Chapter 171: Pigs and Cattle

The farm had two pairs of Landrace pigs and one pair of Northeast Min pigs as its initial breeding stock. To expand the herd, relying solely on the imported female stock was insufficient—it would be a waste of the valuable semen from the superior boars. A sow can only produce two litters a year, whereas a boar can service 20 to 30 sows annually. With artificial insemination, a single boar could service nearly a thousand sows in a year.

Therefore, he specifically collected the most representative local breed, the Lincheng pig, to serve as the female stock, using artificial insemination to rapidly expand the population. The local pig farming industry was reasonably developed, with nearly every household raising pigs. Unfortunately, the standard of care was abysmal; by modern animal husbandry standards, they were all malnourished. Yang Baogui managed to purchase about a dozen sows that were in acceptable condition for breeding. Additionally, he carefully selected and raised more than ten gilts to serve as future breeding stock.

Because Xiong Buyou constantly harped on the need to protect the purebred Lincheng pig—he was always indignant whenever he spoke of how the Lincheng Animal Husbandry Station had crossbred the pure stock—Yang Baogui deliberately acquired a few feeder pigs from local farmers to raise for meat. He discovered that the Lincheng pig was not a suitable breed for large-scale modern agricultural production—its growth period was too long, and its weight gain was unprecedentedly slow. He asked the locals and learned that it took 24 months to fatten a pig to about 200 jin for slaughter. Compared to modern pigs, which are ready for market in under a year, this was highly uneconomical.

“It’s understandable why the Lincheng Animal Husbandry Bureau crossbred all the Lincheng pigs back in the day. How else could they have met such a large export demand?”

“You’re crossbreeding the Lincheng pigs now too.”

“But I’m still preserving a few purebreds—I make sure to keep a few breeding animals of every breed. Maintaining the original stock is very important.”

Most of the newly built rows of pigsties in the pig farm were still empty. The winters in Lincheng were not very cold, but the summers were hot and humid with a lot of rain, and there was also the problem of typhoons. Therefore, when overseeing the construction of the farm, Yang Baogui chose a single-slope, open-style pigsty design to facilitate ventilation and heat dissipation. The materials used for the pigsties were quite particular; the floors were all smoothed with cement. The entire structure was designed to be sturdy, able to withstand strong winds, and have good rain protection.

“Summer typhoons are no joke,” Yang Baogui said. “If we build cheap now and the sty collapses, crushing the pigs, the loss would be immense.”

Wu Nanhai noticed a large area near the pigsties enclosed by a sturdy bamboo fence. The soil inside was churned up, and there were several black mud pits.

“This is the pigs’ playground,” Yang Baogui said. “Although we’re not raising ‘running pigs,’ a moderate amount of exercise is good for their appetite. The mud pits are a favorite activity of theirs—and it helps prevent diseases.”

Many plants had been planted around the pigsties and the playground, including windbreak saplings. Pumpkins were planted at the base of the sty walls, and trellises with zucchini were set up over the open-air pens. This not only provided shade and cooling for the pigs but also supplemented their feed.

“These pigs are really living a carefree life. The surrounding sanitation is also excellent.”

“Of course. Animals have psychological stress too. Don’t think pigs like dirty, smelly environments. When they are happy, they get sick less often, grow faster, and have better meat quality. And for the breeding stock, it boosts their libido.”

“Look, these are purebred Lincheng pigs,” Yang Baogui pointed to a dozen or so weaned piglets sleeping in a sty. “Lincheng pigs taste really good, especially as roasted suckling pig,” Yang Baogui smacked his lips. “So I’m raising some separately for Xiong Buyou to cook for you.”

Strict segregation was practiced here. Yang Baogui told Wu Nanhai that there were as many as nine different types of pens to accommodate pigs of different statuses and ages. Each type of pen varied in size depending on the number of pigs it housed, and the equipment and structure were also slightly different. In addition, there were dedicated breeding rooms and farrowing pens for sows.

“So-called scientific pig farming doesn’t necessarily require complete feed, antibiotics, disinfectants, and vaccines—those are necessities for modern, large-scale commercial production. With our limited conditions, there are many simple and effective techniques we can use to achieve good results—just on a smaller scale and with lower efficiency. But it’s definitely environmentally friendly.”

“Take this piglet sty, for example,” Yang Baogui had him look at the floor of the pen, which was an iron grid floor raised one meter high on stone pillars.

“This technique is called ‘farrowing on the net’—the piglets’ feces and urine fall through, absorbed by the bedding material on the ground below. The net stays clean and dry, so the piglets are less likely to get dysentery. The survival rate is much higher. It’s a simple principle and not difficult to implement.”

“It’s a bit like ‘raised-floor housing for chickens’.”

