My village can't be like this

Chapter 657 Sheepfold with Private Box
After the Qingming Festival, the sky changed from its previous gloomy state, peeled off the thick clouds in the sky, and sprinkled brilliant golden sunshine on the earth.

Zhang An got up early and strolled along the road outside the door.

Standing on the bridge, he suddenly discovered that the vast fields that were full of golden rapeseed flowers a few days ago had now withered and turned into small rapeseed fruits.

However, there are some surprises. Although there is no sea of ​​rapeseed flowers in the large fields at the entrance of the village, there are still many rapeseeds in bloom in the fields in the mountains.

They are the ancient crop variety rapeseed, which is different from the victory rapeseed grown in paddy fields. They are different not only in the early and late flowering period, but also in their external appearance and the quality of their fruits.

In mountainous areas, paddy fields are definitely fertile soil. In comparison, the soil in the mountains seems a bit poor.

Therefore, the varieties of crops planted by everyone are completely different throughout the year.

Take winter rapeseed for example. Because the soil in paddy fields is relatively fertile, the rapeseed varieties planted are almost all Victory rapeseed bought from seed companies.

Shengli rapeseed is an excellent variety bred by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. It not only matures early, but also has high yield and oil yield during oil pressing. Therefore, for many years, Shengli rapeseed has always been the main cultivated variety of winter rapeseed.

The advantages of Shengli rapeseed are very prominent, so its plants are very tall and have many branches to facilitate seed production.

However, because of this, they have requirements for soil fertility.

If planted in poor soil, its growth will be very poor, which will greatly affect the harvest.

Therefore, as the main cash crop of the family, all families in the village who grow winter rapeseed will plant it in fertile paddy fields.

As for the relatively barren mountain lands, no one will leave them empty. Since they are not suitable for growing winter rapeseed, they will plant the variety left by their ancestors - bitter rapeseed.

This thing has been cultivated for many years and it can fully adapt to the relatively barren land in mountainous areas.

And if you want to plant, you don’t need to spend money to buy seeds from a seed company, because many families will leave some seeds for the next year after harvesting the previous year.

Because it is a product of natural selection, its plants are not tall and have fewer branches than Shengli rapeseed. It looks quite thin and matures relatively late.

Therefore, the yield after maturity will be much lower, the rapeseed is also relatively small, not as big as Shengli rapeseed, and the oil yield is not very high.

It is for this reason that growing rapeseed cannot meet the oil demand in many areas, so the country has cultivated the high-yield Victory rapeseed.

But as a traditional crop variety, rapeseed has its own advantages.

They are not picky about the fertility of the soil and can grow as long as it is not saline-alkali soil with no fertility.

Although the yield of rapeseed is low and the oil yield is not high, the oil extracted from it is very fragrant.
When Zhang An's family was still growing rapeseed in the past, they grew both victory rapeseed and bitter rapeseed.

After the harvest, the high-yield rapeseed will be sold for money, while the low-yield bitter rapeseed will be left at home.

Because the oil extracted from it tastes delicious, most people choose to keep it to extract oil for their family.

The main reason is that the price of rapeseed is not high, so many people are unwilling to sell it.

This is the same principle as many vegetables and grains in later generations. Some of them have been sprayed with pesticides many times and may grow well and look good, but the farmers themselves do not eat them and choose to sell them to city dwellers.

As for those that are not sprayed with much pesticide but grow very poorly and look very bad, city dwellers are unwilling to buy them, and the farmers themselves are also unwilling to buy them, and instead keep them for home consumption.

"It's so early in the morning, and the third brother has already come back from the fields."

Zhang Ancai had been standing on the bridge for a while when he saw Zhang Laosan from the village coming back from the fields, carrying a basket of dewy grass.

"It's still early so I can go out and cut some grass on the ridges to feed the cows. I can also take a look at the rapeseed in the fields."

When Zhang Laosan saw Zhang An and walked over, he also put the basket full of green grass on his back on the wooden railing of the bridge to rest for a while.

"Hey, your family planted rapeseed in the field this year, and it's still blooming now."

After hearing what Zhang Laosan said, Zhang An opened his eyes and immediately saw his family’s fields.

Although most people's fields had turned green, Zhang Laosan's field was still golden, and the rapeseed seemed to have just bloomed.

