bestfiction Chapter 102 Uncomfortable
Chapter 102 Uncomfortable
After the mother and son returned home, the Lu family returned to normal, with some going to work and others playing.
Influenced by Lu Shufen, Cheng Xiaobao, who was crying and hiccuping, was called out by Lu Mingnan and skipped out to play, forgetting his crying in the blink of an eye.
His family treated him very well, and since he was young and had a short memory, he forgot all his fears, discomforts, and unfamiliar feelings after making a few friends.
He is clearly well-adjusted to his current life.
However, the piglets that had been in Shihua Village for half a month were not used to it.
After all, the collective pig-raising plan was proposed by himself, and in order to make a better life in the future, Lu Yuanqing devoted most of his energy, apart from farm work, to the pig farm.
After finishing work, Lu Yuanqing would go to the pig farm every day to check on the piglets.
As soon as I arrived, I saw a familiar figure.
"Uncle Zhao!" Lu Yuanqing greeted him.
"They're here!" Zhao Zhongcai said, his hands behind his back, his eyes fixed on the piglets in the pigpen.
“Okay!” Lu Yuanqing followed.
Zhao Zhongcai also cared about these piglets; he and Lu Yuanqing both attached great importance to this pig-raising plan.
Both of them had to come and see it every day, as if they could only feel at ease then.
The only difference is that Lu Yuanqing, because he trusts the system and the Golden Dragon Grass, is not worried that the piglets will not survive.
Moreover, Lu Yuanqing didn't care about the money from the piglets. Even though he knew that money was valuable now, he had never experienced being really short of money because of the system.
They have a certain kind of courage; they know that money is important, and the money to buy piglets is something that everyone shares, so that's something they care about a lot.
But there was no sense of panic about not being able to recoup the losses and being unable to explain it to the villagers.
But Lu Yuanqing didn't have it, but Zhao Zhongcai did!
The thought that if raising pigs didn't go well, he wouldn't be able to share the money with the villagers kept him awake at night.
The price of piglets is one yuan per jin (500 grams), and a piglet costs about twenty yuan.
The 100 piglets cost the village 2,000 yuan, which is more than half of the village's annual vegetable supply.
It's because everyone wants to eat meat, and they all know that a well-raised pig is more valuable than a turnip. So, apart from a few villagers who only wanted a share of the turnip money, the vast majority of villagers supported raising pigs.
The village has more than 200 households and more than 1,000 people. Every year when the vegetables are sold, the village will give each family 100 yuan.
But this year, since everyone put their fingerprints on the document, no money was distributed, so this piglet must be raised well!
Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain; you could throw manure in front of your house every day without even having to hide it.
Lu Yuanqing could naturally see how much Zhao Zhongcai valued the piglets, but piglets don't grow into big fat pigs overnight, and they couldn't keep living in such fear forever!
"Uncle Zhao, look how much these piglets eat! They'll definitely grow into big, fat pigs!" So don't look so worried!
“They really can eat it. Now Ye Fang and the others have to go a long way to gather pig feed!” Zhao Zhongcai said with a mixture of relief and worry.
The piglets were voracious eaters, so Ye Fang and the others devoured all the pig feed nearby!
Lu Yuanqing: "..."
Is this happiness or unhappiness?
"Oh, it's alright. Once the weather gets warmer, there will be more and more wild vegetables in the fields!"
Right now, the fields are mostly planted with sow thistle, shepherd's purse, and plantain. When the weather gets warmer, there will be more and more purslane, lamb's quarters, ginseng, and other similar plants.
What could we do? We couldn't bear to feed them grain, so they could only grow up eating wild vegetables!
Zhao Zhongcai: "Back then, as the piglets grew a little bigger, their appetites also increased!"
Lu Yuanqing pursed his lips.
Do you even know how to chat anymore?!
"Then, shall we buy some feed?"
"You mean the feed the commune talked about this year?" Zhao Zhongcai quickly shook his head. "I've never heard of it before. It's called fermented feed. It doesn't sound reliable at all. What if the piglets get sick from eating it!"
And it costs money!
Lu Yuanqing didn't say anything about it.
He had seen fermented feed in the newspaper. Of all the articles, he only read the last sentence: "It can rapidly convert the nutrients in other roughage ingredients, thereby enhancing digestibility and absorption."
The conclusion is that good digestion leads to more food intake, and more food intake leads to weight gain.
But there was no other grain in the village to feed the piglets, so they could only rely on pig feed.
As for the results!
Lu Yuanqing looked expressionlessly at the piglets that were constantly nudging the pigpen door and sighed slightly.
I'm so hungry, I want to crawl out and find something to eat.
If the piglets are fed fermented feed and then become even hungrier and start causing trouble, then we'll be truly speechless.
It seems that golden dragon grass also has some of this effect.
"By the way, Yuanqing, there are so many pig farmers in Jiang'an City, have you seen how they feed their pigs?" Zhao Zhongcai asked curiously.
“It’s all the same!” Lu Yuanqing said. “That’s how pigs are raised in the countryside. They mainly eat pig feed, with only a little bit of bran added when they eat. The scraps are only given to the pigs when the sweet potatoes are harvested.”
"The pig farms in the commune would be fed some tofu residue, but the pigs in the city were fed better food, such as distiller's grains, soybean cake, and cornmeal. They didn't have any wild vegetables to feed their pigs!"
"Hiss!" Zhao Zhongcai gasped. "How much money will this cost?!"
Lu Yuanqing didn't take it seriously and said, "You can't catch a wolf without risking your cub. Pigs raised in the city can be ready for market in 5 or 6 months! But when we go to the countryside to raise a pig, it takes more than 10 months to get it to the same weight as them!"
Zhao Zhongcai fell silent!
Pigs are still raised using the methods of the older generation in the village.
It's not that the methods for raising pigs haven't been improved, but rather that the improved methods are too expensive to implement in rural areas.
Using distiller's grains, cornmeal, and soybean cakes—foods that these people eat sparingly—how could they possibly feed pigs!
In rural areas, pigs live a short life, spending 90% of their time eating wild vegetables. By the end of October or the beginning of November, they will have grown to about 90 pounds. At this time, they are usually just skinny and have only grown a frame.
There's an old saying: "A half-grown child is like a piglet."
It means that people or pigs are growing at this time and can eat a lot.
But since there are only wild vegetables, I can't gain weight at all.
Then came the autumn harvest. The sweet potatoes were harvested, and the larger ones were divided up. The remaining, damaged ones and very small scraps were used to feed the pigs.
It's actually called fattening. By the end of the year, the pigs can be sold. The good ones can grow to 180 or 190 pounds, while the bad ones are still around 130 or 140 pounds.
On the day the piglets arrived, Zhao Zhongcai fed them all the better sweet potatoes from the warehouse. But in those days, even the better sweet potatoes were considered rations, and it was hard to keep using them to feed pigs.
Piglets that had eaten golden dragon grass were not used to being fed only pig feed in Shihua Village. They got hungry after a while and couldn't adapt!