In the Tang Dynasty, pigs grew very slowly. It took at least a year for a pig to be ready for slaughter. Compared with the later generations who could fatten a pig in three or four months, the speed was really too slow. The reason for this situation was not that the fat pigs in the Tang Dynasty were heavy when they were ready for slaughter, but that the feed in the Tang Dynasty was too simple. Pigs grew relatively slowly. Even if they were fed for a year, they could only grow to a weight of more than 50 kilograms, less than 200 kilograms. However, the later generations had better pig rearing techniques, so they could grow to more than 200 kilograms in three or four months.
Pigs also needed nutrition. If you wanted the piglets to grow quickly, you had to feed them well and nutritiously. The higher the quality of the feed, the faster the pig would grow.
For example, there were many types of feed for pigs in the later generations, which were roughly divided into six types of feed. If all of these feeds were fed to pigs, it could ensure that the piglets would absorb more comprehensive nutrients. It would be impossible for them to grow slowly.
The first type of feed was bran feed for pigs, such as rice bran, wheat bran, sweet potato bran, peanut bran, broad bean leaf bran, soybean straw bran, and so on. These were the inedible parts that humans obtained after harvesting grain. They were the most suitable feed for pigs. The Tang Dynasty also used this method. Moreover, due to the shortage of feed, the pig farmers in the Tang Dynasty would also grind wheat and rice straws into part of the feed for pigs. In this way, the cost of nutrition was even lower. Generally, this kind of low-nutrition bran food was suitable for pigs to consume less than 20% of the feed. However, the pig farmers in the Tang Dynasty probably accounted for more than 80% of the feed. Almost all of them relied on bran food, and there were very few supplementary nutrients.
The second type of feed was cake meal with better nutritional properties, such as rapeseed cake, peanut cake, cottonseed cake, soybean cake, sesame cake, and so on. In particular, soybean cake was the standard feed for pigs in the later generations. Similar to the first type of feed, the second type of feed was also a by-product eliminated by humans. In the later generations with a developed oil extraction industry, after many plants were extracted, the remaining cake meal was very tasteless and almost no one was willing to eat it. Therefore, it was fed to pigs. In other words, these cake meal were the residue after oil extraction from grains. Grains were very nutritious. Just by extracting the oil from the grains, the remaining residue was also not low in nutrition. At least, it was much more nutritious than bran feed, so it was a very good feed for pigs.
When oil was extracted, not all the oil was squeezed out. There would still be a lot of oil remaining in the cake meal feed, and oil was a substance that could easily make people fat. After pigs ate this kind of feed containing a lot of oil, it was difficult for them not to become fat. Therefore, in order to make pigs grow up faster, cake meal feed was widely used in the later generations. It was a very ideal feed for pigs. It was relatively cost-effective and was the first choice for many pig farmers.
However, when choosing cake meal feed, one must also pay attention to safety. For example, rapeseed cake and cottonseed cake had some toxicity. They must be detoxified first before they could be fed to pigs with confidence. If they were not detoxified first, it would be troublesome.
This kind of high-efficiency cake meal feed was not used in the Tang dynasty. After all, vegetable oil had not been popularized on a large scale in the Tang dynasty. Everyone used animal oil for cooking. Since there was no large amount of vegetable oil, there was naturally no cake meal. Cake meal was a by-product of vegetable oil. Only when vegetable oil was popularized on a large scale could society produce enough cake meal feed to feed pigs. Without the popularization of vegetable oil, there would be no cake meal feed.
Of course, even if vegetable oil was popularized in the Tang dynasty, cake meal may not be able to become pig feed. In other words, it may not be popularized on a large scale. After all, cake meal could also be eaten by people. In the later generations, there was also food made from oil residue. However, because there were too many cake meal and few people were willing to eat cheap cake meal food, there was a large surplus of cake meal. In order not to be wasted, they could only be fed to pigs. This was a win-win situation.
