Li Long said, "The best way is to slaughter and sell the pastoralists' culled sheep before they freeze or starve to death. That would save fodder and feed while easing the pressure on the pastoralists."
Li Xiangqian was a little surprised. It was not as though this method had never occurred to him.
After all, with everything covered in ice and snow, gathering enough fodder really was no easy task.
But slaughtering cattle and sheep to reduce fodder consumption was something they could do.
Although slaughtering cattle and sheep in batches at this time would mean much lower prices, they could at least sell them for some money and offset some of their losses, rather than waiting until the animals actually froze to death and became difficult to sell for a decent price.
"Actually, I've thought of that too," Li Xiangqian said. "I'm just afraid the pastoralists won't agree. Cattle and sheep are their most valuable and most cherished possessions. Would they be willing to slaughter these culled cattle and sheep? I don't think they'd be too keen."
"We don't need to speak to the pastoralists directly about this. Isn't the Pastoral Team there? We just need to go to them," Li Long said. "We couldn't hand the fodder and feed we gather directly to the pastoralists either, right? We'd give it to them through the Pastoral Team too.
"We'd only be making a suggestion on something like this. To be honest, we can collect some wheat straw and corn stalks now, but in this freezing weather, how much can we transport with our current capacity? It would be a drop in the bucket. Unless we launch a donation drive involving everyone, we really can't collect enough on our own, and our transport capacity isn't enough either."
Li Xiangqian kept