Tianhong Ranch.
It was one of Qianma Town's three great ranches.
Its pastureland alone covered a full thirty thousand mu, with eight hundred herding households.
Last year, the Wang Clan had mobilized all eight hundred ranch workers. They had even transferred two thousand able-bodied men and three hundred auxiliary laborers from Ping'an Town, all to harvest the old alfalfa like killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.
The sandy loam had also been turned over, burying the alfalfa roots and stems inedible to cattle and sheep back into the earth, returning them as nourishment for the land.
Alfalfa was a miraculous forage grass. Ever since humanity had domesticated it, it had become inseparably tied to the development of animal husbandry. It was not picky about soil, yielded abundant fodder, and could enrich the fields as well.
The alfalfa seeds originally planted by the Qianma Huangfu Clan had been ordinary superior-grade seeds painstakingly obtained by the Huangfu Clan from its main branch. After several centuries of cultivation, they had become high-quality alfalfa.
Each mu of pastureland could be harvested several times a year, with an average annual yield of twenty dan of fresh fodder per mu.
The cattle raised on ranches generally fell into several categories.
The most common was a "beef cattle breed" called the Short-Horn Red Cattle.
In this regard, Great Qian differed greatly from ancient China. In ancient China, people generally raised only draft cattle, and the authorities of many dynasties even prohibited commoners from slaughtering cows. The underlying social structures were fundamentally different.
Cultivation flourished throughout Great Qian. From unranked Profound Martial Family Clans and Rogue Cultivators to aristocratic clans of every rank, which of them did not need vast amounts of meat to replenish their vitality and blood?
Though Fierce Beast meat was highly effective