Chapter 728: Buying suitable cattle and sheep also requires a good eye

Halimu and their pastoral team belonged to the state-run Southern Mountain Pasture, which was later disbanded, and the pastoral team fell apart and was returned to each production village team.

Every autumn and winter, herdsmen in the summer pasture of the Southern Mountains drive cattle and sheep out of the deep mountains to the winter pasture. At this time, if the cattle and sheep herds are large and the forage is not enough, a batch of cattle and sheep will usually be eliminated to the livestock market.

Of course, the state-run pasture will also collect a batch of cattle and sheep at this time as reserve meat.

And the herdsmen have stayed in the mountains for nearly half a year, and their living materials are basically used up. When they need to supplement materials, money comes from this batch of cattle and sheep sold.

So the autumn and winter season is equivalent to the harvest season for herdsmen. The cattle and sheep raised in the summer pasture for a year can be exchanged for money.

Of course, the price of cattle and sheep at this time is still very low. Most of the herdsmen in the mountains at this time belong to the kind who can play in their own tribe, but are quite socially anxious when going out, so they basically sell cattle and sheep to the public—state-run pastures.

Of course, there are also individuals with flexible minds who see the vitality of the market, invest money to collect cattle and sheep from each family, and drive them to the livestock market to sell.

The spontaneous livestock market Li Long knows is on the west bank of the Mahe, and the land belongs to Shicheng.

Later, this place not only sold livestock but also dogs, pigeons, etc.

This wild market continued until the twenty-first century, and it was spontaneous, and no one managed it, but later it became like a fair, only on Sundays.

Li Long once bought a Tibetan dog here in his previous life.

Of course, that's another story.

At this time, Halimu and the others hadn't come down the mountain yet. Otherwise, Li Long would have planned to buy cattle and sheep from them. However, Halimu and the others still have to deal with the tasks of the pastoral team. Li Long thought about buying a batch in the livestock market first, just as an experiment.

The price of live cattle and sheep is the cheapest at this time, but not many people pay attention to this point at this time.

After twenty or thirty years, fattening cattle and sheep in captivity has become the mainstream. At that time, the livestock market will become very prosperous. Once the cattle and sheep in the mountains come down in late autumn, those fattening big households will drive big trucks to pick suitable cattle and sheep, buy them and pull them back for fattening, and then slaughter and sell meat before the New Year.

Live cattle and sheep are sold by the head at this time, while twenty or thirty years later, they are weighed by the kilogram. At that time, the largest live cattle and sheep market near here was west of Beiting, and relevant units specially built such a market to facilitate transactions.

Of course, for people outside the Northern Frontier, the most famous is the palace cattle and sheep wholesale market in Yili. Many tourists from other places even come here to check in, specifically to take pictures of the fat buttocks of the Altay big-tailed sheep here.

At this time, the market on the west bank of the Mahe has already started to have cattle and sheep for sale. Li Long drove a tractor over after breakfast.

The trucks that pull cattle and sheep in the north and south frontiers in later generations are all that kind of truck, with a specially welded frame added to the back. Cattle and horses are one layer, and sheep can be loaded in two layers.

Li Long only came to see the market situation this time. If the price of cattle and sheep in the market is relatively good, then buy some. If it is not good, he plans to go directly to the herdsmen's homes after the transfer to buy.

The former is convenient, no need to run into the mountains, the latter is cheap, a sheep will usually be one or two yuan cheaper than the market.

It may be one or two yuan, or it may be three or four yuan.

The tractor drove to the west bank of the Mahe with a "tut-tut-tut" sound, and Li Long saw that there were already people driving cattle and sheep to run into the market on the side of the road.

This market is spontaneous, those who know are industry insiders, and ordinary people won't understand when they see such a situation.

Li Long simply stopped and stopped the person driving the sheep to ask:

"Hey, Adaxi, are you selling sheep?"

The person driving the sheep was a Uyghur man in his thirties. The sheep he drove were all fine-wool sheep. At this time, big-tailed sheep were not popular in Maxian, and they were very rare. Even if there were some, because the breed hadn't been improved, some were muttony, and the locals couldn't get used to eating them.

"Selling, yes." The person driving the sheep gathered the sheep that were scattered by the tractor, and said with a smile:

"Are you buying? How many are you buying? These sheep of mine just came down from the mountain, look, one by one, they are very fat, most of them are lambs from this year..."

