Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 147 Next Year is Certain

After leaving the backyard, Jiang Lili went to prepare dinner, while Chen Fan went to the front to find Captain Yang to discuss using the advance work points to buy feed.

When they arrived at Captain Yang's house, they explained the situation to him, and Captain Yang agreed without hesitation. He then led them to the livestock shed in front of the shed.

"Our team's feed is mostly stored in the livestock shed, so we can take it out as needed."

Chen Fan asked, "Captain, what kind of things are included?"

Captain Yang laughed and said, "There's rice straw, corn stalks, corn cobs, sorghum stalks, and some hay and chaff. Basically, there's more hay than grain. In a couple of days, we'll slaughter the three pigs and divide the meat, so we won't need any more grain. Later, take two bags of chaff back, mix them with some green grass and radish peels, cook them together, and feed them to the pigs. That should help them get through the winter."

He paused for a moment, then shared his experience with Chen Fan, "Piglets are hard to raise in winter. Losing weight is a minor issue; you can't find pig feed anywhere, and they can easily die. It's best to wait until after the first month of the lunar calendar, when pig feed sprouts up every day. That's when you can catch piglets. I was planning to ask you to go catch piglets with me after spring, but you ended up buying them yourself."

Chen Fan listened attentively to the advice and chuckled, "I've never raised pigs before, I just happened to see some and bought them."

Captain Yang nodded. "Anyway, you're studying veterinary medicine, so it's unlikely that the animal will die. At most, it'll just be a few days of wasted effort, which will be good for gaining experience."

If anyone else had done this, he would have given them a severe dressing-down. "You've been raising them for a month for nothing! Don't you need someone to fetch their feed? Don't you need firewood?"
But he showed the utmost patience and tolerance towards Chen Fan.

Whether the team has a veterinarian or not, and how skilled the veterinarian is, will likely depend entirely on him. If we don't cherish such a treasure, are we going to pick him up and beat him?
In just a few words, the two arrived at the livestock shed.

As soon as they entered the alley, Captain Yang shouted, "Sixth Uncle, Sixth Uncle!"

Although they didn't share the same surname, they were from the same village, so he followed the Liu family members of the same generation and called Master Liu "Sixth Uncle".

Master Liu crawled out of the hut, looked at the two of them, and asked, "What are you doing here at this hour with such heavy snow?"

Chen Fan quickly said, "Master Liu, I caught two piglets and two lambs today and wanted to borrow some feed."

Upon hearing this, Master Liu immediately laughed and scolded, "You're really talking nonsense! Who catches piglets in the twelfth lunar month? Are you going to dig for pig feed in the snow?"

Chen Fan chuckled and said, "That's why I came to borrow some feed."

Despite his words, Master Liu went back to his room to get the key and led them to the shed across the street. He said, "Whenever you have time these next few days, come over and listen to me tell you some tips on raising livestock. Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll kill those little guys."

I know you want to become a veterinarian, but veterinarians treat illnesses, which is very different from raising livestock. Besides, you're not even a veterinarian yet. You're really bold, raising pigs, sheep, and horses all at the same time. I studied for three or four years and still wouldn't dare to do that..."

Chen Fan suddenly chuckled and said, "There are also chicks and puppies."

He wasn't angry at all listening to her rambling on. He thought that decades from now, who would care whether you lived or died? Avoiding trouble was the most important thing.

Master Liu turned around, pointed at him irritably, and then took the key to open the door.

The only difference between the feed storage room and the neighboring livestock shed was that it had walls and a door. Inside, there were bundles of hay and bulging sacks filled with rice husks.

Elsewhere, burlap sacks might be considered valuable supplies, but in Yunhu, they are found everywhere.

For no other reason than that, every summer before the floods, the higher authorities would allocate a batch of burlap sacks to various production teams along the river. In the event of a flood, these burlap sacks would be used to fill with soil, with villagers as the main force and militiamen as the backbone, carrying burlap sacks and soil bags one after another to rush to the dike to block the water.

