In my days as a farmer

Xia Dongli's idea of ​​raising Maojiu to protect his family died tragically in the face of the stumbling block of expanding the production of chickens and ducks.

The nature of their farm is a family farm that combines planting and breeding. According to regulations, the area of ​​crop planting needs to reach 70% of the total area, and the remaining 30% is for breeding.

Of course, due to the seasonality and phases of agricultural production, this ratio has certain flexibility and fluctuations, and the superior unit will not be so boring as to calculate the proportion of each item one by one with you, but if there is no real embarrassment If not, Xia Dongli felt that the rules should still be respected.

After all, although rules are constraints, they are actually protection circles.

What's more, compared to crop cultivation, breeding data is relatively easy to scan, as long as you don't care about the investment.

Xia Dongli did some calculations before. The piglets in their family were born in July. If the special situation of suckling pigs is not counted, the piglets are generally raised to about 100 catties and sold for the highest profit.

Although I don’t know the growth rate of their piglets, but according to the calculation of ordinary black pigs, it takes about 100-7 months for them to grow to 8 catties. This time is just in time for next year’s New Year’s Eve. Higher, if you keep it longer, you need to increase the cost of keeping warm.

The fattening speed of black pigs is not as fast as that of traditional large white pigs. Well, there is a professional term for this in breeding called feed conversion rate. The value of black pigs is much lower than that of large white pigs, so the longer it is raised, the more uneconomical it is.

Of course, if it is developing in the direction of high-quality meat, the situation will have to be calculated separately. At that time, it will not be sold according to weight but according to meat quality.

But Xia Dongli felt that he had just started raising pigs, so it would be better to be more steady.

In the same way, the same is true for sheep. It is a habit of Chinese people to eat mutton in winter.

So if there are no accidents, my small farm will usher in a wave of shipments from February to March next year. At that time, the proportion of his breeding will drop significantly, and at the same time it will usher in a short-term period.

In order to fill this gap, Xia Dongli plans to buy a batch of chicken and ducklings after the temperature drops.

The temperature in autumn is dry and warm, which is suitable for the growth of cubs. At this time, the success rate of brooding is second only to that in spring, and there is another advantage of brooding in autumn, that is, they have enough time to moult before winter. It is enough to provide basic warmth, and there is no need to take too much care. In addition, autumn is the harvest season. At this time, all major granaries will sell old grain to vacate their warehouses, so the cost of feed is also low.

The quantity he wants to buy this time is not a dozen or so, so in order to protect them, it is necessary to build a qualified chicken and duck house, and the two must be separated.

This time, Xia Dongli and Xun Ao, who already had construction experience, planned to build it themselves. Uh, don’t get me wrong, Xia Dongli is just a soy sauce maker.With his hands-on ability, he can help nail the screw to make a hole, and the rest is responsible for the purchase, transportation and site selection. As a result, he only needs to make a ruthless pole machine, and Xun Yao can do all the welding and fixing by himself.

The chicken coop and the duck coop were divided into two sides of the composter, and the duck coop was closer to the small pool for the convenience of Xia Dongli to build a small pool inside.

Ducks love water by nature. If there is running water in the breeding environment, most diseases can be avoided.Of course, as a conscientious upstream person, he certainly cannot throw the water that the ducks have swum in the pool down the mountain. These will be the raw materials for the composting machine in the future.

The chicken coop is closer to the small brick house, both of which are made into a two-story design, the bottom layer is used to place the manure collection equipment, on the other hand...

"Is this enough?" Xun Yao hammered the last nail on the support column, looking at the design he added with some doubts.

They used discarded boards to build a curved square baffle on the first floor of the chicken coop. From a distance, this shape looks like an upside-down rice bowl or a canopy.

Xia Dongli took the tablet back and forth to compare the photos above, and was very satisfied and gave Xun Yao a thumbs up: "Yes, that's it, after I have this thing, it won't happen again when I get up early in the morning and see there is something in the cage. A snake!"

That's right, the real function of this small plate is - Dang Dang Dang ~ anti-snake board.

This Xia Dongli was also seen on the Internet. It is mainly used by some people who live in the forest in the south. Although the shape is simple and the cost is low, the anti-snake effect is very good. Some people have done experiments with their own pet snakes on the Internet. Basically There is no one who can break the defense.

In fact, its principle is very simple.

Snakes have poor eyesight. They rely on snake letters to read information and feedback to crawl, so when they climb up the pole, only when their heads touch the bottom of the "bowl" will they find that they have climbed to the end, and then follow the Its habit will choose to bend over and raise its head to go around, but at this time its position is already at the bottom of the bowl, and it needs to bend over more than 45 degrees to go around.