Li Long originally wanted to buy some on the spot if it was suitable and pull them back.

But hearing this Uyghur man's words, Li Long turned his head and got on the tractor. The tractor didn't even turn off, and it drove forward with a "tut-tut-tut" sound.

Is it bullying Li Long for not understanding?

Although the fat condition of this group of sheep looks pretty good, they are eliminated sheep. How many can be lambs from this year? Most of them are old, weak, sick, and disabled. Herdsmen are not stupid either. If you don't offer a high price, how can the lambs from this year be sold so easily?

In this group of sheep, looking at it at a glance, the lambs from this year are no more than one-tenth. Li Long doesn't even need to pry open their teeth to see. Just looking at the hair and head of these sheep, he can tell that most of them are three or four years old.

This person just said it, not honest, forget it.

That person saw Li Long drive the tractor and run away, and immediately regretted that he had blown the cow too big. He ran and shouted, wanting Li Long to stop, the price is easy to discuss.

At this time, those who can afford a tractor are rich people. It was not easy to run into one, but he scared him away himself.

It's really unlucky.

Li Long didn't pay attention to the shouting behind him. He drove the tractor along the dirt road all the way to the livestock market. There were already four or five groups of cattle and sheep waiting here.

There are also some people who come here to buy cattle and sheep, but basically they are walking. There are two horse-drawn carriages, and one is more powerful, driving a big truck over.

This place is a relatively flat stone beach, in the wild, without so many rules. After Li Long parked the tractor, the owners of those few groups of sheep looked over immediately.

Obviously, they felt that a big customer had come.

Li Long took the rocker and walked towards the nearest sheep herd.

This group of sheep has more than two hundred, which is the second largest sheep herd in this area. Li Long can see that these sheep are gathered together from several groups, goats and sheep, fine-wool sheep and coarse-wool sheep.

There are also two cows on the side of the sheep herd, one big and one small, both are local yellow sheep, and their body shape is not considered big.

"How are the sheep sold?" Li Long walked to the person watching the sheep and asked.

"See which one you want." That person is also experienced, "You look first, and then we will talk about the price."

This person's Han language is very good. Li Long knows that this should be a second-hand dealer who often comes here to sell sheep. He is very stable.

He walked to the sheep herd. Those sheep were a bit restless, but they didn't dare to leave the herd. Li Long moved quickly, grabbed a relatively strong big sheep, and checked it. This sheep has thirty kilograms of hair, looks like it should be two or three years old.

Pried open the teeth to see, it was indeed a two-year-old mouth.

"How much is this one?"

"Thirty yuan." That person reported the number very skillfully.

This sheep is thirty kilograms. If it produces meat (with bones), it can have seventeen or eighteen kilograms, less than twenty kilograms. According to the current price of mutton, it can sell for thirty-something yuan.

Sheep skin is also worth a few yuan. If it is calculated according to this price, Li Long actually doesn't make much money.

After all, it has to be slaughtered, it has to produce labor, and it can't just earn a labor fee.

Li Long shook his head and said: "Twenty-two yuan."

"No, thirty at the lowest. This sheep is a big sheep in my sheep herd, and the cheap ones are not sold." That person is very persistent.

"What about the cattle?" Li Long let go of this sheep and walked to the two cattle.

The big cow is very strong, looking like two or three hundred kilograms, and the small cow is more than one hundred kilograms.

Beef is not the more tender the better. One-year-old beef is not as delicious as two-year-old beef.

Three years and up, it starts to get old.

"Two hundred and eighty yuan for the big cow, one hundred and fifty yuan for the small cow." That person opened his mouth, "This cow has already been looked at by someone. If you want it, this is the real price, no drop."

Li Long turned and left again.

It can be seen that this is an old oiler, who is tight on the price, leaving Li Long with that little profit, but not much.

That person didn't call Li Long. It's only morning, there is plenty of time, and he didn't think about trading immediately. Those who really want to buy sheep have to wait a while.

Actually, there are still some people who come here to buy cattle and sheep scattered, and now there are people who open restaurants privately. There are two kinds of restaurants most often done in the Northern Frontier, one is specializing in noodles, whether it is mixed noodles, pulled noodles, or fried noodles, most of them need to add meat.

