Don't disturb my farming Chapter 55 The most cost-effective breeding
The subtitle of this chapter: "After you travel through time, you can also make a fortune by raising livestock using local materials"
In modern times, earthworm farmers may not be able to make a profit. The biggest reason is that the market is saturated, earthworms are priced low, and the selling price is not enough to cover the cost. Therefore, large-scale earthworm farming is generally used as a link in the production chain and incorporated into livestock farming such as chickens, ducks, fish, and pigs to maximize the benefits of self-production and self-sale.
It doesn’t matter in this world... Anyway, the manpower, space, and feed (fermented cow dung) required to raise earthworms are not considered costs. As long as they are raised, it is pure profit.
After negotiating with the chief of the Grassroots tribe about the breeding, Xiao Yun and Grassroots went to the outside of the industrial zone the next day to look for a site. As a result, they found that the previous idea was not feasible. It is true that building an earthworm farm here can effectively borrow the geothermal energy of the industrial zone, but earthworms are quiet creatures. If the surrounding noise is too high and the ground shakes frequently, the earthworms will flee. And you said that you want to reduce the noise at the gray dwarf's smelting site, which is not realistic...
Xiao Yun had no choice but to change direction and move the earthworm farm to the greenhouse area - potatoes, wild ginger and sweet potatoes planted in the greenhouse cannot grow in the winter climate of minus ten or dozens of degrees Celsius. A circular flue surrounding the ground of the vegetable greenhouse must be dug out, and a mezzanine must be left on the wall. The flue and the mezzanine are used for heating to keep the temperature in the greenhouse at around ten to twenty degrees. The same heating system also supplies Sal's mushroom house. Now it will take some effort to expand the heating system to benefit earthworm farming.
Earthworms are afraid of cold and heat, so the breeding farm needs to dig a semi-underground structure similar to a mushroom house. Xiao Yun and the grassroots chief selected a location and called a work team to start construction.
It has been snowing for ten days, the ground is frozen, and the outdoor temperature during the day is more than ten degrees below zero. In this kind of weather, the cold-fearing goblins used to have to hide underground more than ten meters deep to barely stay conscious and not hibernate. Now, even with the sweaters and furs given by the snow werewolves, they can only squat in the house and cannot move around. They can't be relied on. Fortunately, the gray dwarves have cast and forged a lot of iron tools, such as hoes, shovels, hammers and steel chisels for cutting stones, and the work team led by Dashui, Qingcao and Lan Guo is making fairly fast progress in the construction.
Hmm… Compared to last winter when we used our claws to dig the soil, this year is so much easier. Although there is still the problem of frostbite, there are so many people anyway, so taking turns to rest won’t affect the work.
While digging the foundation, a semi-underground space is dug out. The underground space is surrounded by a circular flue made of mud bricks. An insulating interlayer is also required when building the walls. In summer, the wall interlayer can effectively insulate, and in winter, the hot smoke can be discharged into the interlayer, which can also effectively increase the temperature in the breeding shed. In weather where the outdoor temperature is dozens of degrees below zero, the underground flue alone is not enough to keep the indoor temperature of the greenhouse at around 20 degrees.
A 30-meter-long and 7-meter-wide earthworm breeding shed with specifications similar to those of a vegetable greenhouse was completed. A 1.2-meter-wide passage was left in the middle of the shed , and the two sides were used as feeding beds. Each bed was separated by brick walls with a width of about two meters. A palm-wide drainage ditch which also serves as a ventilation channel in summer was left between the beds. Fermented cow dung and humus (including chopped weeds, leaves, wheat straw, leaves, and rotten vegetable leaves) were put into the feeding beds as basic feed. The feed must be fermented and mature, black in color, without any pungent odor, and the base material must have a certain degree of fluffiness and not be too tight to ensure air permeability.
The well-rotted feed is piled up loosely to a height of about 20 cm, covered on a ceramic tube with pig urine bubbles, and then squeezed with water-proof pig skin, and the melted warm snow water is sprayed into the base material. When the humidity of the base material is at the level where water can be seen at the fingertips when pinched with the hand, earthworms can be put in to start breeding.
