Chapter 385 - Feed

"Won't such crossbreeding cause genetic degeneration?"

"Slightly, but not significantly. China's existing Holstein cattle are basically products of nineteenth-century Dutch Holstein crosses with local cows. Milk yield is decent, and they tolerate rough feed. The downside is lower butterfat content." Yang Baogui smiled. "People often complain that domestic milk tastes bland, not as rich as foreign milk. Besides adulteration, this is a factor."

"With a substantial dairy herd, we could implement a 'student milk' program—dramatically improving next-generation physical fitness! At minimum, every transmigrator could have fresh milk daily."

"Actually I think dairy products like cheese have greater potential," Yang Baogui said. "Chinese don't tolerate lactose well, but processed dairy products are fine. Plus dairy products store easily—under our harsh conditions, fresh milk preservation is impractical."

They continued past several cow stalls. Besides those carrying dairy calves, cows bearing various other breed crosses were also visibly pregnant. The liquid nitrogen tanks' different bull semen varieties had all been matched with local cows—some intended purely for beef, others for dual-purpose.

After the cattle sheds came the sheep pen. The enclosure held few sheep—just several dozen. These had recently arrived from Changhua Fortress—indigenous Changhua sheep. They didn't seem well-adapted to penned life; occasionally rams tried ramming the fencing.

These sheep would be raised for a period, then quality ewes selected for artificial insemination. The Agricultural Committee possessed several quality goat and sheep semen varieties. But whether sheep truly suited Lingao—Yang Baogui really wasn't confident. Better to occupy higher-latitude regions first before attempting serious breeding.

Nearby, sheepdogs came running out, barking loudly, restoring order to the flock.

"Beibei, stop barking!" Yang Baogui called. Immediately a pack of dogs bounded over, tails wagging furiously—some were puppies.

"Look—'Huanhuan,' 'Yingying,' 'Nini' are all hero mothers now. Just half a year and over twenty puppies born." Seeing Wu Nanhai pick one up adoringly: "I'll give you one."

"No thanks—dog-keeping gives off the wrong impression." Wu Nanhai reluctantly set the puppy down.

"True—several girls have asked me for dogs; I haven't given any yet." Yang Baogui said. "Need to train them properly first, then assign to departments. Ma Qianzhu wants a military dog unit; the Security Bureau also wants some."

"A dog at the gate for guarding would be reassuring." Wu Nanhai thought aloud. "Are there local mongrels available? Maybe I'll just catch one for guarding duty."

"Of course. I've captured a few, exploring whether we can develop localized hybrids. These are typical Chinese pastoral dogs—domestication level is low. They're probably more likely to end up beaten and eaten as meat dogs. Cats are better for companionship." Yang Baogui said. "Though cats and dogs don't directly produce economic value, they greatly assist agricultural production. Once the sheep flock expands sufficiently, I'll arrange grazing—that will definitely require dogs' help."

Yang Baogui proposed that besides poultry, sheep promotion would also make an excellent program. Sheep tolerated rough feed, were simple to manage, needed no specialized feed, and required little labor. Women and children could herd them—the quintessential poverty-alleviation project.

Wu Nanhai shook his head: "Sheep cause too much vegetation damage."

"That's primarily in semi-arid northwestern regions. Here with abundant rainfall and rich surface vegetation, a few sheep won't damage anything. Besides, one farm household can at most manage a dozen sheep—low land carrying capacity."

Wu Nanhai was tempted: "Wait until this chicken promotion succeeds. Only responsible farmers should receive them—eating ten chickens is a manageable problem to resolve; eating our sheep is considerably harder. Pursue repayment and they go bankrupt; don't pursue, and all future programs fail."

The livestock farm's final section was rabbits. Rabbits had initially been miserable here—the climate was simply too hot. The entire farm's best-cooled livestock housing was the rabbit building—positioned directly under large trees—yet rabbits remained listless, refusing to breed. This troubled Yang Baogui greatly—did they require air conditioning? By deep autumn in Lingao, they'd finally felt romantic stirrings. Rabbit reproduction rates were phenomenal—they could mate anytime, gestation lasted just one month, and mature rabbits produced six to ten per litter. Twentieth-century Australia's rabbit plague—despite unrelenting government and farmer culling efforts—was merely the descendants of five pairs of European rabbits over one hundred years.

Rabbits were herbivores with minimal feed requirements—extremely suitable as rapid meat source expansion.

Now this expanded rabbit building held over thirty rabbits, including ten Angora rabbits—Wu Nanhai recognized them immediately. To help Angoras survive summer, these rabbits had been completely sheared.

