Li Long's cooperative had planted 2,000 mu at Fourth Team this time. Although the 500 mu added later had not been improved as well as the original 1,500 mu, others had at least spent three years cultivating, fertilizing, and watering it.
The yield would be a little lower, but with drip irrigation, the cooperative members guessed it should produce no less than 300 kilograms per mu. The original 1,500 mu should yield no less than 350 kilograms per mu.
By that calculation, the 2,000 mu would produce at least 600 tons of cotton. The six senior-year classes alone could not possibly pick it all.
The 1,000 mu at Second Team used conventional cultivation, yielding a little over 100 kilograms per mu. Of the six second-year classes, four stayed at Second Team, while two picked cotton at Fourth Team.
Even so, Fourth Team still did not have enough cotton pickers. The cooperative had to send vehicles to the day labor market early every morning to bring in more people.
The day laborers ate the same lunch as the students in the cotton fields and picked alongside them. Xie Yundong had originally wanted to assign them separately, but Li Long thought they should work together. With the students beside them setting an example, the adults should behave a little better while picking.
Every morning, the cooperative brought around a hundred people from the day labor markets in Ma County and Stone City to pick cotton. That made moving the cotton before dark each day a fairly heavy task.
Fortunately, when planting the cotton, the team had already hired some young men, including Tietou and the others, to help with the work, so they could still manage the staffing.
The main thing was that teachers organized the students, who were fairly disciplined themselves,