So the demand for beef and mutton is quite large.

The meat supply of the county food factory is currently fine, but it is expensive and not easy to pick.

The idea of these people is to buy sheep back themselves. Anyway, it is late autumn, and the meat can still be put away after processing.

Li Long circled several sheep herds and found that these people driving sheep were very skilled second-hand dealers. They knew very well how much meat each cow and sheep could produce and how much money it could sell.

The profit left for Li Long is basically sheep skin and internal organs, and he can't earn much.

Li Long walked to the last, farthest group of sheep. There are more than twenty sheep in this group. The person watching the sheep doesn't talk much, and there are few exchanges when people come to ask.

Li Long can see that this group of sheep are all together. He guessed that either the herdsmen came to buy them themselves, or they were people who had just entered the industry and came to test whether they could get started. Most of the people who came to buy cattle and sheep had sharp eyes and came several times.

It's just that I don't know why, it seems that they didn't talk about it.

"Sell by group, this group of sheep are sold together, twenty-six sheep, a total of five hundred yuan!"

Five hundred yuan... Li Long swept a glance at the sheep herd and felt that this five hundred yuan was actually not expensive.

However, there are several ewes in these sheep, looking like three or four years old, which are properly eliminated sheep.

The lambs from this year, the sheep from the second year are all there, and there are also small lambs that look very weak.

He estimated that when this person collected sheep, he also collected them in bundles. If they were sold separately, those few eliminated sheep might not be sold.

It is less than twenty yuan per sheep. Li Long calculated that even if he pulls these sheep home and slaughters them now, besides these sheep skins, he can earn about one hundred yuan.

Not bad, stronger than those skilled second-hand dealers.

It seems that those people came to buy because they didn't want to be so troublesome. After all, those few very weak sheep can't produce meat. Most of those who come to buy sheep buy them back and slaughter them at the time. These people have no plans for fattening, and no place for fattening.

!

At this time, the concept of fattening has not yet risen. After all, if you want to sell sheep in winter, you can also go directly to the herdsmen's winter nest to buy sheep, and then slaughter and sell them in the market.

There is no need to find a place to raise them for two months and then slaughter them.

So the group sale can't be sold.

"I'll look first." Li Long walked to the sheep herd and checked them one by one.

These sheep are a bit afraid, but they don't dare to leave the herd. Li Long moved quickly, checked them one by one, and found that these sheep had no skin diseases, no injuries on their bodies, and looked healthy, so he felt relieved.

"Okay," Li Long was too lazy to bargain, "You wait first, I'll go ask that truck if it can help me pull it back. My tractor can't pull that many."

Li Long nodded, and after saying that, he turned and walked towards the truck.

The person selling the sheep was stunned by Li Long. However, people said they agreed to buy, and he was quite happy.

This group of sheep was collected by him for four hundred and fifty yuan. It was quite hard to drive them over, but it was quite good to earn fifty yuan back and forth.

Originally, people who came to ask wanted to pick and sell. He himself was just a bit hot-headed and came over to test the water first. There was no place for sheep at home. If the big ones were picked away, he couldn't sell the small ones and had no place to put them, so he thought about selling them in groups.

Actually, he is still inexperienced. Let people pick and sell. After selling enough capital, the remaining sheep can be sold at will—as long as the price is low, someone will always want them—

How much to earn, he can control it himself at that time.

Of course, novices will have worries, which is very normal.

Li Long went to the truck. There were three sheep tied to the side of the truck.

Two men were there, one sitting on a stone smoking, one looking at the sheep herd in frustration, and then looking at the road from time to time, obviously waiting for new sheep herds to join.

Li Long felt that the one sitting should be the driver, but he looked for the one buying sheep first.

"Old brother, smoke a cigarette?" Li Long took out a box of cigarettes and handed it over. The other party took it, Li Long lit it for the other party, and said, "Is this coming to collect sheep?"

"Hmm, there are not many suitable ones." The other party took a puff, shook his head and said, "Wait first."

"Is this driver master you hired?" Li Long asked about the driver again.

"My younger brother, from the Eighth Division Construction Company." The one buying sheep said, "Are you also here to buy sheep?"