"Summer rabbits don't breed—wait for autumn," Yang Baogui said. "By year's end we should be able to feed everyone rabbit meat. Health Department also needs rabbits."

"Let Health Department dissect first, then everyone eats after dissection is complete."

"Physiological dissection specimens are fine for eating; pathology experiments cannot be consumed."

"Naturally." Wu Nanhai suddenly recalled something. "Lingao has wild rabbits, I believe. Haven't you considered using local wild rabbits to improve and expand the population?"

"Not very suitable. Plus wild rabbits may carry viruses—if those spread, it would be catastrophic."

Finally they reached the riverside wasteland, approaching the Wenlan River's summer high-water mark. Sandy soil here grew peanuts and watermelons. Farther away stood several large pools connected by channels, emitting a characteristic stench. Wu Nanhai recognized Tian Jiujiu's biochemical wastewater treatment system. The livestock farm was a major wastewater producer—cage-washing generated large volumes of organic-rich wastewater. Biogas pits alone couldn't handle the volume, so they'd constructed a biological treatment system: wastewater first settled in preliminary tanks, then entered treatment ponds where aquatic plant cultivation absorbed excess nitrogen and phosphorus.

Several ponds were carpeted with dense duckweed. Workers were harvesting the floating plants—excellent green feed and composting material. Not far away stood the livestock farm's silage pit.

"Pond duckweed is another feed source." Yang Baogui turned to Wu Nanhai seriously: "The Agricultural Committee apparently has high expectations for livestock farming. I want to know—have you actually considered the feed question? No grain means no livestock industry."

"Of course we have."

Wu Nanhai explained the feed solution, planned through three complementary approaches.

Primary starch feed would come from expanded sweet potato cultivation—both the tubers themselves and deep-processing byproducts like starch water and residue.

Second was green feed. In modern agriculture this typically meant corn silage. In China, because grain was precious, corn stalk silage had been promoted. In Lingao, the Agricultural Committee didn't even have corn—they used alfalfa silage and other legume fodder crops, plus sweet potato leaves. Additionally, high-yield vegetables like pumpkins and squash grown on "ten-border" marginal plots could contribute supplementary feed.

Most crucial was protein feed, which came from: first, earthworm and fly-maggot farming; second, recovering oil-pressing byproducts like soybean cake, peanut cake, and coconut oil cake. Bo-pu's seafood factory could also supply fish meal from trash fish and processing scraps.

Feed additives: calcium could be directly recovered from eggshells and bones, or limestone powder could be added. Salt they had in abundance; if needed, trace element supplements could be obtained from kelp and seaweed.

Agricultural processing byproducts like rice straw, rice bran, and sweet potato skins weren't ideal feed, but could supplement—especially after processing, livestock could better absorb and utilize them.

Calculated this way, feed sources were quite diverse. At current farming scale, feed scarcity wouldn't occur. According to Fa Shilu's estimates, after the second-half sweet potato harvest, feed supply would become quite ample—arriving just in time for autumn's peak livestock birthing season.

"Last time Fa Shilu told me: think creatively, don't fixate on just corn and sweet potatoes. We can obtain abundant supplements from wild plants—rural children used to gather grass to feed pigs."

"Does Lingao have such plants?"

"Of course. Common plants growing everywhere. Grasses like cogongrass, foxtail, medick, alkali grass, barnyard grass—all gramineous wild grasses work for pulping and silaging to feed pigs. Leguminous wild grasses go without saying—everyone knows those. Wild vegetables: lamb's quarters, Russian thistle, sow thistle, purslane, wild amaranth, chicory, plantain, bedstraw—all can be fed raw or fermented. Also fresh tree leaves: poplar, willow, elm, mulberry. Not ubiquitous, but not rare either. Mobilizing students and commune semi-laborers as sideline work could gather plenty."

"Honestly, I really wanted to bring water hyacinth. That stuff—you can scoop tons from waterways. During summer blooms it piles up like natural dams. Far more efficient than human-wave feed collection strategies."

"That invasive species—better not. Long-term consequences are endless. Let's not repeat our predecessors' ecological mistakes. Duckweed is sufficient. We'd originally planned to bring tilapia and crayfish as well. All were ultimately vetoed."

This issue had sparked fierce debate during pre-crossing material preparation. Tilapia, crayfish, and other candidates had all been eliminated through discussion. The final decision: don't bring any controversial species—they all existed on Earth somewhere anyway. When needed someday, simply cultivate locally.

"Crayfish are wonderful though. Such a pity. Everyone loves eating them."

(End of Chapter)