1968: Started from breeding

Chapter 319 Planning and Cultivation Direction
Su Wenchen is leaving the breeding farm.

As soon as I entered the branch farm compound, I saw that a large pot of water had been set up and was boiling at the entrance of the canteen.

The water in the large iron pot was already boiling.

Two young employees were scooping hot water into wooden buckets, one ladle at a time, and carrying them to the pig slaughtering area in the backyard.

Su Wenchen stepped over the large pot of boiling water and strode straight into the cafeteria.

The outdoor dining area was now empty, and there were fewer tables and chairs than usual. Su Wenchen guessed that they had been temporarily moved to the backyard.

As Su Wenchen walked to the food serving window, he saw an old man wearing an apron sitting to the side, dozing off.

"Master, is there any more food?"

When someone woke me up, they waved me off impatiently.

"Where would there be food at this hour! Don't they know they should come during mealtimes?!"

However, as soon as he finished speaking, he seemed to remember something and quickly stood up and looked outside.

After discovering it was Su Wenchen, he quickly added.

"Director, I wasn't talking about you. Section Chief Zhao told me, but there weren't any steamed buns left when Section Chief Zhao came over."

"To entertain those people from other factories, they asked me to roll out some noodles for them, and the director even saved a separate portion for you."

"Director, please wait a moment, I'll cook it for you right away!"

Upon hearing this, Su Wenchen shook his head. He hadn't expected Old Zhao to actually have such a good appetite, but he did indeed crave a bite of this smooth and chewy fine grain.

So he simply pulled out his grain coupons.

"Alright, then I'll trouble you to cook me a bowl."

Upon seeing the grain coupons handed over by Su Wenchen, the other party quickly waved his hand.

"Director, Section Chief Zhao, they've all been given to you. Section Chief Zhao also gave you your portion. They were all rolled out together at the time, so I can just cook it for you now."

Su Wenchen raised an eyebrow upon hearing this.

"Old Zhao really approved it? You're not lying to me!"

The other party quickly shook their head.

"Director, I wouldn't dare lie to you! You can just ask and you'll know."

"Please find a seat and I'll cook the noodles right away."

Hearing this, Su Wenchen felt relieved and didn't feel guilty about eating a bowl of noodles from Zhao Weiguo.

While waiting for his noodles, Su Wenchen began to ponder how to breed the next few selected native white rabbits.

Firstly, in terms of direction, Su Wenchen felt that they should still focus on breeding meat rabbits.

One reason is that what's currently lacking is high-quality meat rabbit breeds.

The second point is that the fur of native white rabbits is relatively thin and brittle.

The most basic function of fur clothing is to keep warm, and the local white rabbits are relatively small, so they are not suitable for breeding into fur-bearing rabbits.

Besides, their farm already has high-quality fur-bearing rabbits like the Moonflower Rabbit, so there's no need for them to compete with themselves.

As for breeding, Su Wenchen believes that if we really want to breed a true native species, we cannot follow the hybridization and selection model.

They can only continue to evolve by cultivating feed.

Su Wenchen had only tried this method before, when configuring level-two breeding feed.

Since the third level onwards requires ginseng, a valuable medicinal herb, as an auxiliary ingredient, Su Wenchen felt that feeding it to the laying hens was too uneconomical. How many eggs would they have to lay to earn back the cost of the ginseng?
So he simply gave up on that option.

This time, Su Wenchen doesn't plan to breed them in large quantities. Instead, he will focus on breeding these few native white rabbits to see if they can be bred indefinitely.

He now wants to test the limits of this cheat code.

Thinking of this, Su Wenchen took out a notebook from his pocket.

He started by organizing several types of breeding feed for native white rabbits. After looking around, he found that the first batch of breeding feed consisted mainly of common medicinal herbs, combined with Suaeda salsa as the main ingredient.

What puzzled Su Wenchen was that he had seen plenty of Suaeda salsa in Dongfeng Commune before.

The locals feed their chickens too much of this stuff, so the eggs they lay have a slightly salty, alkaline taste; to put it more nicely, they could also taste like seafood.

If you feed this rabbit too much, it won't evolve into a seafood rabbit!
Will it taste like seafood, just like those chickens?
Will this work? I'm afraid I'll get gout from eating too much!
Just as Su Wenchen was lost in thought, a steaming bowl of hand-pulled noodles with pig's blood was placed in front of him.

"Director, the pig's blood is freshly slaughtered and very tender! Please eat it while it's fresh."

Looking at the steaming noodles in front of him, Su Wenchen's mouth watered instantly, and he just picked up his chopsticks.

Then, as if remembering something, he spoke directly to the cafeteria cook.

"Sir, are you a local?"

"I wonder if we used to grow a lot of Suaeda salsa here?"

Upon hearing Su Wenchen's question.

The other person seemed a little confused, but still sat down opposite Su Wenchen and reminisced.

"Director, I'm not a local, but I've been working at the commune canteen for almost ten years."

"I came here with others when we were fleeing famine."

"Everyone around here knows about Suaeda salsa. It grows everywhere in those saline-alkali lands, so there's no need to plant it."

"We survived those famine years entirely thanks to this stuff!"

Su Wenchen took a bite of noodles and looked at the other person in shock.

"No, what were you thinking, fleeing famine this way? Even if you were going to flee, you should go to places like the Northeast where grain production is high!"

"Is this how it is here all year round? Why do you guys still come here?"

To be honest, this was the first time he had ever heard of people running off to poor areas.

The other party shook his head.

"Actually, because the grain production here has never been high, we didn't dare to eat communal meals in the early years. So at that time, we still had some grain stored up here."