The Great Tang's current level of wealth was still very limited, and the gap between the rich and the poor was rather large. While the capital was overflowing with wealth, the other regions were still developing rather slowly. Although the common people were able to eat their fill, they were not very well-off. If there was a cheap food like biscuits, they might choose to eat them. When many people used biscuits, it would be very difficult to find enough to feed the pigs. The pigs were truly unlucky. They would always have to eat the food discarded by humans. Only when humans were unwilling to eat biscuits could the pigs have the opportunity to enjoy them on a large scale. This was truly a tragedy.
Looking at the pigs in the Tang dynasty who could not even eat cake meal feed, Ang Lee sighed. These pigs ate bran, but the delicious pork provided by them was too mushy. The food provided by them was too delicious for humans. It was really a great thing.
The third kind of feed was dregs, including distiller's grains, bran's grains, vinegar grains, flour dregs, bean dregs, sugar cane dregs, and so on. The nutrition of these feeds was similar to cake meal, but they were cheaper because at least people could eat cake meal food, but people could not eat dregs.
Distiller's grains were the residue after brewing wine. If people ate distiller's grains every day, they would be drunk to death. Bran's grains were also not for people to eat. Vinegar dregs could be eaten if they were not afraid of being killed by the sourness. Bean dregs were the residue left after making soy milk. They were all food that humans were unwilling to eat, so they were the most suitable to feed pigs.
Of course, if the preparation was good enough, bean dregs could be made into bean dregs cake, which was also a very delicious snack in the future. However, bean dregs cake was not only made with bean dregs, but also with a lot of ingredients. First of all, a lot of flour was added. Then, all kinds of color, smell, and taste were added. The food made of bean dregs would naturally be very delicious. If you only had bean dregs, no matter how good you were, you could not make it very delicious.
Although the taste of bean dregs was not very good, the nutrition of bean dregs was definitely not low. It was very good whether it was eaten by humans or fed to pigs. It was impossible that pigs would not grow quickly if they were fed with bean dregs.
Of course, before feeding the dregs, they must be cooked thoroughly. In addition, it was not suitable to feed distiller's grains to sows during pregnancy. This was probably the same meaning as it was not suitable for pregnant women to drink alcohol.
Similarly, in the Tang dynasty, there was no cake meal food, and there was not enough dregs. Even if there were, it was very little. For example, sugar cane dregs were still available, but this was the worst among all the dregs.
The fourth type of feed was grain feed, which was the best kind of feed. All the staple food used by humans could be used as pig feed, such as corn, barley, wheat, sorghum, broad beans, peas, and so on. As long as it was edible by humans, pigs could eat it. Pigs were the same as humans. They were omnivorous animals. There was no food that pigs could not eat.
Since ancient times, when humans produced food, they must first satisfy their own needs. The ancients were still very respectful of food. The act of wasting food was described as a punishment from the heavens. Many farmers believed that whoever dared to waste food would be punished by the heavens. It was absolutely not allowed. Among the farmers, no one dared to casually waste food. Everyone abided by this simple rule.
After all, since ancient times, there had been constant locusts and droughts, and the food harvest was often poor. Naturally, the people were often hungry, and food was the premise to ensure that they did not starve. It was the guarantee that people could live. Because there were frequent years of famine, as long as people were a little older, they would have been hungry. And those who were hungry during the years of famine would not waste food during the years of harvest. It could be said that they were afraid of hunger! A person who had been hungry would not waste food. During the years of harvest, they would also find ways to store more food, so as to prepare for the upcoming disaster.
Especially the Hua Xia people, what they were best at was storing food. They liked to store land and food. This was a manifestation of insecurity, and also because they often encountered famine. If there was enough food, there would never be a shortage. Who would be so free to store food and land?
The reason why later generations directly fed pigs with food was entirely because the food was very abundant. Basically, there was no disaster. Whether it was a year of famine or a year of harvest, the food could not be finished. Under such circumstances, there was naturally no need to worry about the food problem. It was even feasible to use the excess food to feed pigs and make wine.
Generally, when there was a famine in ancient times, it was not allowed to make wine unless it was for the palace. Ordinary people were not allowed because during the years of famine, there was not enough food to eat. If a part of the food was used to make wine, then there would not be enough food to eat. Therefore, in order to feed more people, it was necessary to prohibit the people from making wine. This practice of wasting food was forbidden. It was naturally even more undesirable to use good food to feed pigs.