Zhang An was not someone who had never farmed before, so he knew at a glance that the field planted with rapeseed was that of Zhang Laosan's family.

"Hehe, you know we don't have much land outside now. We only have this little paddy field left. Your sister-in-law and I thought about it and decided that the rapeseed from that one-acre field wouldn't sell for much money anyway, so we might as well plant some rapeseed. We won't sell it when the time comes, but just squeeze some oil for our own consumption."

Zhang Laosan chuckled and explained to Zhang An.

In fact, their family has a lot of land, but in order to expand the kiwi fruit planting area, Zhang Laosan exchanged all their mountain land with the villagers two years ago.

So now, except for the one acre or so paddy field and orchard in the middle of the field, there is no other mountain land left in their family.

Moreover, with such a large orchard, their family can make a lot of money every year just from selling kiwis, so the money from selling the little bit of rapeseed is dispensable to them.

Therefore, it is not surprising to grow some rapeseed and make oil for one's own consumption.

"This is good. The oil squeezed from rapeseed is not only delicious when cooking, but also delicious when frying other things. Third brother, your family has so many rapeseeds, so you should be able to harvest a lot."

When Zhang An saw that their family had planted so much rapeseed, he immediately thought that after the harvest, he would buy some from them and make some rapeseed oil.

You should know that their family didn't plant any rapeseed this year, they planted all garlic.

"There's not a lot. Don't look at the size of my two mu of land, but the amount I bring home is only about 500 kilograms of rapeseed."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Laosan smiled bitterly and shook his head. This is the yield of rapeseed, and it is still a conservative estimate. If there is a drought for a while, or if there are a few hailstorms, it will be hard to say.

"This is not too little, Third Brother. When your family harvests the rapeseed, please sell some to our family. We didn't plant any this year."

This number was not much different from Zhang An's estimate, so he immediately discussed it with Zhang Laosan.

Based on the calculation that one hundred kilograms of rapeseed can produce more than twenty kilograms of oil, more than five hundred kilograms of bitter oil rapeseed can produce more than one hundred kilograms of rapeseed oil.

Normally, a family of four like Zhang Laosan's cannot use up so much rapeseed oil in a year.

Because all the families in the village have to use lard in addition to rapeseed oil for their daily consumption.

"Okay, if the harvest is good, I'll give you 100 to 200 kilograms, but don't think it's too little."

If someone else had asked, Zhang Laosan might not have agreed, as his family does not lack the money from selling rapeseed.

But the person who spoke was Zhang An, which was different from the others. Zhang Laosan agreed without saying a word.

He always remembered the kindness Zhang An had shown him, otherwise their family would not have the orchard that was as valuable as a golden hen.

"That's enough, that's enough. This is not a small amount anymore." Zhang An knew that it would be enough if the other party could sell him one or two hundred kilograms.

Although the oil we squeeze out is not enough for the family to consume for a year, when the time comes, we can ask a few families in the village to buy some for us.

Although each family in the village does not grow much rapeseed, it is impossible for them to sell one or two hundred kilograms at a time like Zhang Laosan does.

But if one family is not enough, then find a dozen more. Then it won’t be difficult to save several hundred kilograms of rapeseed.

"By the way, your garlic looks pretty good this year. I think you've already earned back the money you spent on the garlic just by selling the garlic sprouts a few days ago."

When talking about the garlic in Zhang An's field, Zhang Laosan couldn't help but sigh.

Because the garlic planted by Zhang An's family this year grew so well, he had never seen garlic grow so well since he was a child.

"Hahaha, God gave me some face, so I look pretty good."

Zhang An just laughed it off and said to Zhang Laosan when he heard it.

If we only talk about the cost of garlic seeds, the investment would have been recovered by selling those garlic sprouts before the Chinese New Year last year.

And the garlic shoots sold a few days ago were pure profit.

According to the price given by Ding Yi, this batch of garlic shoots is several times the cost of garlic seeds.

Add to that the garlic that will be harvested in a while, and it can be said that their family has made a lot of money from this season's planting.

When he got home, Zhang Jianguo was just about to push the cart out of the yard.

"Dad, what are you going to do?"

Zhang An wasn't quite sure what his father was going to do, and he felt curious.