But for an ordinary snake, the result of making this move is to challenge the limit of its own snake body, or turn over and fall, or twist its old waist, so snakes usually don't do that, but choose to move from the side detour.

Then it will be sad to find that there are defense boards everywhere, and it has no way to detour!

Of course, if it is a human being, it may be said that you can choose to take a few steps back to the level of the "bowl" and then climb up, but as I said before, the snake's eyesight is very poor, so it has no way to determine where it is. Well, even if it thought of this method, it would have to experiment countless times to actually operate it.

"Then what if a snake thinks of it?"

"...Then add one more!" Xia Dongli waved his big hand very proudly, expressing that there are not many other things, he has plenty of wooden boards!And if you really encounter such a smart snake, you will be planted if you plant it.

In a short period of time, all chickens and ducks in the chicken coop are adult or sub-adult chickens and ducks. A snake that can pass through the snake baffle and drill through the barbed wire into the chicken pen and duck coop can sneak eggs at most, and beat adult chickens and ducks. Notice?I'm afraid I'll be served by sharp beaks and flat beaks. If I'm unlucky, I'll be eaten as a picnic. Chickens and ducks eat meat.

"Okay, this is almost done." Xia Dongli personally hung the small wooden sign with the chicken coop on the nail that Xun Yu had reserved for him, and looked at the building that took the two of them a week to build with great satisfaction. The chicken coop, of course, is still a rough house now, and there is still some distance before the chickens move in, but the time is not urgent anyway, and according to his plan, the big chickens and ducks in the family will move into their new homes in autumn.

As for the cages they vacated, they will live in the new Maojiu after disinfection.

That's right, Xia Dongli planned to raise the Maojiu in the cage vacated in the small courtyard first, so that they could be taken care of nearby, and it would also prevent the big chickens from bullying the little Maojiu.

However, for Xia Dongli, another reason why he was interested in letting the sub-adult chickens live in this time period is actually-he needs these chickens and ducks to help them eat seeds.

Except for the original thirteen acres of land, pig pens, sheep pens and composters, all kinds of flowers and grass seeds were sprinkled on Xia Dongli on Xiaotupo, and now it is a lush and gorgeous scene of flowers. A method of artificially planting wildflower meadows for the purpose of soil modification and protection by these herbaceous plants before cultivation begins.

Most of these are annual herbaceous plants, and a few are perennial. These humble wildflowers and weeds can effectively improve soil infiltration, consolidate water and soil, and form a water reservoir with their interconnected root systems.

They cover the land like a quilt to ensure that the organic matter in the soil will not be blown away by extreme weather such as heavy rains and strong winds.

At the same time, this diverse environment can also attract more wild animals to live in, especially rodents and small mammals who are good at digging. They will dig various passages underground, which is equivalent to free diggers.

Most of the area that Xia Dongli leased was wasteland, and without the help of the small animals to do a job first, it would have been a waste of years for him to plant seeds directly.

Of course, he will also pay the rent. After he officially plants in the spring of next year, Xia Dongli will leave a part of the wildflower meadow as the case may be to continue to let these wild animals live, and it will also serve as a buffer zone between the fields.

Intensively planted crops are bound to bring problems of pests and diseases, which is unavoidable, and the existence of the buffer zone can effectively prevent pests from quickly entering another area from one area. At the same time, the ecological chain in the buffer zone itself will also Some control of pest infestation.

Of course, this process can also be facilitated by human intervention, such as providing space for beneficial insects to reproduce and avoid natural enemies.

For example, praying mantises and dragonflies are also bigwigs in the insect world. They are very effective in curbing most insect plagues, but the problem is that their own race loves to kill each other, and they will not stop dying when encountering them.

It is common for big mantises to prey on small dragonflies and big dragonflies to prey on small mantises. It is extremely common for praying mantises and dragonflies to wave their knives and greet each other when they meet. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the number of mantises and dragonflies to the extent that they can contain pests. , providing them with shelter and food are extremely important things.

Wildflower meadows can provide such services, such as planting more lush weeds to cover their bodies, or planting plants that insects love to attract pests to feed beneficial insects, all of which have successful cases.

"Although it's quite beautiful in theory," Xia Dongli walked backwards against the light with his hands behind his back, complaining to Xun Yu, "but the premise is that they have to listen to your words and grow obediently~"

That's right, don't underestimate these small things that are mostly weak and slender. Their vigorous vitality is enough to shame most perennial plants. Except for the severe cold and freezing in the Northeast, there are not many things that can make them compromise, let alone According to the requirements of human beings, we can plant whatever we want.

The strong desire of these herbs to pass on their DNA can also make two-thirds of the creatures in the world ashamed, and most of the strange ways of transmitting seeds are made by herbs.As the lower layer of the ecological chain in nature, herbaceous plants can occupy a large area of ​​the plant world in the case of short life force because of their strong reproductive ability.

