Ang Lee, accompanied by the family head and others, went to visit the front yard of the field. First, he went to the yard where the livestock were raised, which was the yard in the southwest corner. There were a lot of livestock here, which looked very spectacular from a distance, but some places couldn't be seen clearly. Once he went in, he could see clearly.
This livestock yard had an area of more than ten mu, which was really not small. However, considering that it was full of livestock and poultry, the area was a little tight, and there was almost no extra land.
Because there was no road from the residential area directly to the livestock area, he had to take a detour from the back garden. It was just a small detour, and after that, he could enter the livestock yard.
As soon as he entered the yard, the first thing he saw was a small road near the north wall. The width of the road was about twenty feet, which was enough for any vehicle to pass through. Because there were too many animals, it was also divided into simple areas. There was a poultry area, a livestock area, a feed area, and a house for servants. The whole system was quite scientific.
The whole yard was mainly divided into six parts, which were symmetrical from east to west, and three rows in the north and south. Among them, the northernmost two were the breeding areas, the middle two were the feed and residential areas, and the southern two were also the breeding areas.
In the north, chickens, ducks, and geese occupied an area, and pigs occupied an area alone. Chickens, ducks, and geese were raised together. In the middle of this area, there was a pond, which was the world of ducks and geese. Chickens could only wander around nearby, and couldn't go into the water.
Pigs occupied an entire area, and there were quite a lot of them. Li An counted carefully and found that there were more than two hundred pigs. This area was about two mu of land. The density of the pigs was not low, and it even seemed a little crowded. However, there were many newborn piglets here. Excluding these piglets, there were only about a hundred big pigs, so it was not too crowded.
Chickens, ducks, and geese were small in size, so there were a lot of them, about a thousand in total. In the field of free-range breeding, this density was relatively high, but if it was in captivity, the density could reach five or six thousand.
In order to reduce the crowding of chickens, ducks, and geese, there were not only ponds in this area, but also many wooden shelves inside. The largest number of chickens could fly on these wooden shelves, so that they could make full use of the space and make the density of these poultry look less dense.
Due to the large number of animals being farmed, there was a large fodder area in the south of each of the two areas. In the middle of the two fodder areas was a north-south road. A small section of the fodder area near the road had been changed into a habitable house. This way, the servants could live nearby and work more conveniently.
The north-south road in the middle was three feet wide and the road was very flat. However, it was a relatively backward compacted gravel road. It was mainly compacted with clay and gravel. Such a road was still considered flat, but it could not withstand long-term blisters. After all, clay would turn into mud after being blistered. Thus, it was impossible to walk normally.
In order to prevent the road from being muddy, the middle of the road was slightly higher, and the sides were slightly lower. In this way, as long as there was rain, it would quickly flow to the sides, so it would not affect the road. This kind of road needed to be repaired every year, and the repair only needed a little labor, so it cost almost nothing.
The two feed areas were very large, and a lot of feed was stored in them. There were houses in this feed area, as well as open-air forage and various tools. There were also residential houses near the north-south road. Of course, there was also a little reserved space.
After passing through the two feed areas, the two southernmost areas, one was an area for breeding cattle and horses, and the other was an area for breeding donkeys and sheep. However, in reality, they were breeding cattle and sheep. The number of donkeys and horses was too small, so they only occupied a small space. The number of cattle and sheep was more than ten times that of donkeys and horses. The two southernmost areas were relatively large. After all, there were more cattle and sheep, so they needed more space. Among them, the number of cattle was smaller, about two hundred, and the number of sheep was more than three hundred, which was a lot more than the number of cattle.
There were about thirty donkeys and horses each. Among them, donkeys were mainly used to pull carriages and grinders, and horses were mainly used to ride and were a means of transportation.
Of course, in addition to these eight kinds of breeding animals, there were pets such as cats and dogs. The value of the existence of cats was to catch mice, and the value of the existence of dogs was to guard the house. After all, even if there were servants who were responsible for guarding the house, the vigilance of people could not be compared with that of dogs. It would be better to let dogs assist people in guarding the yard. In this large breeding yard, there were more than a dozen dogs. These dogs were not tied up, and they were wandering around the yard in several groups. As long as they found a stranger, they would keep exchanging. If they met an acquaintance, they would not make any sound.
When Ang Lee first entered, these dogs who did not have eyes came up and barked. After being taught a lesson by the family master, they became obedient. These watchdogs were like this. As long as they found a stranger, they would keep barking. Even if they were beaten, it would be useless. This was the habit of watchdogs, and it could not be changed in a lifetime.
It was precisely because of this habit of watchdogs that many rich people liked to raise dogs since ancient times. This was because dogs were loyal and reliable enough. As long as they saw strangers, they would bark wildly and even rush over to bite them. In this way, in terms of protecting private property, they had a great effect. Using the rest of the hired thugs together, the effect was very good. Basically, it could deter all the ordinary people, and even some small thieves would not dare to act rashly.
For thousands of years, the relationship between mice and humans could be said to be too close. As long as it was a place where people lived, there must be mice. The place where humans stored their food was also a place where mice liked to visit. Not only did mice like to steal human food, but what was more terrible was that there were many terrible viruses in mice. Once these viruses infected humans, they would cause terrible diseases in humans. Moreover, it was the most terrible infectious disease. After a person got sick, the disease would quickly spread to another person, and then it would spread continuously until it eventually caused a large number of people to die.
Because of the infectious diseases caused by mice in later generations, hundreds of millions of people were wiped out at once. Almost half of the population of a continent was wiped out. In particular, it could be seen how terrible the infectious diseases caused by mice were.
