Chapter 122

Ge Yue looked curiously at the egg in his hand. "What is this?"

Shi Wen, "The eggs laid by Bress chickens."

Lin Chengqian examined the eggs. "They've already laid eggs?! They've laid eggs so early!"

Shi Wen, "After raising it for so many months, it finally laid an egg. What's so strange about that?"

After thinking for Shi Wen took out another egg and handed it to Lin Chengqian: "Give one to Gong Jiang too, don't say I'm being biased."

Lin Chengqian chuckled, "I thank my master's husband on his behalf!"

Ge Yue stared at the eggs in his hand. "I was wondering why there were so many eggs in the incubator! They didn't look like pigeon or goose eggs, but they're Bress chicken eggs! Are we going to expand our Bress chicken farming?"

"If we can keep them, we'll raise more," Shi Wen said with a smile. "We don't need pesticides for the pasture, but there are a lot of bugs. It's a good opportunity to raise more chickens for ecological management."

Their geese do eat insects, but they mainly roam along ditches; if you're talking about eating insects, you have to look to the chickens.

Chickens are much better at catching insects than geese. With their sharp beaks, they can catch an insect in one swipe. They can even spot insects that are Shi Wen.

Bress chickens, fed plenty of insects and hay, thrive, laying bright orange-red eggs that taste exceptionally delicious.

Shi Wen decided that the number of geese should be kept at around six or seven hundred, but more chickens could be raised. With such a large ranch, raising one or two thousand chickens shouldn't put much ecological pressure on the ranch.

Chicken farming is also highly profitable.

Geese usually lay eggs every other day or every two days, but chickens can lay eggs every day. I Shi Wen collect eggs every day, which greatly increases my sense of happiness.

It's been raining for the past few days. Shi Wen and Ge Yue talked for a while before heading home.

He went into the kitchen and took a tray out of the oven.

The tray was filled with a flat layer of golden hay.

Ge Yue and Lin Chengqian followed behind Shi Wen, looking curiously at the hay taken out of the oven.

Lin Chengqian: "What is this? Can you still eat hay?"

Shi Wen: "No, it's just a simple test of the quality of this batch of hay. This is a test for the dry matter content of the hay."

Dry matter is the dry residue left after feed is dried at 105 degrees Celsius for 24 hours.

The amount of dry matter is an important indicator of the quality of forage.

In addition to dry matter, he also measured crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, crude ash, nitrogen-free extract, and other components of the forage.

He has been working on this for more than half a year, and although it is not very accurate, it is still fine to use as a reference.

According to their self-testing results, the quality of their hay has been continuously improving.

For example, the quality of this batch of forage is significantly higher than that of the first batch of forage harvested in April.

Shi Wen now quite certain that the excellent growth of livestock this year is largely due to the quality of the pasture.

After the rain stopped, he fertilized the pasture again.

They just harvested their last batch of hay, which is now piled up in the warehouse. With these days of rain, the hay should grow back in abundance.

With the nourishment of fertilizer, their quality will definitely improve.

With such good quality forage, there's no need to plant silage corn this year; we can just harvest a batch of forage to make silage later.

However, it's still early; let's see how to proceed in October.

Shi Wen took the hay out of the tray and began to weigh and record it.

Lin Chengqian stood beside him and asked, "Brother Shi, shouldn't we start digging potatoes after the rain stops?"

Shi Wen looked up at them and smiled, "I knew something was up with you today. Wanting potatoes?"

Ge Yue: "We saw it a few days ago; the part of the potato that had sprouted was bigger than a human head."

Lin Chengqian nodded repeatedly. "The potatoes are growing so well this year, they must taste really good."

Ge Yue: "The main problem is that the leaves of the first batch of red-skinned potatoes we planted are almost dry. If we don't dig them up soon, they might sprout underground, which would be a bit of a waste."

Lin Chengqian honestly replied, "I'm not worried about the potatoes going bad; I just really want to eat them. I'm such a potato-headed person."

Ge Yue had no choice but to admit, "I'm a potato-headed person too."

Shi Wen: "Hmm???"

Lin Chengqian whispered, "It means potatoes are our destiny."

Shi Wen rubbed his forehead and said, "I'm starting to fall behind you young people."

Lin Chengqian: "You're getting more and more in sync with your teacher, from your views to your hobbies—you're so alike."

Shi Wen patted him on the shoulder. "Well said, you can go dig potatoes as a reward."

Chapter 122

Shi Wen decided to dig potatoes, Lin Chengqian and Ge Yue even more excited than he was. The three of them would come to his house every day to hang around and freeload meals.

We waited from rainy days to cloudy days, and from cloudy days to sunny days, until finally the fields were dry enough to dig potatoes.

Shi Wen's family didn't have enough small hoes, so they specially borrowed a few from Fu Meng's family.

Everyone rolled up their trousers and went to the backyard to dig potatoes. Shi Wen stood in a large potato field and said, "Let's start by digging these red-skinned potatoes. After we finish the red-skinned potatoes, we'll dig the purple-skinned potatoes."

This year, their family planted two kinds of potatoes. The red-skinned potatoes are local small potatoes, about the size of a small egg.

These potatoes were planted quite early, and the potato seedlings on the ground have mostly withered.

Shi Wen ago that they might sprout underground, but after checking them over, they seemed fine and there was no risk of sprouting in the short term, so I waited until the purple potatoes were ripe before digging them up.

After everyone chose the spot they wanted to dig, they went to the field of red-skinned potatoes and started digging with their hoes.

They first pulled up the potato seedlings, then gently dug into the soft soil.

Perhaps because it had just rained, or perhaps because the soil here was naturally soft enough, when they pulled up the potato seedlings, a few potato pods would dangle from the bottom of the seedlings with a gentle pull.

Ge Yue picked the potato. "Now I finally know why it's called a potato; it really does look like a bean."