But at this time, he can't have this kind of reproductive ability. Xia Dongli is ready to cut the seed pods, but he can't do anything about some seeds that will eject when touched.

This requires Mao Jiu to play.

When the plants wither in autumn, it will be the time when Maojiu can eat the most. At that time, put these big chickens and small chickens in the ground. Put it on the flat mouth after one round. Ducks are a kind of creatures that eat to death as long as they can’t be eaten. They can clean up a wave of eggs and adults. In addition, chickens and ducks have the characteristics of pulling while eating. If you can apply a wave of organic fertilizer, you don't have to worry about burning the seedlings with the organic fertilizer. In short, theoretically speaking, this plan is very credible.

The reason why I say theoretically is because there is still a huge problem in this plan-who will put the chickens?

Autumn is the time for small animals to gain weight, and it is also the time for most raptors and small animals to come out of their nests. If no one is here to watch these chickens and ducks, then he is really delivering food to the small animals in Baiyun Mountain .

And it is estimated that these small animals will not think that he is good, let alone accept him as soon as he is good. Instead, they have to eat, pack and order the whole family to eat together.

Dogs can protect the chickens and ducks, but it looks like a whole day. Xia Dongli still can't bear to keep his beloved rice here. He will never forget that his original intention of coming here is to take care of rice , If rice is burdened with too much work and tired, wouldn't it be putting the cart before the horse.

"So I'll think about it..." Xia Dongli raised his eyes and glanced at Xun Xiaoyu quietly, and stretched out his hand into his hand to please him, and the two walked hand in hand in front of their house. In the contracted field, he said cautiously: "Well, researcher Chen won't stay with us for too long, and he will leave when he figures it out. By then, it will be too tiring to rely on the two of us for such a large area. I thought about it. Do you want to hire some helpers? Or just hire a temporary worker or something. You know the situation in Xiaojin Village. The local area is aging and there is a shortage of labor. It doesn’t matter if there are short-term workers. If you do, you have to pay for food and lodging..."

In fact, agricultural operations also have a certain degree of professionalism. Unlike some service-oriented industries in the city, where you can go to the fields with a little training, the recruiters here either find full-time farmers, or nearby farmers come to help during their slack.

But autumn is a busy season for most farmers. If you want to recruit workers, you have to pay a lot of money or wait for someone to finish your own affairs, so the ideal is to find a full-time job.

Xun Yao knew all these things very well. He raised his eyes and looked at Ai Ai's boyfriend who was cautious and longing for Ai Ai. He took a big step and walked to his side. He straightened him with his elbows and said very calmly: "I understand, but Ah Dong, the only time we need labor this year is in autumn, if we recruit now, we will have to support this person until next spring."

Xia Dongli was taken aback for a moment, and felt that there seemed to be some truth: "Xiao Yan, you mean to hire farmers this year and deal with it first?"

To his surprise, Xun Yao shook his head, pondered for a while, and said, "I saw a business model called farmhouse music...?"

Xia Dongli shook his head again and again, "Nongjiale has to apply for three certificates and one license, we are not allowed to do this kind of business."

"Then, why don't you charge money?" Xun Yao raised his eyes and looked at him: "We don't ask the guests to collect money, and the guests also arrange to stay in the village hotel instead of our house. They just come in the name of entertainment..."

Xia Dongli slowly opened his mouth: "Well, no one is willing to come if there is no wages. The transportation here is not very convenient, and it is not considered a popular tourist attraction."

As he spoke, his voice became quieter, Yuanyuan's eyes blinked twice quickly, wait!In fact, it is not impossible.It's true that their place is not a tourist attraction, but it's not far from Lishu Village next door, so they can go grab each other's wool! !

"You can also draw a lottery at Station B," Xun Yao said softly: "There are a lot of people on the website who are curious about us, especially the black-nosed sheep. We just said that we invite them to come and play, with or without food...you can come to herd the sheep, You can also let the chickens go, but you have to talk to the village chief about the accommodation, and make the guesthouse vacant. If everything is clear, someone should come.”

"But, but, we don't have much fun here. We come all the way to the farm, and it's a stranger's place..."

Xia Dongli suddenly realized that, by the way, just because he is a stranger, he has a reason not to host him. It is dangerous for strangers to live together. If you only invite people to come and see...

Maybe! !

"But this way netizens will know where our farm is." Xun Ao reminded, Xia Dongli thought about it, and felt that the problem was not too big.

Although the money is touching, their family's property is so small at present. The assets of ordinary farmers are more than theirs. The only two valuables are the composter and the purifier, neither of which can be stolen.

Damn, what should I do if I feel a little heartbroken?

The author has something to say: Xun Ao: Heh.