There was no place to buy good earthworms here, so the only way to feed them was to catch them yourself. In winter, earthworms would burrow into the deeper soil to hibernate. If you dug about one meter underground near the riverbank, you could find earthworms dormant in the soil... Xiao Yun couldn't tell the types of earthworms anyway, and didn't care what species the earthworms he dug out were. He put them all in a frame and brought them back to the breeding shed, and scattered them one by one on the breeding bed with clods of soil.
Xiao Yun and the Grassroots Chief stared at the breeding bed and observed that in the breeding shed with an indoor temperature of about 20 degrees, no light and a certain degree of ventilation, the dormant earthworms that had shrunk into tiny pieces gradually woke up and instinctively burrowed into the moist base material - this meant that the seeding was successful.
"Keep the indoor temperature good, ventilate three to four times a day, and check the humidity of the material bed. In this weather, spray water about once every five days. In summer, spray once a day. Pay attention to whether there is water accumulation at the bottom. If there is, check whether the drainage ditch below is blocked..."
Xiao Yun demonstrated how to spread wheat straw on the surface of the feeding bed as a base material to keep it warm and moist, while explaining the key points of feeding to the grass roots. The grass roots chief felt dizzy after just a few words and waved his hands repeatedly: "I can't remember all you said, tell me bit by bit."
"...Well, in any case, to keep this thing alive, the temperature and humidity in the room must be kept good. You can ask Sal for his experience in this regard. The temperature and humidity requirements for growing mushrooms are similar to those for growing earthworms."
"Okay, I'll remember this." Cao Gen walked up and touched the edge of the base material pile. "This should be moist for the earthworms to eat, but it can't be soaked in water. If there is water accumulation, check the drainage pipes under the material bed immediately."
"Yes." Xiao Yun gave a thumbs up. "Then there is indoor ventilation. If the air is stuffy, the earthworms will run away. The door should be opened at least three times a day for ventilation. When ventilating, do not move the straw shed at the door. Block the light because earthworms are afraid of light. This is similar to how Sal cultivates enoki mushrooms."
Cao Gen made note of this, and Xiao Yun led her to continue collecting earthworm seeds... Breeding is a long-term job, and patience, carefulness, and perseverance are all indispensable. It is unscientific to expect that Cao Gen can open up her Ren and Du meridians and reveal her talent for breeding by just nagging her once or twice. Only by taking it slowly and letting Cao Gen personally experience the process from planting to harvesting can it be considered a successful teaching.
Xiao Yun had read a book about farming in ancient times. In the book, there was a plot about the protagonist raising earthworms, chickens and ducks to get rich, but the process was not described. It only wrote that the protagonist summoned the villagers to propose raising earthworms. The next part was about how the earthworms raised by the protagonist fed the chickens and ducks so much that they were particularly fat and beautiful, which amazed everyone. During this period, the protagonist was very idle. He just cooked delicious food at home every day. He also had the energy to fall in love with the daughter of an official in the city and earned a concubine.
At that time, Xiao Yun did not care about this. He just complained that as expected, the father was not at the prime minister level, so no matter how much the heroine was mentioned, she could not become the main wife. Until a reader found fault with the article, saying that the owners of modern ecological farming are always busy at the start-up stage and always have problems, while the protagonist is so awesome that everything falls from the sky, and he still has the energy to consider having three wives and four concubines... He pinched the reader severely, and Xiao Yun, as a diving dog, watched a lot of fun.
After that... When I was bored, I saw a live broadcast of a farmer who returned to his hometown from college doing farming on an ecological farm on Douyin, so Xiao Yun naturally clicked on it...
I have to say that the reader who criticized it at the beginning was right... Do people who engage in ecological farming have time to fall in love? Can we raise anything by just giving the natives some advice? Bullshit! College students have read piles of information books on farmers, and they are led by relatives and fellow villagers who have at least junior high school education. The young couple are both busy. Are the ancient farmers with a 100% illiteracy rate all NPCs set by the system with a 100% knowledge absorption and conversion rate? Or what?
Anyway, for Xiao Yun, among the snow wolves, no, even the grassroots whose IQ is no less than that of humans, can't understand what he says at once. When Xiao Yun is busy with other things, he can't be a hands-off boss in earthworm farming. He has to come here every day to check the activity of the earthworms.