However, for a wealthy family, it wasn't difficult to take out some food to feed the pigs, especially old grain that wasn't of good quality. It was good for feeding the pigs. The Yang Family Farm had a lot of grain, and some of the old grain was used to feed the pigs. Of course, these old grain had to be mixed with bran food. Even a wealthy family wouldn't be willing to use all of it to feed the pigs.
The fifth type of feed was animal feed, such as silkworm pupa, fish meal, bone meal, blood meal, feather meal, and so on. Don't think that pigs were vegetarians just because pig feed was made of plants. In fact, this was just because no one was willing to use animal feed to raise pigs. Pigs were actually an omnivorous animal. Whether it was fish or meat, they could eat them all. Even if a lobster or crab was thrown with pincers, the pig could easily eat it.
The cost of feeding fish meat directly was too high. No one would feed pigs this way. The cost of feeding pigs was too high. However, fish bones, poultry feathers, bones, and other useless materials from animals could be used to feed pigs. All they needed to do was to use machines to grind these materials into powder. This way, it would be easier for the piglets to absorb.
People needed to be well-nourished. Similarly, pigs also needed to be well-nourished. How could they be healthy if they only ate vegetarian food? It was better to eat more meat to adjust, especially fish bone meal, bone meal, and so on. It could supplement the pig with calcium, making the pig grow healthier, stronger, faster, and fatter.
There were a lot of leftovers of this kind of waste since ancient times. When chickens were killed, the feathers and internal organs of the chicken, the bones left after eating the chicken, and the bones left after eating the pork chops were all very good materials for feeding pigs. However, in ancient times, there was a lack of grinding machines. If these were fed directly to pigs, the pigs could not eat them, and they did not like to eat them. Only by grinding them into powder and then mixing them with other feed could the pigs eat them smoothly. If they were fed directly with fish bones, the pigs would choke to death.
The sixth type of feed was mineral feed. This was the result of research in later generations. It included shell powder, eggshell powder, and table salt. In short, it was used to supplement vitamins. If pigs lacked vitamins, they would easily get sick. Therefore, it was necessary to supplement vitamins for pigs.
In short, raising pigs was the same as raising humans. It must be well-nourished so that pigs could grow well and fat. If only some of the simplest feed was given, pigs could also grow up, but they would definitely not grow well enough. It would also take a long time to grow up.
Raising pigs required science. Only by raising pigs scientifically could they achieve the goal of being ready for slaughter in three or four months. Obviously, in the Tang dynasty, there was no such technology. Pigs could only be ready for slaughter for more than a year, and many of them were raised for two years. The efficiency of raising pigs was really not very good.
If they wanted to improve the efficiency of raising pigs, they had to carry out more scientific breeding. However, it still took time. It was too difficult to promote it in a short time.
For example, the pig feed in front of them. In addition to the most nutritious old grain, there was only wheat bran, rice bran, straw, and other low-quality feed. It was not feeding pigs at all! It was simply abuse. In ancient times, raising pigs was a form of abuse. How could they be blamed for the slow growth of pigs?
Ang Lee was here to visit, not to give instructions. However, Ang Lee could not help but express his opinions and show off his knowledge.
"These pigs are too poorly fed. They need to be fed for at least a year before they can be ready for slaughter."
Ang Lee said.
The family head said, "Assistant Minister Li is right. The pigs raised by our family do need a year to grow well, and some of them need two years to grow well. I wonder how to feed them to make them grow faster?"
The Patriarch was naturally very interested in how to make the piglets grow faster because it involved economic benefits. Only when the piglets grew faster and fatter could he earn more money. He couldn't wait to feed the piglets well today so that the piglets could grow to a few hundred pounds tomorrow. That would be great.
Seeing that the family head was not ashamed to ask, Ang Lee naturally would not hide anything. He told him some of what he knew, but all of it was within the local conditions. Ang Lee did not need to say anything about the feed that could not be met.
"It turns out that there is so much knowledge in raising pigs! How many months do the pigs in Beijing need to be ready for slaughter? "
The family head asked curiously.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