"You said you wanted to clean up the sheepfold and put up a new layer, so I'll go to the old house and push the remaining wood over. We can start today."

Zhang Jianguo did not go out to graze the sheep today because several ewes in his family were probably about to give birth.

The new sheep pen at home has been built, and all the problems, including the walls and the ground, have been solved.

But Zhang An did not plan to lock the sheep in like this. He planned to build a new layer in the new sheep pen. The sheep would live on the upper level, and the lower level would be convenient for cleaning up the sheep manure.

Zhang Jianguo thought that he was just sitting there doing nothing, so he went to push the wood over so that he could start working earlier and finish the job sooner.

"Don't use the cart. You can't push much at a time. I'll get the carriage out and we can bring both carts back. It'll save you the trouble."

Zhang An looked at the cart in his father's hand, shook his head and said, this thing is indeed useful in rural areas, but the carrying capacity is still too small.

We need to rebuild a new layer in the sheep pen, which requires a lot of wood. Using this thing, it will take a long time to finish.

"I was just thinking about ploughing the fields and planting rice seedlings soon, so I didn't think about taking them out to let them fatten up."

It’s not that Zhang Jianguo didn’t think about his carriage, but he was a man who cared about animals. Thinking that spring plowing would be carried out in a while, he wanted to fatten up the horses at home.

Unlike some people, who raise cows and horses at home and work them to death without caring about their lives.

"It's been since last winter. It's not confinement. Why would it take so long to take care of it? Besides, Dahei is so stubborn. It's all in vain for you to feel sorry for him, Dad."

Zhang An also knew that his father was a man who cared for animals, but he felt that his father was caring for the wrong person this time.

The animal Dahei is feeling very uncomfortable being trapped in the pen every day. It can't wait to be let out to have fun.

As for gaining weight, that is impossible. It has a strong body and has never lost any fat.

After Zhang An had set up the carriage and arrived at the yard of the old house, the father and son moved all the remaining wood from the wooden building upstairs and loaded it into the carriage.

In fact, Zhang An's estimate was a little off. He didn't finish pulling the two trucks and had to make a third trip.

The wooden partitions of the new sheep pen are not very low, about one and a half meters above the ground.

This way, when cleaning the sheep dung in the future, no matter who comes in, it won't be too cramped.

After setting up the pillars and several rows of main bars, Zhang An was responsible for cutting the wooden boards into thick wooden strips, while Zhang Jianguo was responsible for taking these wooden strips into the circle and nailing them one by one.

There are gaps between the wooden strips, the gaps are neither too big nor too small, so that the sheep will not fall down by mistake, and the excrement can be discharged to the lower layer conveniently.

It has to be said that this was a meticulous job. The father and son worked for two days in a row before they finished putting together all the layers of wooden boards in the sheep pen.

"Dad, there's no need to play in such a spacious place anyway. Why don't we separate some small compartments out? This way, whether it's the ewes about to give birth or the newly born lambs, they can stay away from the flock and be safer."

Although it has been built, Zhang An did not stop there, but planned to build some separate compartments in the sheep pen.

In the past, when there were fewer sheep in the family, there were no safety risks for either the ewes about to give birth or the newly born lambs.

But now, as the number of sheep raised at home increases, many sheep are becoming more and more restless, especially the rams, which often fight with each other.

It doesn't have much impact on them, at most their heads will just buzz for a while.

But it is very dangerous for some ewes about to give birth and newborn lambs.

From last year to this year, several lambs have been trampled to death due to fighting between big rams.

In this regard, Zhang An has been thinking about how to solve this problem.

When he saw his spacious sheep pen, he thought of the Internet cafes of later generations, which, in addition to the lobby, also had some private rooms.

With the private room, no matter how noisy the hall is, it will be much quieter in the room.

The same is true for Yangquanli. Doing so can effectively solve the problem of innocent people being affected by a fire in the city gate.

Just think of it as a little preferential treatment for the expectant ewes and newborn lambs.

"This seems to be an option. It won't take much time anyway, and there are still a lot of materials left. Let's do it."

Zhang Jianguo thought about it carefully and found that what Zhang An said made sense.

So they got to work, and the father and son started hammering and banging around in the sheep pen, creating some small rooms.

(End of this chapter)