Chapter 126 Silage Pit

She felt like she had brought back three mouths of the abyss.

Before she read the notes, she didn't know cows could eat so much.

Three cows need to eat half a ton of grass in a month.

Zhao Yeqing took extra care in handling the two plots of land, weeding and deep plowing before sowing.

If the grass doesn't grow well, she will have to eat beef with tears before the winter is over.

The two acres of land are more than 1,000 square meters. She spent two days weeding and plowing the land, and she almost fainted after only finishing one acre of land.

There are too many weeds, so after deep plowing, we use a rake to remove some of the fast-growing grass roots, otherwise they will grow again in the autumn wind before the grass grows.

Mu Xi quickly finished fixing the cement floor and came to help.

The pastureland needs to be fertilized before sowing. Zhao Yeqing took the opportunity to pull Xiaohong to transport fertilizer while Mu Xi was plowing another field.

Cattle and sheep eat a lot to gain weight in autumn, so we get a lot of manure every day when we clean the cattle and sheep pens.

But now that the weather is getting colder, the manure is not composting as quickly, so a simple shed was made with wooden boards where the manure is stored, and it was sealed with plastic sheeting to ensure that the temperature inside is high enough.

The manure was transported to the pasture and evenly spread into the soil, and then the seeds were sown.

The soil moisture of this land is not very good, so it needs to be watered again.

Zhao Yeqing only delivered the water and fertilizer and left, leaving the rest to Mu Xi.

We also have to rush to harvest grass for silage.

Twelve sheep only need more than 4,000 kilograms of feed in three months, a little more in winter.

They had only stored more than 30 bags of silage, each bag weighing 80 kilograms, plus hay, which was just enough for more than three months.

Now that we have cows, silage is not enough. Packaged silage is definitely not feasible as it is time-consuming, labor-intensive and has low production capacity.

We need to build a larger area to store silage.

Zhao Yeqing was a little confused. The method of stacking silage was to place the feed on the ground, cover it with plastic film, and allow a large amount of feed to ferment under the film.

This method is the simplest and most labor-saving, but the problem is that the film cloth must be opened every time the feed is taken out. If you are not careful, the feed will become moldy and spoiled, and the film cloth can easily be trampled and damaged by animals.

Another method is to build a silage pit, which is to create a space on the ground with bricks and cement, and make an opening next to it for taking out materials. This will reduce the amount of air and bacteria that enter the feed.

To build a silo, you have to carry mud and lime, which is hard work.

It was already evening when she returned home after harvesting two loads of hay. Harvesting hay was easier than plowing the fields, and it gave her the energy to worry about the problem.

But when Mu Xi got home from work in the evening, Zhao Yeqing had not yet come to a conclusion.

Both of them were very tired, so they just cooked a bowl of noodles for dinner.

The question was thrown to Mu Xi. He swallowed the noodles in his mouth and said without hesitation: "Silage pit, once and for all."

Indeed, a silage pit can be used continuously. As cows and sheep give birth to new cows and sheep, the amount of feed needed will only increase, not decrease.

She just felt that Mu Xi was working too hard. She really had no way of moving such heavy soil and lime from near the collapsed mountain.

If she went to move, it might not be completed by winter.

Mu Xi knew that she didn't want him to work so hard, and there was a smile in his eyes.

I handed her the poached egg in the bowl and said, "Eat more since you have so little strength. I'm going to fix the silage pit. You have a lot of work to do harvesting hay."

Indeed, harvesting such a large amount of grass has to be done manually and it has to be cut into small pieces.

Her cervical spine hurts just thinking about it.

But she still had to refute the claim that she was weak. She patted her arm and said, "My strength is not weak at all. It's just a little bit weaker than yours."

After so much physical labor for so long, Zhao Yeqing felt that when his biceps became hard enough, he could break rocks on them.

She is definitely stronger than ordinary men.

Mu Xi put down the bowl after eating it all and wiped his mouth. "If you don't believe me, prove it."

Zhao Yeqing didn't doubt it and rolled up his sleeves.

The biceps that were already there now become a large, clearly defined mass when the arms exert force.

She stretched out her arms in front of Mu Xi, "How is it."

Wear sun-protective clothing when the weather is hot and a coat when the weather is cold.

Her arms, which were barely tanned, were white and tender, and stretched out in front of him defenselessly.

Mu Xi reached out and pinched it.

Girls' skin is always smoother than boys'. He poked her acupoint without knowing it, causing her arm to go numb and become limp.

The bulging muscles disappeared, and Mu Xi smiled evilly, "Where is it? I can't see it."

Zhao Yeqing sneered and stuffed the bowl into his hands, "Go wash the dishes."

-

It took the two men nearly a week to cultivate the pasture and make red bricks and cement, and they were finally able to start building the silo.

Three cows and twelve sheep consume about 120 kilograms of feed every day.

According to the worst-case scenario, if winter lasts for half a year, nearly 22 tons of forage will be consumed in six months.

Now the production at home cannot keep up at all, and we can only produce silage in batches.

They plan to build two small silos.

Calculated by volume, the silo can hold about 550 kilograms of hay per cubic meter on average, so 22 tons requires 40 cubic meters.

Without considering the time of income and expenditure, judging from the data alone, two silage pits of about 20 cubic meters are needed.

That is, two silage pits that are 4 meters long, 2 meters wide and 2.5 meters deep.

The silage pit has a total of three walls on the left, right and back, with no roof. The foundation needs to be raised to create a slope. The silage inside will be piled into a shape that is high in the middle and sloped around it, similar to a pyramid.

Cover the surface of the silage with plastic film so that when it rains, the rainwater will flow down.

Drainage holes should be opened around the surface, drainage ditches should be dug, and the plastic film should be pressed tightly with heavy objects.

The bottom of the silo also needs to be covered with mulch so that rain does not seep in.

The preliminary preparation work takes a long time, but the silage pit is relatively quick to make.

Two people worked hard and completed the construction in three days.

The rest of the time is spent harvesting large amounts of grass.

A silo can store about ten tons. The current production cannot keep up. After the previously planted and wild forage grasses are harvested, they can barely fill a silo half full.

All we can do is wait until the first batch of ryegrass and alfalfa is harvested.

Ryegrass grows faster and can be harvested one month after sowing. Alfalfa sown in autumn cannot be harvested as in summer and takes one and a half months to harvest.

Ryegrass can be harvested continuously, so even if there is no time for silage, you can still eat fresh grass.

The trouble is that if it snows, the snow water has to be dried before feeding, otherwise the cattle and sheep will have diarrhea.

-

Mu Xi went to cut grass, while Zhao Yeqing threshed the sesame seeds that he had harvested and dried a few days ago at home.

In her eyes, each plump black sesame seed turned into steaming, fragrant black sesame paste.