“Exactly, the principle is essentially the same,” Yang Baogui said. “And automatic waterers. Last time I went to the Engineering and Energy Committee to ask them to make some, they insisted it wasn’t possible without plastic or rubber. But what do you need plastic or rubber for? A simple lever switch works just fine. A little leakage doesn’t matter. But with automatic waterers, not only is the pigs’ drinking water more sanitary, but it also improves the hygiene of the sty. The pigs get sick less often, and we don’t have to feed them antibiotics all day long.”

The homemade waterers made by the Engineering and Energy Committee’s machine factory were made entirely of ceramic and bamboo, except for a few metal parts. Water flowed from a raised, reinforced concrete tank through thick bamboo pipes. A pig just had to nudge a bamboo lever, and water would flow from a ceramic reservoir into the drinking pan below. The device leaked a little, but it was cleaner and less wasteful than pouring water into a stone trough.

“Take feed delivery, for another example. The traditional method here is the ‘thin soup, full feed’ approach. The pigswill is watery, and they’re fed until they’re full. It seems to save feed, but too much water affects the pig’s digestion and actually makes it harder for them to gain weight. And there’s no need to cook the feed. It not only damages the nutritional value but can also easily lead to nitrite poisoning. It’s a waste of labor and fuel. Except for swill, most feed can be given raw. There are many more small, traditional improvements like this we can make.”

Yang Baogui was now focusing on expanding the breeding of Northeast Min pigs. In modern society, apart from being used as a maternal line for crossbreeding, this pig is rarely raised for meat because its fat deposition rate is too high—it’s a pig that loves to grow fat. Modern society’s demand for pork is for as much lean meat as possible: hence lean-meat pigs, so-called “running pigs,” and, in the simplest cases, things like clenbuterol. So this breed is unpopular. But for the transmigrator group, pigs not only provide meat but also supply fat, a crucial industrial resource.

Besides pigs, cattle were the largest livestock group at the farm. Hainan’s major historical exports included cattle. Both water buffalo and yellow cattle were abundant in Lincheng. The Li areas were a major source of local cattle. A continuous stream of over a hundred head of cattle from the Lincheng Li areas and Changhua Fort rapidly expanded the size of the cattle farm.

The cattle at the farm were mainly used for draft power. They were not yet widely used for fieldwork but were primarily used for transporting goods—ox-carts were now becoming the main mode of land transport for the transmigrator group. Yang Baogui had to balance the need to rapidly expand the herd through breeding with the demand for draft animals. Accelerating the import of cattle from Changhua was the best option. After being transported, they could be put to work after a short period of conditioning and rest. Cattle have low feed requirements, so there were no concerns about feed supply.

He sorted the cattle that arrived from various places. Water buffalo meat is tough and coarse, so they were mainly used for draft power, plowing fields, and pulling carts. Thus, the scale of water buffalo breeding was controlled. The main focus was on raising various types of yellow cattle. Yellow cattle could not only be used for pulling carts but also for meat and hide.

The cattle in the barn were resting at this time. It was afternoon, and the weather was hot. A few farmhands were sprinkling water around the sheds to cool them down. Because these cattle bore the heavy task of road transport every day, they received special care, not only with daily supplements of concentrate feed but also with guaranteed sufficient rest.

“There are quite a few cattle,” Wu Nanhai said. “It seems beef will be widely available sooner than pork.”

“Actually, for us, the ideal livestock are cattle and sheep—they just eat grass. Pigs require a lot of grain. Green fodder can only be a supplement. The local custom for raising pigs is to feed them rice during fattening, which is too wasteful.”

“The large-scale cultivation of sweet potatoes is to ensure we have feed grain. But cattle also need grain, right? Like corn.”

“Traditional cattle farming is purely grass-fed. Feeding them special green fodder also works. Corn-fed beef is something only countries with overly favorable natural conditions like the United States can afford,” Yang Baogui sighed. He had a particular fondness for North America.

They walked past the pens for the breeding bulls. The fences here were exceptionally thick. Bulls are ill-tempered and have great size and strength, so they must be handled with great care, whether feeding or working them. However, Yang Baogui was not impressed with the local bulls and only kept a few for preserving the original breed. The pregnant local cows were all inseminated with frozen semen from several different superior breeds brought from the modern world.

The breeding cows had all been inseminated in the spring. The pregnant cows were housed in individual stalls. A sign hung in front of each stall, listing the cow’s number, age, date of conception, expected due date, and the breeds of both the cow and the sire.

Seeing Yang Baogui approach, a few cows stuck their heads out, their large, gentle, moist eyes staring at him, and they mooed.

“See, they all recognize me,” Yang Baogui said jokingly, stroking the neck of one of the cows. “This one is precious. She’s pregnant with a Holstein-Friesian. Our future milk supply will depend on her calf.” He then checked the feed trough to see how the cows were eating and cross-referenced it with the blackboard on the wall to see if the feeder had accurately recorded the feeding status. Yang Baogui was very strict about controlling the feed delivery; fodder, concentrate, and salt were all given at fixed times and in fixed quantities.