Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Halimu and his pastoral team belonged to the state-owned Nanshan Ranch. Later, it was disbanded and the pastoral team fell apart and was divided among the production village teams.

Every autumn and winter, herders in the Nanshan summer pasture drive cattle and sheep out of the mountains to the winter pasture. At this time, if the herd is large and there is not enough grass, a group of cattle and sheep will usually be eliminated and sent to the livestock market.

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

The herders have stayed in the mountains for nearly half a year, and their daily necessities have been basically used up. When they need to replenish supplies, the money comes from this batch of resold cattle and sheep.

Therefore, the autumn and winter seasons are equivalent to the harvest season for herders. The cattle and sheep raised in the summer pastures for a year can be exchanged for money.

Of course, the price of cattle and sheep was still very low at this time. Most of the herders in the mountains were the kind who were fine playing around in their own tribes, but were more socially anxious when they went out, so they basically sold their cattle and sheep to the public - the state-owned ranches.

Of course, there were also some people with more flexible minds who saw the vitality of the market. They invested money to buy cattle and sheep from various households and sold them in the livestock market.

The spontaneously formed livestock market that Li Long knew about was on the west bank of the Ma River, and the land belonged to Shicheng.

Later, not only livestock were sold here, but also dogs, pigeons, etc.

This wild market continued until the 1990s. It was spontaneous and unmanaged, but later it became like a market and was only held 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 his team had not come down the mountain yet, otherwise Li Long would have planned to buy cattle and sheep from them. However, Halimu and his team still had to deal with the tasks of the animal husbandry team, so Li Long thought of buying a batch at 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 at this time.

In 20 to 30 years, fattening cattle and sheep in pens will become the mainstream, and the livestock market will become very prosperous. In late autumn, when the cattle and sheep come down from the mountains, the fattening farmers will drive their trucks here to select suitable cattle and sheep, buy them and take them back to pens for fattening, and then slaughter them and sell the meat before the New Year.

Live cattle and sheep were sold by the piece at that time, but 20 or 30 years later, they were sold by the kilogram. At that time, the largest live cattle and sheep market in the vicinity was to the west of Beiting, and the relevant units built such a market specifically to facilitate transactions.

Of course, for people outside northern Xinjiang, the most famous is the Imperial Palace Cattle and Sheep Wholesale Market in Yili. Many foreign tourists even come here to check in and take pictures of the fat butts of the Altay big-tailed sheep here.

At this time, cattle and sheep had already started to be sold in the market on the west bank of the Ma River. After breakfast, Li Long drove the tractor there.

In later generations, the vehicles used to transport cattle and sheep in southern and northern Xinjiang were all trucks with specially welded frames at the back. Cattle and horses could be loaded on one layer, while sheep could be loaded on two layers.

Li Long came here this time just to check the market conditions. If the prices of cattle and sheep in the market are good, he will buy some. If not, he plans to buy them directly from the herders' homes after they have moved to other pastures.

The former is convenient as there is no need to go into the mountains, and the latter is cheap. A sheep is usually a little cheaper than in the market.

It could be one or two dollars, or it could be three or four dollars.

The tractor rumbled to the west bank of the Ma River. Li Long saw that there were even people on the roadside driving cattle and sheep towards the market.

This market is spontaneous, and those who know about it are insiders. Ordinary people would not understand it when they see such a situation.

Li Long simply stopped and stopped the shepherd and asked:
"Hey, Adasi, do you want to sell the sheep?"

The shepherd was a Uyghur man in his thirties. The sheep he herded were all fine-wool cotton sheep. At that time, big-tailed sheep were not popular in Ma County and were very rare. Even if there were some, they were a bit smelly because the breed had not been improved and the locals were not used to eating them.

"For sale." The shepherd gathered the sheep that were scattered by the tractor and said with a smile:

"Will you buy some? How much? These sheep of mine just came down from the mountains. Look, they are all very fat, and most of them are lambs of that year..."

Li Long originally thought that if it was suitable, he would buy some on the spot and take them back.

But after hearing what the Uyghur man said, Li Long turned around and got on the tractor. Without turning off the engine, the tractor just kept on rumbling forward.

You don't understand why you are bullying Li Long, right?

Although these sheep look good, how many of the culled sheep are the original ones? Most of them are old, weak, sick, and disabled. The herders are not stupid. If you don't pay a high price, how can the original sheep be sold so easily?
At a glance at this flock of sheep, no more than one-tenth of them are lambs of that year. Li Long doesn't even need to pry open their teeth to see, just by looking at their fur and heads, he can tell that the majority of them are three or four years old.

This person speaks without telling the truth, so let's just forget about it.

When the man saw Li Long driving away on the tractor, he immediately regretted his boasting. He ran and shouted, trying to get Li Long to stop so that the price could be negotiated.

At that time, only rich people could afford to drive a tractor. It was hard to come across one, but you would end up scaring him away.

It's really unlucky.

Li Long ignored the shouting of the man behind him. He drove the tractor along the dirt road all the way to the livestock market, where there were already four or five herds of cattle and sheep waiting.

