions in the southern Great Artesian Basin.
In order to ensure that the sheep, which had just been shorn in the fall, could safely survive the cold winter, old David had to keep the sheep indoors and turn on the heating for more than three months.
"Dad! This is the electricity bill for this month." Little David came to old David with a bill that was mailed.
Old David took one look at the bill and a look of pain appeared on his face.
"Father, if this continues, we will go bankrupt."
Old David certainly knew that if this continued, he would suffer the consequences.
Their ranch has a total of 8,000 sheep. In normal winter, the temperature only drops below zero for a week or two. Now it has been more than three months and the temperature has been below zero, which means they have been providing heating for more than three months in a row.
The electricity bill for heating has increased by 4 to 5 times compared to last year. Even though the Kangaroo Country government subsidized part of it, the electricity bill still increased by about 3.7 times.
In addition, a more serious problem is the insufficient supply of grass on the ranch itself, and a large amount of hay and feed must be purchased from outside to fill the gap in the ranch's own grass production.
This adds another expense.
In addition, the cost of digging the well must be borne by the rancher himself.
What's even more annoying is that although sheep can withstand temperatures as low as minus 15 degrees Celsius, they must be kept in captivity and fed in an environment of 5 to minus 15 degrees Celsius. Moreover, low temperatures will cause them to grow slowly and reduce wool production.
This year, the Kangaroo Country has 67 million sheep, and the production capacity is estimated to be no more than 220 million kilograms.
It never rains but it pours.
Due to the severe fragmentation of the global market, global wool demand is divided into two.
The artificial wool produced by Sapiens Company is not only self-sufficient, but can also be exported in large quantities.
This means that Kangaroo Country's wool can only be sold to the free world, even though Seris in the free world is the world's largest wool importing region. In previous years, 70% to 80% of Kangaroo Country's wool was sold to Seris companies.
The problem is that Seris's demand for wool is based on foreign trade demand.
Now that the global market is split in two, demand for wool in the free world is clearly insufficient.
The insufficient demand for wool products has led to insufficient demand for wool raw materials. As a result, the price of wool raw materials naturally cannot go up.
Production costs have increased, production capacity has decreased, but selling prices are still falling, which is a dead end for many sheep farms.
Sheep are not like wheat. There is no way to plant less this year and then expand production next year.
Once the number of sheep decreases on a large scale, it will take several years or even more than ten years to restore the breeding scale.
And there is another problem here, that is, although the number of animals raised on farms can be reduced, the depreciation of infrastructure and some electricity costs will not be reduced.
If the problem is only with the sheep industry, the Kangaroo Country can still hold on with the support of its father America.
But now it is not just a problem with the sheep industry, but also problems with grapes, wheat, barley and pasture.
The southeast, a core agricultural area, has been hit by drought and low temperatures, and food production is declining sharply.
Many things are often linked together.
The reduction in grain production will inevitably lead to a surge in the prices of feed, vegetable oil and sugar. The surge in feed prices will further increase the production costs of the breeding industry.
The population of Kangaroo Country is small, only about 27 million.
But the high income and low prices in the past have made many people accustomed to that kind of good life.
Now that the unemployment rate continues to rise and prices are almost out of control, problems are beginning to emerge.
The operating rates of various industries are seriously insufficient, and many small farmers and ranches are already in danger of bankruptcy.
The entire Oceania is indeed very large, but apart from deserts and Gobi deserts, as well as some tropical rainforests, the remaining areas that can be developed are actually only coastal areas and large artesian basins.
The mid-latitude coastal areas in the south are now basically in a state of low temperature and drought, while the rainfall in the tropical grasslands and tropical rainforests in the north has increased a lot compared with previous years.
The rain fell where it shouldn't have.
The consequence is that dry areas are becoming increasingly dry, while wet areas are flooded .
ABCD and more than a dozen large local agricultural companies in Kangaroo Country are facing a very difficult problem at this time.
Sydney.
Bunge branch building.
After receiving the grain storage inventory report, Jared, the manager in charge of Bunge Oceania, looked very serious: "The feed reserves are only 2.47 million tons, less than one-third of the same period last year. This..."
Deputy Manager Anthony said with a headache: "Garrid, now it's not an inventory problem, but a cost problem."
"What's going on at the headquarters? Why don't they allow us to raise prices? Do they want us to continue selling at low prices?" Gared said with a gloomy face.
Anthony was very helpless: "I have communicated with the headquarters several times. The headquarters has been under pressure from the board of directors and cannot raise prices at will now."
"Shit!" Gared cursed inwardly.
Obviously, the high welfare of Sapiens Inc. requires the entire free world to follow suit with all their strength, or else they will admit defeat to Sapiens Inc.
Some time ago, the four major forces in the free world joined forces to suppress the soaring prices of food and vegetables and fruits, which was a manifestation of being in a difficult situation.
If the current high welfare cannot be maintained, the free world will have no appeal.
They are already inferior to Homo sapiens companies in many aspects, and now they can't even maintain the seemingly high wages and low prices. Why should ordinary people stay and serve them?
Once high wages and low prices can no longer be maintained, the free world will collapse on its own.
Therefore, the four major forces are desperately trying to lower the prices of food, vegetables and fruits. However, it remains unknown how long this pressure can last.
