Siheyuan: Starting from 1958

With the first person to try it, the villagers who had the idea of ​​raising sheep but were hesitant to be the first to try it suddenly had no more worries.

But they were clearly not as bold as Zhou Gui and his son.

Many people sign cooperation agreements for two or four goats, but almost none for more than five.

But no matter what, for Wang Dong, as long as someone takes the lead and everyone is willing to raise them, the rest will be simple.

People tend to follow the crowd. Once everyone sees the real benefits after a year, they won't need to go to the processing plant themselves; they will proactively find the plant and sign agreements with them.

By 4 p.m., more than 70% of the villagers had signed cooperative sheep-raising agreements with him. The one who raised the most sheep was undoubtedly Zhou Gui and his son, who were the first to try it out, with a total of ten sheep. The fewest sheep raised were two, with a total of 165 sheep signed.

…………

Three days later, Zhou Gui and his son successfully received ten lambs and a large bag of grass seeds from Wang Dong.

The father and son have been busy for the past two days, carrying stones up the mountain and cutting down trees to rebuild a larger sheepfold.

My wife and mother weren't idle either; they went to the hillside that the production team had allocated to their family to clear shrubs and thorns, preparing to plant pasture.

Even their two sons and daughter were busy, joining them in collecting stones on their own hillside.

As soon as the ten lambs entered the sheepfold, the wife poured the grass she had cut earlier into the sheepfold.

The lambs, which had been somewhat restless, gradually calmed down, perhaps because they smelled the fragrance of grass.

I carefully approached the tender grass, took two tentative bites, and after confirming that there was no problem, I began to chew it in large mouthfuls.

Seeing all ten lambs begin to graze, the worried expressions on Zhou Gui and his son's faces vanished instantly. They immediately turned to their wives and said, "The leader who just distributed the lambs to us brought a technician..."

"In the first month, these lambs are too small to eat only tender grass..."

"Starting tomorrow, first chop up the tender grass you cut, then add a handful of cornmeal, mix it well, and then feed it to them."

"Once these ten sheep grow a little bigger, we won't need to feed them cornmeal anymore..."

"My son and I will go to the back hill to plant some pasture grass in a little while... We'll use it to make silage when it grows up..."

Upon hearing the words "silage," Zhou Guangcai immediately turned his gaze to his wife, asking expectantly, "Wife..."

"Give me ten yuan in a bit..."

"Making silage requires preparing some waterproof cloth in advance... I'll go to town to buy some tomorrow..."

"The technician said that feeding sheep silage is more nutritious than feeding them tender grass directly. It can be done not only during the autumn harvest, but also now. After fermenting for a month, it can be fed to the sheep."

"I discussed it with Dad..."

"Although the pasture we planted hasn't grown yet, there's no shortage of grass on the mountain to feed the sheep, and it can all be made into silage."

"Tomorrow I'll buy the waterproof tarpaulin for making silage, then dig the pit... Once everything is ready, we'll start making silage."

"Feeding sheep silage earlier will help them grow up sooner..."

"Out of ten sheep, five are ewes. Once the ewes give birth to lambs, we sell the rams. We don't have to wait until the New Year to sell the sheep..."

"The manager of the processing plant said that they buy sheep all day long, and the prices are fair. We can send them over anytime we want to sell sheep."

At this point, Zhou Guangcai seemed to already see a bright future ahead, where he would become wealthy through sheep farming. His wife and mother also wore smiles.

Especially the wife.

Compared to her husband going to work in Beijing, doing manual labor, not eating well, and not sleeping well... she would rather her husband stay at home and earn money.

If staying home to raise sheep could really make us rich, then the whole family would have a much better life from now on. She readily went back to her room, took out ten yuan, and handed it to her husband.

…………

Ten days later, Zhou Gui and his son dug two pits in their yard that were slightly smaller than the water vat.

Line the inside with a waterproof cloth.

Under the technician's guidance, the wife and mother were chopping several kinds of tender grass that they had cut from the mountain into one-inch lengths and carrying them back and forth.

After squeezing it in your hand and applying slight pressure to squeeze out a little moisture, sprinkle some corn flour into it, and then place it layer by layer into the pit lined with a waterproof cloth.

Wearing rain boots, Zhou Guangcai patted down the layers one by one to make sure there were no gaps or air before laying down the second layer.

When the grass is about 20 to 30 centimeters above the ground, tie the waterproof cloth tightly to squeeze out as much air as possible, then seal it, cover it with soil, and let the tender grass ferment at a constant temperature underground.

Each pit can hold over 100 kilograms of tender grass, but after a whole day's work, only two pits of silage have been made.

For a long time to come, as long as there was no farm work to do, the family would either go to the back mountain to cut grass or stay at home to make silage, trying to make a pit of silage in three days.

Time flies and more than a month has passed.

Today is the day the first batch of silage is being opened. To ensure that the silage they produce is of good quality, Zhou Gui and his son specially invited the technicians from the processing plant over.

After digging away the soil covering the surface of the pit and opening the waterproof cloth, the expected stench did not appear; instead, there was a grassy scent with a sour aroma.

The flesh is tender and juicy when you hold it in your hand, and it is obviously not as rough as it was a month ago.

"It's usable, the fermentation is excellent. As long as the silage meets this standard, it's fine... but if it's already blackened and smelly, then it's unusable..."

As soon as the technician said those words, Zhou Gui and his son relaxed immediately. They quickly took out more than ten kilograms of silage from the waterproof cloth and poured it into the sheep pen. Then, they stared intently at the ten goats in the pen.

After more than a month of feeding the goats, the ten goats have grown almost twice as big as when they were first brought home.

Besides the hard work of the family, the contribution of fifty or sixty kilograms of cornmeal is also noteworthy.

Five days ago, Zhou Gui stopped adding cornmeal to the grass, and the growth rate of the ten goats slowed down significantly.

They now have only one hope: that the fermented silage in front of them will restore the ten goats' appetites and allow them to maintain their previous growth rate and continue to grow...

Just like when goats graze at home for the first time, even though they are already familiar with the environment in the sheepfold, it took them a while to sniff the silage before one of the goats opened its mouth and took a bite.

Then the goat began to eat heartily, and the remaining nine goats followed suit, chewing away greedily.

In no time, more than ten kilograms of silage were completely eaten.

Seeing this, Zhou Gui's last bit of hesitation vanished. (End of Chapter)