Ten days later, Xiao Yun and Cao Gen checked the breeding bed together and found a lot of earthworm castings at the bottom (the difference between earthworm castings and base material is quite obvious if you look closely, earthworm castings are more like lumps of soil), so they started to add feed for the first time - first turn the bed over loosely, shovel out the earthworm castings at the bottom, and then spray the feed loosened with a spike rake with water mist to increase the humidity, and then spread it on top of the base material, about ten centimeters thick.
Earthworms eat feed equal to their own weight every day, half of which is excreted as feces. When adding feed, remember to remove the feces in time to prevent the earthworms from getting sick and infected. Don't be lazy.
Xiao Yun checked the earthworm manure that he had shoveled out and didn't see any earthworm cocoons, so he poured the earthworm manure into the collection area outside the greenhouse and put it into use when planting the fields next year.
In the natural environment, earthworms will definitely not produce cocoons in winter, but in the greenhouse environment, they can produce cocoons all year round. This is also the advantage of breeding. When adding feed for the second time, Xiao Yun found earthworm cocoons in the earthworm feces.
The grass-roots chief was very happy. He stared at the earthworm cocoons, which were smaller than wheat grains, for a long time and remembered their image firmly (smooth surface, black, brown or yellow semi-transparent cocoon body, a bit like a cocoon, but very small). Then he and Xiao Yun put the earthworm cocoons mixed with earthworm manure into wooden boxes and moved them to a place in the greenhouse with a lower temperature (about 15 degrees) for incubation. Ten centimeters of feed was added above the incubation pile. After about 20 days, a large number of earthworms hatched from the cocoons. (The temperature required for incubation is slightly lower than the temperature during the growth period. The highest hatching rate is around 15 degrees, close to 90%. If the temperature is the same as the growth period, 20 to 26 degrees, the hatching rate is only 40%.)
When the temperature and humidity are maintained well, several earthworms can be hatched from one earthworm cocoon. At this time, the density of earthworms in the hatching pile is extremely high and they need to be raised in separate piles. At the same time, mature earthworms that have been raised for 40 days can also be harvested to free up the breeding beds.
There are many ways to harvest earthworms. Xiao Yun imitated the method of the young couple who were doing the live broadcast. He transferred the base material of the breeding bed to the outdoor cement floor and peeled off the base material layer by layer from top to bottom. The earthworms instinctively avoid light and drill down layer by layer and hide at the bottom of the base material, so they can be harvested in batches.
The empty bed is supplemented with base material, and one-third of the new earthworms in the hatching pile are put into it for further breeding. One bed of hatching pile can be divided into three to four new beds depending on the number of hatchings. (Each bed of new material can be supplemented with some earthworm species collected from the wild for hybridization to avoid inbreeding and degeneration of earthworm species)
The harvested earthworms are placed in the sun for 20 minutes to die, or cut into pieces or dried and ground into powder, and can be directly fed to livestock... (The dried earthworms seem to be a kind of traditional Chinese medicine)
The breeding of excess earthworms on Earth is extremely cost-effective in this world. The earthworms themselves are excellent livestock feed, and the earthworm manure produced during the breeding process is high-quality fertilizer. Compared with the almost zero breeding cost, it is simply a huge profit.
The first batch of earthworms were dried, cut into pieces and packed in bags. The grassroots chief rubbed his hands excitedly: "Ayun, these earthworms can make our pigs fatter, right?"
The wild boar meat that was fanned and raised for a period of time before being killed was indeed very delicious. After eating it once, the tribesmen ranked pork before mutton in their minds.
"Yes, this stuff works better than alfalfa." Xiao Yun nodded. "In the future, the pigs we raise will have more fat, more oil, and more delicate lean meat. It all depends on this."
The grass roots were so happy that they jumped up and down to find the cubs who were responsible for feeding the livestock to get earthworms...
Xiao Yun was also very happy to see her excitement. Interest is the best motivation. It is not an ordinary person to not find earthworms disgusting and to like raising them so much. Anyway, he persevered through the whole process.
During these forty days or so, the green dragon came twice. Each time, it was frozen like an idiot, with ice all over its green fur, but it was still strong enough to come and satisfy its appetite... Xiao Yun felt embarrassed to persuade him to work in the extremely cold air, seeing that he had two snotty noses but was pretending to be cool, so he gave him a meal and let him go back. He also gave him the flying bun headpiece that he had made that day, as well as some other regular jewelry such as bracelets, rings, necklaces, and forehead ornaments, and used up all the gold, silver, and gems given by this stingy guy.