"Hmm, I want to talk about something." Li Long pointed to the group of sheep just now and said, "I bought that group of sheep, but my tractor can't pull them back. I see you might have to choose sheep for a while, can you hire your car to help me pull the sheep back, I will pay the freight."

As soon as he said this, the one buying sheep hadn't spoken yet, but the driver sitting and smoking stood up all of a sudden:

"Okay."

He came over to pull sheep for his brother for free, willing or not, but now there is extra money to earn, he is naturally more willing.

Anyway, his brother's sheep haven't been picked yet, and it's waiting anyway.

"Then... where is your home? Does it delay time? If it's far... it's..."

"Not far, not far. My home is in a team under Maxian, twenty kilometers away." Li Long said with a smile, "The car will be there in dozens of minutes."

This elder brother couldn't stop it. Although he was not very happy, he couldn't stop his brother from earning money, right?

Li Long negotiated with the other party, and the freight was fifteen yuan.

It was an unexpected fortune, and the distance was not far, so the price was easy to talk about.

After talking, the driver drove the car to the group of sheep with a smile.

Li Long and the one selling the sheep handed over, then one up and one down, grabbed the sheep and threw them into the truck's carriage.

The truck's carriage board is relatively high. They came to pull sheep themselves, and the lower rear carriage board was heightened, so after the sheep were grabbed and thrown up, they couldn't run away.

After all twenty-six sheep were put into the truck, Li Long reported the location to the driver, and then let him go first.

At this time, he was not afraid that the driver would kidnap the sheep—the number of cars was limited, there was a license plate behind, and he had just found out that the other party was from the Eighth Division Construction Company of Shicheng, so people were still easy to find.

Li Long settled the money with the one selling the sheep, and didn't wait, drove the tractor and ran back.

The truck was fast. By the time he got on the Wuyi Highway, the other party only had a small shadow left.

Li Long was not in a hurry either. He drove the tractor back to the old horse stable, and then changed to a jeep to run to the Fourth Team, and caught up with the truck in the township.

He didn't overtake, followed all the way, and when he reached Weigou, he honked the horn to overtake the car, stopped in front, and got out of the car to follow him.

The driver was surprised to see Li Long driving a jeep, and followed Li Long obediently, driving all the way to the old horse stable.

Uncle Uncle Lao Luo was drying sugar dregs, and seeing the jeep bringing the truck over, he and the other two elderly people with five guarantees walked out of the big gate.

Li Long parked the jeep in the open space outside the courtyard, greeted Uncle Uncle Lao Luo and the other two elderly people—actually one of them was Yang Laoliu, he was a bit embarrassed.

"I bought twenty-something sheep," Li Long said to Uncle Uncle Lao Luo, "Put them in the new enclosure, raise them first, they grow fast in the enclosure

"Sure." Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu never turned anyone away; he felt the more livestock he had under his care, the better.

Then came the unloading of the sheep. With many hands, the work was easy, and the twenty-plus sheep were driven into the pen without much effort.

Uncle Uncle Lao Luo Shu and Yang Laoliu and the others excitedly went to get grass and water for the sheep. The driver didn't rush off; he came over to get on good terms with Li Long.

"Little brother, you're quite something, driving a car... This is from a public unit, right?"

"Yeah, the Supply and Marketing Cooperative's," Li Long said vaguely. "What's your surname, brother? If you're free later, I might still need you to haul sheep."

"No problem, no problem. My surname is Bai, and my home is on Wulu Road in Shichengzi. When you need to haul things, just find me!"

The other man left his contact information, and after Li Long paid him, he drove off.

This was just the first batch; it didn't even fill up one small pen.

Li Long planned to watch things slowly over these next few days, buying when the price was right, buying more, and selling the meat after fattening them up.

Right now, everyone was gradually having more money in their hands. No matter what, everyone would want to buy a few kilograms of meat to eat for the New Year. Beef was expensive, so pork and mutton were the mainstream.

If these sheep could gain three to five kilograms of meat in these two or three months, that would be enough.

Thinking about it, just eating and not moving around, it should be possible.

With the wealth of experience from later generations at his disposal, Li Long had this confidence.

Seeing that it was almost noon, he didn't rush back to the market but went to his eldest brother's house instead.

Scrounging a lunch, that was definitely something that could be done.

It was rare for Li Long to come over and eat here, and the family was quite happy. (End of chapter)