Alpine pasture

Chapter 12 Buying cattle and horses to add property ([-])

Just half an hour after the meal, Ju An was still digesting on the rocking chair, and Thomas brought a few pages over.

"Ann, I have listed the things we want to buy. Come and discuss with you." Thomas put the cowboy hat on the coffee table, sat down, and handed the paper in his hand to Ju An.

Ju An looked at it, and it said that he should buy a few more saddles, ten water reins, and ten sweat pads.Then there is how much cattle and sheep to buy.

After watching for a few minutes, Ju An said to the old Thomas: "I don't want to raise dairy cows, I mainly focus on beef cattle, and my sheep are mainly meat sheep. I want to buy quarts for horses, you see."

Thomas thought for a while and said, "Well, the beef cattle here mainly include Angus cattle, Brahman cattle, and ground vegetable cattle." Then he explained the advantages and disadvantages of various cattle.It is recommended to buy more cows with calves or pregnant cows, so that the economic benefits will be generated faster.

Ju An thought about it, "Just choose Angus cattle, just choose as many cows with calves as you said."

"As for horses, in fact, you don't need to be so particular about your own use on the ranch. Flower horses and wild horses are also good. The price of quarters is several hundred dollars higher. The current market price of each horse is about four thousand dollars."

"Wait, you said it was more than 4000 US dollars?" Ju An looked at Thomas in disbelief.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Thomas looked at Ju An strangely.

"I remember that the quarters imported from China cost more than 2 to [-] U.S. dollars," Ju An returned.

Thomas said with a smile: "Those quarters are all proved by the pedigree of the descendants of famous horses. Only when they record the awards they have won can they be sold for so much money. The quarters used for pastures cannot be sold for so much money, and the quarters that have won awards are very expensive. Expensive. A prize-winning horse in California was sold for $60 the year before last. Every year, those famous horses produce dozens of offspring. The proportion that actually wins prizes is too small. And recently, Chinese horse farms like three-year-old ponies, 3 More than [-] dollars to buy a pony that was basically not trained at all in the past. The risk is too great.”

Ju An thought gloomily that this country has been taken advantage of again: "Well, are we going to go to a special horse farm to buy it?".

Thomas nodded: "The division of labor in animal husbandry here is very fine. There are horses, cattle, and sheep pastures. The cattle go to the market for selection, and the sheep are not necessary. There are a few nearby pastures. If I can buy a few hundred sheep, I will make a phone call at night to ask if there are any sheep in the nearest ranch. For a thousand cows, we may need to find a cattle broker, and we can go directly to the horse farm to buy a dozen or so horses.”

"That's it." Ju An nodded.

The two discussed it for a while, and then old Thomas took his hat and said goodbye.

Ju An also went upstairs, watched TV, and saw the old man Zhou go.

The next day, Ju An fell asleep, and it was dawn. When he went out after washing, he found that Thomas, Wynn and Nancy had already woken up. Several people were tidying up the warehouse, and Hutou and the other three followed behind and shook their heads.

"Morning," Ju An greeted.

"It's getting late. We arrived at six o'clock today. When the cattle and sheep arrive, we will be up and work at five o'clock every day," Thomas said with a smile.

I followed the four to clean up the warehouse and had breakfast.

Thomas arranged for Wynn and Nancy to drive a quad bike today to check whether the fence is damaged or not, and repair it if there is any. At noon, the nearby ranch will come to deliver the sheep and let them take care of it.Ju An went to the bull market with Thomas, and in the next few days, he went to pick horses at the horse farms Thomas had made an appointment with last night.

Ju An and Thomas drove the big trailer and went out.

Listening to the same country songs, listening to old Thomas introduce some ranch tricks along the way is easy and freehand.

When I arrived in Lewistown, a small county town, I came to a harness shop under the leadership of old Thomas.

As soon as he entered the door, Ju An was overwhelmed. Good guy, as far as he could see, there were rows of saddles, basically western cowboy saddles, water reins hanging on the wall, and various cowboy hats , a row of cabinets against the wall neatly placed at least 100 pairs of riding boots, some of these riding boots have patterns carved on the upper, and the colors of the uppers are also colorful.

The shop owner was an old man with a white beard to his chest. He hugged Thomas enthusiastically, and then shook hands with Ju An.