"In addition, there has always been a tendency to consciously reduce activity and food consumption at home during winter."

"So the situation here is actually a little better."

"However, those Suaeda salsa plants in the saline-alkali land were indeed very useful at that time!"

"Although it tastes rather bitter, it can be used as a staple food if it is used to alleviate food shortages during famines."

"Moreover, our commune warehouse is now used as a reserve food, with a lot of dried Suaeda salsa grass stored there."

"When we were storing the grain earlier, we disposed of quite a lot of it to make room for more grain!"

"They initially sent quite a lot to our canteen, but now that we have grain, nobody likes to eat these bitter alkaline buns anymore." "I heard they were eventually all sent to a rabbit farm to feed the rabbits."

Upon hearing this, Su Wenchen paused momentarily in his eating with chopsticks.

Good guy.

So those rabbits ate a lot of this Suaeda salsa?
After thinking about it, Su Wenchen felt that it was almost certainly true.

Because if these Suaeda salsa plants are sent to a farm, the farmers will most likely not feed them to those imported varieties that are prone to dying.

They'll definitely feed them the local rabbits.

However, Su Wenchen then thought about it and realized that this might not be a bad thing, because this thing, like weeds, can grow tenaciously in saline-alkali land without human care.

This is more convenient than alkali-tolerant alfalfa, which requires artificial cultivation.

After all, even alkali-tolerant alfalfa doesn't survive well in highly saline-alkali soil, but this stuff has no problem.

They don't even need artificial cultivation; they just grow everywhere in the ground like weeds.

If we could breed rabbits that specifically eat this kind of grass, we might even be able to create a rabbit breed unique to saline-alkali land!
Because Su Wenchen had tasted the steamed buns made from this kind of Suaeda salsa.

He could only say that, given any other choice, absolutely no one would be willing to mix precious food with such unpalatable stuff.

Feeding rabbits a large amount of this Suaeda salsa will definitely result in a much better taste after the rabbits absorb and process it.

Besides, at least it's meat, which is definitely much better than eating this kind of Suaeda salsa directly.

Thinking of this, Su Wenchen immediately ate a whole bowl of noodles in big mouthfuls.

He wiped his mouth and asked directly.

"Master, please take care of the dishes. I have some other things to do."

The other party quickly waved his hand.

"Director, what are you saying? This is our cafeteria's job."

"Go on with your work!"

"I'll tidy up the table."

Su Wenchen didn't stand on ceremony and left the cafeteria later.

We headed straight to the backyard of the farm headquarters.

"Ow—!"

"Ow—!"

Before Su Wenchen even arrived, a heart-wrenching scream from a black pig reached his ears.

It stopped abruptly after only a few sounds.

After Su Wenchen walked over, he saw a large group of people busily tending to the large black pig that had been struggling.

There were people holding down pigs, collecting blood, and carrying hot water; almost all of them were cadres from various departments working at the farm.

Since most of the employees were busy in the fields, we had to call all of them out.

At the very edge, there were also little kids who had been covering their eyes but peeking through their fingers, now watching the adults sharpening knives with great excitement.

Su Wenchen walked over and shouted at Ren Dachuan, who was giving instructions.

"Comrade Da Chuan! Comrade Da Chuan!"

Upon seeing that it was Su Wenchen, the other party immediately walked over.

"Director, you've arrived!"

"Several have already been killed. Do you know how they'll be divided up then?"

"Normally, after finishing their work, only the employees who work during the day eat at our branch canteen."

"There are also some workers who were assigned to take care of the land that their production teams originally owned."

"Should we call them over, or deliver it to them separately?"

Su Wenchen waved his hand.

"There are too many people. Even if we call them over, our canteen can't accommodate them all. For those brigades that are farther away, you should arrange for someone to deliver the pigs to them!"

"The brigades around the farm headquarters can eat at the farm headquarters canteen."

Ren Dachuan nodded upon hearing Su Wenchen's words.

"Alright, I'll have someone deliver the pigs to the brigade based on the number of people in the brigade."

"Otherwise, with so many people, there really wouldn't be anywhere to sit for dinner tonight."

Su Wenchen didn't pursue the matter further, but instead asked directly.

"I heard that we still have some Suaeda salsa stored in our warehouse as a reserve food?"

Are they still available?

Ren Dachuan was immediately puzzled upon hearing this.

Suaeda salsa?
What does the director need that thing for? Surely he's not going to stew it with the pig?
Wouldn't that be fatal?
So he quickly explained.

"Director, we do have those things, but they're for the commune to use as a lifesaver during famine years."

"When the region delivered grain a while ago, I swapped out a batch to make room. At the time, I thought I didn't want to waste it, so I sent it to the canteen."

"As a result, employees complained every day that perfectly good cornbread had been ruined."

"Then they stopped taking it and sent it to the farm. What, Director? Did you hear that this stuff is edible?"

Su Wenchen shook his head.

“I’ve eaten this stuff before, and there’s no need for me to eat it now.”

"Is there still some in the warehouse? Take me to get some; I need it to breed rabbits."

"By the way, do we have any common medicinal herbs in our warehouse?"

Ren Dachuan immediately nodded in agreement.

"Common medicinal herbs are available, because most of the medicines needed for communal health care are stored in the commune warehouse."

"Does the director need me to take you to see him?"

Ren Dachuan had heard about the frequent rabbit deaths at the farm, so he wasn't surprised that the director wanted to provide medicine for the farm.

Su Wenchen waved his hand.

"No need, you just do your thing. I'll go pick out the herbs I need myself."

(End of this chapter)