If they could hold out until the main force arrived, the danger would be averted. If they couldn't, not only would the sacks and mounds of earth be wasted and thousands of acres of farmland be flooded, but the lives of ordinary people would also be in danger, and their property would be left to fate.

So as long as it is not deliberately damaged and is properly stored, this place will never lack burlap sacks.

Winter is the least likely time for flooding, so these burlap sacks became the perfect containers for storing rice husks. Master Liu then dragged over a cart, and together with Chen Fan, they loaded two more sacks of rice husks onto the cart, along with four bundles of hay. He then said, “This should be enough to last until the first month of the lunar calendar. There will be plenty of pig feed and grass then. If you go and cut some hay for half an hour in the morning, that will be enough for these animals. If it’s not enough, just come back and get more.”

"Okay, thank you, Master Liu."

After thanking him, Chen Fan looked up and asked curiously, "Didn't we prepare any silage?"

Master Liu paused for a moment, turned to look at Captain Yang who was grinning from ear to ear, shook his head and laughed, "A few years ago, a technician did come to the team to provide guidance, but that thing was too troublesome. It had to be done before the crops and grass withered, and there were certain formula ratios to follow, so our team didn't do it."

He paused for a moment, then laughed and said, "I've been raising livestock for decades, and I've used this feed every winter. I still take good care of the livestock. There's no need to make any silage."

Chen Fan pursed his lips and said seriously, "If we have time, it would be better to prepare some silage for the winter next year."

Master Liu was slightly taken aback, and looked at him, asking, "What do you mean?"

Chen Fan looked at him and Captain Yang, his face quite grave. "Today I went to the commune and went to the veterinary station to ask Station Chief Zhou for a set of veterinary training course materials. I happened to see a water buffalo suffering from hypothermia. Its body temperature was too low, and its organs were showing signs of failure. It was so thin that it was just skin and bones."

Later, after asking around, I found out that, after ruling out other possible causes, the most likely reason was that the buffalo hadn't received enough rest and nutrition, which caused hypothermia. If I hadn't happened to be there and found a treatment in a journal, the buffalo might have died.

Therefore, the nutritional supplements for this livestock during winter must not be neglected.

Upon hearing this, Master Liu suddenly froze, and Captain Yang's expression also became serious.

After a two-second pause, Master Liu grabbed Chen Fan, stared intently at him, and asked, "What's this hypothermia you mentioned?"

"Oh."

Chen Fan explained the hypothermia of buffalo in detail, and concluded by saying, "This disease has a high incidence rate in winter. I heard from Station Chief Zhou that there have been three cases in the past month..."

Before he could finish speaking, he saw Master Liu slap himself hard across the face, his eyes instantly turning red. He turned to Captain Yang and choked out, "Captain, I'm so sorry to the team, so sorry to Dahei! If I had been willing to learn how to make silage, Dahei wouldn't have died last year."

Chen Fan was stunned. He looked at him, then at Captain Yang, his mind filled with questions. What was going on?
Captain Yang sighed and shook his head, saying, "You're not a veterinarian. Even Station Chief Zhou can't do anything about it, so what can we do? The technician who was instructing us on silage didn't explain things clearly either. He only said that silage is better than hay, which is obvious."

Who doesn't know meat tastes better than vegetables? But meat is more expensive than vegetables. Making silage is such a hassle; back then, we had to harvest the late rice, and after that, we had to go dike maintenance. Where would we find the time to make this stuff?!

Master Liu shook his head again, but could only sigh and couldn't say anything.

Chen Fan glanced at the two of them, vaguely understanding what had happened, and muttered to himself, "It's not like just because we provided silage it's safe. There are many possible causes for its illness; it might be infected with schistosomiasis..."

Master Liu ignored his words of comfort and simply looked at him and asked, "Xiao Chen, do you know how to make silage?"

Chen Fan hesitated for a moment, then said, "This is something I can learn. As long as I have the materials, I can learn it after reading it once."

"it is good."

Master Liu wiped his face, turned to look at Captain Yang, and said seriously, "Young Yang, next year, you must, absolutely must, prepare silage."

Captain Yang nodded vigorously, "Okay."

(End of this chapter)