He thought that since he had given him the jewelry, he would have no excuse to come again. However, on the day when he harvested the farmed earthworms for the first time, Xiao Yun heard the screams of the gray dwarf. He looked up and saw that the green dragon came again - this time he knew it was cold, so he did not use human form, but turned into a big green-skinned lizard and flew over.
This big green-skinned lizard landed on the ground leveled by the snow wolves in front of the tribe, leaving a particularly exaggerated indentation on the snow... Then it jumped up, turned into a human form, and rushed into the activity room with floor heating. Xiao Yun followed in and saw that it was hurriedly putting on clothes - not that fancy high-collared robe, but a thick white bear skin coat.
Wearing a bearskin coat with bare buttocks...OK!
"Well……"
"I'm inspecting the territory. Ah, ah-choo, I came to take a look." Before Xiao Yun could say anything, the green dragon looked at him seriously. Well, if this guy's face was not green with white and blue due to the cold, Xiao Yun might have believed it.
"...Welcome, we're honored." What else could Xiao Yun say.
The soup warming on the stove was brought over, and the tofu pudding prepared for the tribe members to eat in the evening was brought over. The pickled vegetables and pickled radishes were placed on a plate, and the pickled vegetable buns and fried meat patties left over from lunch were heated up, and the "welcoming" meal was ready... For a proper reception meal, it would be served on a plate! When eating at home, there was no such fuss.
This time, after finishing his meal, the guy didn't say to leave. Instead, he took out a book from somewhere and sat in the warm activity room to read leisurely. Xiao Yun, who was accompanying the guest, saw his attitude and probably thought that it was not cost-effective to come here for a free meal, and he wanted to eat again in the evening. He was too lazy to argue with him, so he found an excuse to go out and do his own thing - his time is precious, okay!
When he walked out, the green dragon who was secretly watching him breathed a sigh of relief... His castle, which was protected by a magic barrier, was indeed very impressive, but it was also very cold. In previous winters, he would sleep deep in the castle.
It was really not worthwhile to fly back and forth and freeze to death for only one meal. He had to get at least two meals! The green dragon secretly made up his mind that if the snow wolf cub wanted to drive him away, he would ask for a cook - he was fooled by the other party last time, but he had not forgotten it!
Xiao Yun ran straight to the industrial zone: "Ah, A-choo! A-choo! Shit, could it be that stupid dragon caught a cold and infected me?"
In the collective bedroom diagonally opposite the activity room, Thrall and four caracal cubs stared at the door of the activity room, but they didn't see the green dragon come out for a long time.
One of the cubs looked up at Thrall, "Thrall, isn't that green dragon leaving?"
Sal: “…” How should I know!
The five people sighed together... The activity room was occupied by the green dragon, and none of them dared to go in.
One of the cubs raised his head again: "Sal, can you teach us how to grow mushrooms?"
Thrall immediately turned his head away and pretended not to hear.
The caracal cubs were unhappy: "We have taught you how to weave blankets, but you still refuse to teach us how to grow mushrooms."
Thrall went back to his sleeping place and put on a fur coat. "Let me go. I'm going to check the mushrooms."
The caracal cubs all raised their middle fingers towards Thrall's back - that's what Ayun did when he sent that annoying green dragon away!
In the industrial zone, Xiao Yun, who was discussing plow building with Baru, said: "Ah, sneeze!"
"Ayun, do you have a cold?" Baru asked with concern.
"It shouldn't be. My nose isn't blocked." Xiao Yun was also puzzled. "Forget it, let's not talk about this. Baru, do you think my suggestion of processing it this way is okay?"
Of course the gray dwarves can make plows, but they make heavy plows that are bulky and require several oxen or horses to pull together... Because the technology tree of this world does not focus on agriculture, the indigenous people can only cultivate on flat plains. The established countries in this world adopt the system of land power division, and there is no small peasant economy. The development of the plow is naturally aimed at facilitating farming on the large plains. The land power division system has been eliminated in China after the Han Dynasty. Since the Tang Dynasty, those in power have adopted the feudal power division system (the alternation of the two power systems can be seen from the history of the demise of the aristocratic families. Everyone knows that the rise and fall of feudal dynasties is inseparable from the out-of-control land annexation, and there is no land annexation at all under the land power division system, because the land, as a production resource, is entirely in the hands of those in power, and the peasants are all serfs). The prevalence of small peasant economy will naturally give birth to various kinds of plows.