This was determined by the research of later generations. In ancient times, even if a large-scale infectious disease occurred, no one would suspect mice. They would only feel that they had offended the God of Plagues and suffered the revenge of the God of Plagues. In fact, it was mice that spread the disease, and the main reason why ancient people hated mice the most was because mice would steal human food. Moreover, their reproduction ability was particularly strong. If a granary was discovered by mice and the people guarding the granary did not notice, then something big would happen. A group of mice would enter the granary and eat food non-stop. Then, they would rapidly expand their population and eat more food. After that, they would continue to reproduce and eat more food. Perhaps in a few months, all the food in the granary would be eaten by mice, and the number of mice would also reach an astonishing number. After the granary was empty, these mice that had lost their food were likely to raid the farmland of the people on a large scale and bring disaster to the area.
The most worrying thing was that there were still remnants of the food eaten by the mice, and the people were reluctant to throw away the food that was eaten by the mice, so it was easy to get sick. Moreover, it was very likely that it was an infectious disease, a disease that could spread rapidly in a short period of time.
In short, no matter what, since ancient times, people hated mice very much. They all took attacking mice as one of their life goals, especially the rich people. They all had granaries, and everyone knew how big a threat mice posed to the granaries.
To deal with these hateful mice, it was impossible to rely on people alone. How could a human's reaction be faster than a mouse's? Only cats were good at catching mice. Raising a few kittens near the granary would definitely be a good deterrent to the mice, and thus greatly limit the number of mice.
Of course, it had to be a cat that could catch mice. He couldn't raise an ancestor that couldn't catch mice. For example, the pet cats that many people raised in the future were simply useless. They had no use at all. Other than eating cat food, they didn't know how to do anything else. Asking them to catch mice, forget about it! It was estimated that when they saw mice, they would be scared silly and even be chased by mice.
The reason why these cats could not catch mice and were afraid of mice was that they had not been trained. They usually ate too much cat food, and it was very tasty cat food. Compared with the bloody mouse meat, the taste of cat food was much better. As a result, the cats lost the motivation to hunt mice. Eating cat food every day was not good enough. Why would they work so hard to catch mice and eat the bloody mouse meat?
Therefore, the people who raised cats in ancient times would never provide high-quality food for cats. They would force domestic cats to catch mice. When there were no mice to catch, they would also feed the cats, but the amount of food fed would definitely not be enough, and it would be leftovers such as fish bones and lazy bones. These were all food that tasted far worse than mouse meat. When cats were very hungry, they could naturally eat them, but as long as they saw mice, they would still be more willing to hunt mice because mouse meat was much more delicious than the fish bones left behind by humans.
The scale of the Yang Family Farm was quite large. In this yard, there were more than a dozen domestic cats, but the total number could be a little more. After all, the other yard was a larger warehouse, and it definitely needed the help of domestic cats to guard against the threat of mice to the stored food.
"Not bad, not bad, very good. This yard is more than ten acres, and there are so many poultry and livestock. Moreover, they are all very healthy. This year, we can make a lot of money!"
Ang Lee opened his mouth and said.
"How much can these things be worth? Even if you sell them all, you can't buy a three-sectioned yard in the capital."
The family head said with a smile.
Ang Lee nodded and said, "That's right. No matter how much money you have, it is nothing in the capital. The housing prices in the capital are really too high. A two-sectioned house is much more expensive than your entire farm. Moreover, you may not be able to buy it, and no one is willing to sell it! "
The housing prices in the capital were dozens of times more expensive than in Yizhou City. This was just the average level, and the actual difference might be even greater. The houses in the core area of the capital were not a problem of price at all, but that ordinary people could not buy them at all. Even the richest businessman, with the most money, could not buy a single one, because everyone knew that the price of houses would continue to rise, especially the houses in the core area of the capital, where the increase was the largest. As long as it was not a last resort, they would never sell it. Even if they did sell it, they would sell it to their rich and powerful friends, as a form of respect for their friends, and also as a form of bribery.
"There is so much fodder here, it should be enough for cattle and sheep to eat for a few months!"
Ang Lee looked at the round piles of fodder and asked.
There were many kinds of forage piles. There were rice straws, wheat straws, and the latest corn straws. Of course, there were also half-dried weeds. These different forages had different nutrients. It would be better to mix them to feed the cattle and sheep.
To the north of the pile of fodder, there was cheap old and contaminated food, as well as some special fodder, which was used to feed chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs. There were also a lot of them.
"Two months at most! However, there is more fodder in the other yard. If we get all of it, we won't be able to finish it in a few years. However, most of it will be used for the fire, and only a small part will be used to feed cattle and sheep. "
The family head said.
Among these animals, cattle, sheep, horses, and donkeys were herbivores. Basically, they could be fed with straw and half-dried weeds, while chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs needed to eat food. Although chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs could also eat some small animals and grass, it was definitely not enough when there were too many of them. A lot of food must be taken out to feed them to meet this huge demand.
Because good food was for people to eat, it was too wasteful to use it for breeding. Therefore, the food used to feed chickens, ducks, geese, and pigs was old. There were even some food that people couldn't eat at all, such as rice bran and wheat bran. These two things couldn't be eaten by people, but it was no pressure to feed pigs.
Rice bran could only be obtained after the rice was processed into rice, while wheat bran could be obtained when harvesting. Because wheat and rice were preserved in different ways, wheat was preserved after the wheat bran was threshed, while rice was preserved directly. As a result, the amount of rice bran in this fodder area was far less than wheat bran. Wheat bran accounted for a large proportion, and rice bran only accounted for a small proportion. In addition, there was a lot of inferior old grain.
When feeding, rice bran, wheat bran, and old grain needed to be mixed together with water and ground into a paste. If it was directly fed, it would lead to poor absorption.
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