Thomas began to make a big purchase, one by one, and Thomas carefully looked at each one. Then, while picking the saddle, he explained to Ju An what was wrong with this pair and how good this one was. He also explained to Ju An. What is a mechanism saddle? What is a handmade saddle? At Thomas's suggestion, Ju An chose for himself a handmade saddle made by the shopkeeper. The brown saddle has shiny silver buttons, and the skirts on both sides are engraved with a saddle. A horse, Ju An likes it very much.The remaining four spare saddles chose much cheaper mechanism saddles. The front of each saddle has a thick pile head, which is very different from the domestic western saddles that Ju An has seen. Thomas told Ju An that there are many types of western saddles. , This kind of big thick stigma is a ranch saddle, and it must be strong to tie a noose on it.Thomas carefully selected everything, and Ju An couldn't help but admire the dedication of this old cowboy.

After choosing these, Ju An chose two pairs of chaps, and two pairs of riding boots, one pair of high tube and one pair of half-height.This Ju An understands that working in the ranch is generally knee-length grass, and I don’t know what to wear in the leather case. The riding boots are mainly used to prevent bites.

After buying a lot of things, the owner of the shop, Le Le, gave him two cowboy hats and two belt buckles. The large oval belt buckles are very eye-catching, and each of them is almost the size of the palm of your hand.

With the help of the boss, I made several trips back and forth to put everything in the back seat, and then I left Lewistown and drove to the town of Moore, which is not far away. This bull market is in the town of Moore, listening to Thomas's introduction , Ju An felt a bit like going to the country fair when he was a child.There is a fair in this town today, and in that town next month.Every time it was Grandpa's turn, the town was full of people, some candy kneaders and rice candy sellers like a festival.

After about half an hour's drive, the car arrived at the trading market in the town of Moore. The market is on the edge of the town. When I approached the town, I found a lot of trailers and even a lot of big trucks, just like a movie. The kind of Optimus Prime, walked to a large open space full of cars, found an empty space, and Thomas stopped the car and said.

Ju An jumped out of the car and looked at it. He said that the market is a big open space. Many cars were driving down cattle. The open space was fenced into many small blocks. There were cows neighing and horses everywhere. Chatting in groups.

Ju An followed Thomas to a large shed with gates at both ends, only to realize that the sides of the shed were a bit like stadium stands, with a lot of people on it.

There is a group of cows in the middle, and one person is holding a microphone, introducing the weight, breed, and age of these cows.

Thomas took Ju An to the side stand and found two vacant seats to sit down.

Only then did I discover that it turned out to be a scale in the middle, and there was a display screen on both sides of the stands, which displayed the weight of these cows.

After seeing a few batches of cows, I saw two black cows rushed to the gate. The cows looked very strong and their black fur was as beautiful as a joke.

Just rushed in, Ju An found that the scale showed 1765, these numbers.Ju An understood that the two cows weighed 1760 pounds.After listening to the host's introduction, these are two Angus cattle, and then quoted the price. At this time, Ju An noticed that Old Thomas raised his hand, and the host looked around. No one raised the price and announced the deal.

I just bought these two cows, when an old cowboy came over and sat down next to Thomas and said, "Thomas, I haven't seen you in the bull market for a long time, what are you busy with now?"

Thomas smiled and shook hands with him and then introduced: "This is my boss, Ann, let's pick some cows today, how come Mike, I haven't seen you for more than a year, you are still so energetic, do you have any recommendations?"

Mike and Ju An shook hands: "The pasture has gone up by a few cents two days ago. Not many people are selling cattle, and there is a drought in Texas. This year, life on many pastures will not be easy. This grass The price went up, but the beef and mutton remained basically the same. These bastards on Wall Street.”

"My boss is going to buy some Angus cattle. It's probably not good to buy some here. I need your help," Thomas said.

"Oh, old Thomas, thank you so much, and thank you Mr. Ann." Mike's face immediately filled with a smile.

Thomas and Mike talked about the breed of cattle, the size of the cow, and the calf. After explaining the requirements in detail, Mike left for a while, and then after a while, Mike came back to chat with Thomas.

Next, Thomas picked a few more bulls, and several herds of cows with calves. It took more than three hours for Thomas and Juan to buy more than 300 bulls and a thousand cows. The number is far from it.

(End of this chapter)