Of course, this doesn't mean there are no light plows in this world. For example, the Tauren use light curved plows...
It's not that the curved plow is bad, but after thinking about it, Xiao Yun still hopes to put more effort into the plow. After all, the Snow Wolf people are few in number, and they can't be as busy as the Minotaur pulling the curved plow alone to plow the land. So Xiao Yun asked whether they could make a moldboard plow - Xiao Yun had seen the moldboard plow pulled by a tractor on Earth in the countryside. The scene of five plow heads arranged in a fan shape and on the same horizontal plane cutting, crushing, and turning over soil and weeds left a deep impression in his mind. The Snow Wolf people's super traction in wolf form can be used to pull the moldboard plow for plowing work, which is extremely efficient.
Xiao Yun spoke excitedly, but Baru had a sad face... You clearly said that you looked down on the heavy plow, but what is the difference between the plow you requested and the heavy plow - the heavy plow is at least half wooden structure, while the one you requested is made entirely of steel, which is heavier!
However, Baru was also quite attracted by the sketch of the plow that Xiao Yun had reluctantly drawn. The heavy plow was bulky, not flexible enough and unable to turn. However, this plow with fan-shaped spread and dragging force concentrated on one point, although equally heavy, was at least sufficient to prevent it from turning.
"We can try to make a set of molds and make a sample first." Baru stroked his chin and said cautiously, "Such a large all-steel plow cannot be formed in one piece. We can only make components and assemble them... We need to study the assembled parts first."
The forging technology of the gray dwarves is not only about forging. Forging one piece at a time is not only laborious, but also time-consuming and has low output. If conditions permit, they also have the skill points of mold casting - using mud and sandstone to make molds, pouring in molten iron for casting, which is much more efficient than hammering one piece at a time.
Of course, forging is still required when making some ironware that requires high performance. The overall density of the cast ironware is poor and the impact resistance is not strong. The plowshare and coulter parts must be forged with repeated hammering.
Xiao Yun nodded, and immediately took out the wood chips and kneaded clay he had brought with him: "It doesn't take that much trouble to figure out the components. Let's make a model and we'll know the general structure."
So the two of them started playing with handmade models in the busy industrial area...
It is not easy to figure out the structure and components when you just know the general shape. Even the relatively simple moldboard plow is not that easy. What shape of plow blade has what function, where is the soil-shoveling device designed? These are things that require a high technical threshold for outsiders to figure out.
Xiao Yun, who was feeling dizzy, returned to the tribe with a group of gray dwarves who had finished work to eat. When he saw the green dragon leisurely occupying the mobile home waiting for dinner, a gleam of light suddenly flashed in his eyes - wait, this guy can use magic to create a rope to tie up wild boars, and the rope is so tough that even an adult wild boar can't break free. Then, using this ability to create things out of thin air to make a model of an object, analyze components, etc., wouldn't it be easier than using wood chips and clay?
Baru saw the green dragon subconsciously shrink its neck and look up at Ayun, who gave them a sense of security. Then he saw... Ayun had a not-so-kind evil smile on his face and ran towards the green dragon...
Baru: “???”
Xiao Yun smiled like a flower (……) and approached the green dragon with great enthusiasm: "Your Excellency, our clan is fortunate to know a dragon like you, but you can only come occasionally and have to go back after a short stay. This is really a pity for us..."
Green Dragon: “???”
The lifespan of the dragon clan is there, no matter how stupid they are, they will learn lessons after living long enough. The green dragon, who was coaxed around by Xiao Yun and flew for more than a day or two days to catch wild boars, would naturally come to his senses after thinking about it afterwards... But he did enjoy the offerings from the snow werewolves, and felt something was wrong but had no reason to be angry.
This time Xiao Yun was flattering Green Dragon, and although it made Green Dragon feel comfortable listening to it, he must have been alert in his heart - what does this guy want me to do this time?
