Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 616 Cattle and Sheep

After sorting out the things sent from the capital, Hua Lei began to worry about raising cattle at home.

In Mobei and several surrounding counties, the price of cattle has risen sharply recently. And it is still difficult to buy.

Therefore, Hua Lei also sent a message to Tian Xiaofu who was stationed in Leyang Prefecture in advance, asking him to help look in several counties south of Leyang Prefecture to see if there were any suitable oxen for sale.

If there are any, buy a dozen or so first. If there are none, a calf will do. But Tian Xiaofu sent a message back saying that he was not very good at choosing cattle.

When they were in the capital, Hualei Farm also raised cattle. However, it was convenient at that time. As long as they had money, they could go directly to the Du Mu Cao under the Ministry of Revenue to buy adult and strong cattle.

There are a lot of cows there, and there is plenty of room for selection. Let Uncle Fu and Uncle Zheng go and bring them back in minutes, so Hualei doesn't need to worry about it.

But it doesn't work here. Uncle Zhongsheng and Uncle Dasheng here have been following Pei Jingyang around the military camp. They have raised horses, but never cows, so they don't know how to choose cows.

Recently, Tian Changjin and Uncle Zhao were sent to Xinzhou Prefecture by Hua Lei to work on the replacement business of the Ministry of Industry. For the time being, they could not be called back.

So, Hua Lei flipped through the book and asked the village chiefs of the following villages how to choose a cow when she met them.

After learning a few tricks here and there, Hualei felt that she was good enough. At least she had passed the theoretical knowledge test.

The head of Nanqi Village said that when choosing a cow, one should look at its appearance. Cows with a difference in the skin and flesh under their necks tend to live longer.

Cows with eyes and horns close together plow faster, and those with large eyes and black eyeballs with white veins run faster. In addition, cows with the same length from nose to thigh as from shoulder blade to waist, and cows with long and large neck bones also run faster.

The head of Donghe Village said that when choosing a cow, one should look at its hair. A cow with long and sparse hair cannot tolerate cold and may freeze to death.

Cows with long hair on their ears cannot tolerate heat and may die from the heat. Cows with more hair on their ear shells cannot tolerate cold or heat and are difficult to keep.

Hualei wrote down everything carefully. In addition, Hualei also learned that cows with messy eyelashes like to butt people with their horns. Cows with soft and large stomachs and ribs that are far apart are difficult to feed.

If the chest and abdomen are uneven, it means that the cow is injured by overwork. If the horns feel cold and the hair is curled, the cow is sick. If the cow often seems to be mooing, it may have gallstones and should not be chosen.

When choosing a cow, you should choose one that walks like a sheep, has less meat on its head, a square butt, a tail that does not drag on the ground, has less hair and more bones, has firm meat on its knees, and has thin horns. These are good cows.

Hua Lei sorted out all the moves she had learned from the village chiefs and sent them to Tian Xiaofu. Of course, she also took a note and put it in the study.

In the Great Sheng Dynasty when knowledge was not yet widespread, these experiences could only be passed down by word of mouth among the people, which was too difficult. If there is a chance in the future, I will spread these experiences. Moreover, from the oral accounts of several village heads, Hua Lei also learned a lot of folk remedies for curing cattle diseases.

For example, to treat cattle lice, you can smear lard all over the body of the cattle. To treat cattle plague, you can burn the head of a rabbit in the twelfth lunar month into ashes, mix it with five or six liters of water, and pour it into the cattle to cure it.

But, does this twelfth month rabbit head refer to the head of a rabbit born in the twelfth month, or does it refer to any rabbit in the twelfth month?

The village chief of Dongming Village couldn't explain it clearly. It seems that if you really encounter it, you still have to experiment it yourself. However, what did the rabbit do to anyone? The cow got sick, but it had to lose its life. It was really a disaster from heaven!

Two weeks later, Tian Xiaofu personally led people to send sixteen cows and three calves to Mobei by boat. Leyang Prefecture had little room for buying cows, and he couldn't pick more or better ones. So Hualei had someone send them to the next door of the horse farm.

Here, Pei Jingyang has fenced off the land with wooden fences and built a livestock house with mud bricks. Although Pei Jingyang is a bit stingy and the space for the cattle is not big, but there are less than ten cows now, it should be enough. In addition, the cattle breeder has also been found.

I took some time to ask a few village chiefs to help me review the newly bought cows. The village chiefs gathered around the herd and looked at the cows. They all said that they were pretty good. Although not perfect, it was pretty good to be able to buy something like this since it was the first time I bought cows.

Hua Lei originally thought that since there was no need to plow the land in her own fields, the cows could take it easy for a while. However, when she was raising cows, Pei Jingyang, who disliked the cows for occupying the horse farm, asked the wood workshop to make a few ox carts.

Ten days later, a team of ox carts was formed to help the brick kilns deliver mud bricks to various places. Although the ox carts were slow, they were powerful and were better at pulling mud bricks than mule carts.

I was thinking about whether I should lend the cow to Minister Zhang to help the Ministry of Revenue cultivate the land, but I stopped thinking about it. Anyway, I have to work, so I might as well help my family earn money. The poor life of cows and horses has begun.

The cattle raising issue was resolved, and the next step was to raise sheep. Looking at the area that Pei Jingyang had fenced off for raising sheep, Hua Lei thought that raising eight to nine hundred to one thousand sheep would be the maximum possible.

Therefore, Pei Feiyang was asked to buy four to five hundred lambs born in the twelfth month and the first month of the lunar calendar to serve as breeding sheep. According to experienced herdsmen, lambs born in these two months are most suitable for breeding sheep.

Buy sheep in the ratio of 20% rams and 80% ewes, and let the ewes breed and produce lambs themselves in the future.

The gestation period of sheep is generally about five months, with one to three lambs born per litter. This way, the number of sheep in the family can be gradually expanded to keep up with the growth of alfalfa.

Sheep farming is very common in Modong County next to Mobei. There are many sheep herders there. Moreover, some of them have their own wool suppliers, so it is relatively easy to buy breeding sheep.

The trouble is to transform the area that Pei Jingyang has circled. Most of the herders who raise sheep in Modong are nomadic.

So the sheepfold is basically empty during the day and crowded at night to keep warm. However, Hualei is not planning to graze, so he pays more attention to the sheepfold.

Therefore, they deliberately selected a piece of land with high terrain, compacted the ground, built it with mud bricks, dug the water outlet, covered it with thatched roof, and built a sheep pen to ensure that the sheep pen was dry and no sewage would accumulate.

Upwind of the sheep pen is where the breeders live. The two places are relatively close, and the windows of the house should face the sheep pen to prevent wolves from entering the pen and catching the sheep.

We found a gentle person to help raise the sheep, and asked the breeder to clean the feces and urine in the sheep pen every other day.

If the sheep pen is dirty and has sewage, the wool will also become dirty. The sheep's hooves will step in the mud and pus will flow from their hooves, which is very detrimental to the growth of the sheep.