There were some people coming here to buy cattle and sheep, but they basically came on foot. There were two who drove horse-drawn carriages, and one who was more impressive came in a large truck.

This place is a relatively flat beach with large rocks. There are not so many rules in the wild. After Li Long stopped the tractor, the owners of the flocks of sheep immediately looked over.

Apparently, they thought they had a big client.

Li Long walked towards the nearest flock of sheep with the crank in hand.

There were more than 200 sheep in this flock, the second largest flock in this area. Li Long could see that these sheep were gathered together from several groups, including goats, sheep, fine-wool sheep and coarse-wool sheep.

There are two cows next to the flock of sheep, one big and one small. Both are local yellow sheep and don’t look very big.

"How much are the sheep?" Li Long walked up to the person who was watching the sheep and asked.

"It depends on which one you want." The man was also experienced. "Take a look first, and then we can negotiate the price if you like it."

The man spoke Chinese very well. Li Long knew that he must be a regular middleman selling sheep here.

He walked to the flock of sheep, which were a little agitated. Li Long suddenly reached out and grabbed a big, strong sheep. The sheep's wool weighed about 30 kilograms and looked like it was two or three years old.

I pried open the teeth and took a look, and it turned out to be the mouth of a two-year-old.

"How much is this?"

"Thirty dollars." The man said the number skillfully.

This sheep weighs 30 kilograms, and the meat (with bones) can be 17 or 18 kilograms but less than 20 kilograms. According to the current price of mutton, it can be sold for more than 30 yuan.

The sheepskin is worth a few dollars, but at this price, Li Long doesn't make much money.

After all, you have to make a profit and pay for labor. You can't just make a living by paying labor fees.

Li Long shook his head and said, "Twenty-two dollars."

"No, the lowest price is thirty. This sheep is the biggest one in my flock, and I won't sell it for cheaper." The man insisted.

"Where are the cows?" Li Long let go of the sheep and walked up to the two cows.

The big bull is very strong, looking like it weighs two or three hundred kilograms, while the calf weighs more than one hundred kilograms.

The more tender the beef is, the better it is. Beef from a one-year-old is not as delicious as beef from a two-year-old.

From the age of three onwards, people start to get old.

"Two hundred and eighty yuan for a large bull, one hundred and fifty yuan for a small bull." The man said, "Someone has already taken a fancy to this bull. If you want one, this is the actual price. I won't lower it."

Li Long turned and left again.

It can be seen that this man is an old hand and is very strict with the price, leaving Li Longyu with a little profit, but not much.

That person's name was not Li Long. It was only morning, and there was plenty of time. He didn't think about trading right away. Those who really wanted to buy sheep would come later.

In fact, there are still some people who come here to buy cattle and sheep, and now there are private restaurants. There are two most common restaurants in northern Xinjiang. One type specializes in selling noodles. Whether it is mixed noodles, pulled noodles or fried noodles, most of them have meat in them.

Therefore, the demand for cattle and sheep is quite high.

The meat supply at the county food factory butcher shop is currently fine, but it is expensive and difficult to choose.

These people's idea is to buy sheep themselves. After all, it is late autumn and the meat can still be released after some processing.

Li Long walked around a few more sheep flocks and found that the shepherds were very skilled middlemen. They knew very well how much meat each cow or sheep could produce and how much it could be sold for.

The profit left for Li Long was basically sheepskin and internal organs, not much.

Li Long walked towards the last and farthest flock of sheep. There were only a few sheep in this flock, about 20 in total. The people who looked after the sheep didn't talk much. When someone came to ask him about it, he didn't communicate much.

Li Long could see that the sheep were all together, and he guessed that either the herders came to buy them themselves, or they were new to the business and came to test whether they could get in. Most of the people who came to buy cattle and sheep were sharp-eyed and came several times.

I don't know why, but it seems like we haven't reached an agreement.

"Sell by the flock. This flock of sheep is for sale together. There are twenty-six sheep, a total of five hundred dollars!"

Five hundred yuan... Li Long glanced at the flock of sheep and felt that five hundred yuan was actually not expensive.

However, there are several ewes among these sheep, which look to be three or four years old and are definitely culled sheep.

There were lambs from that year and the next year, as well as some lambs that looked very skinny.

He guessed that this person collected the sheep in packages. If they were sold separately, the few eliminated sheep might not be sold.

That works out to less than 20 yuan for a sheep. Li Long calculated that even if he took the sheep home to slaughter them himself, he could still make around 100 yuan in addition to the sheepskins.

It’s okay, better than those skilled middlemen.

I think those people who come to buy sheep don't want to go through so much trouble. After all, those sheep are very thin and cannot be slaughtered for meat. Most of the people who buy sheep slaughter them immediately after buying them. These people have no plans to fatten the sheep, nor do they have the space to do so.

The concept of fattening had not yet become popular at that time. After all, if you wanted to sell sheep in winter, you could directly buy sheep from the herdsmen’s winter dens and then slaughter them and sell them in the market.

There is no need to set up a place and raise the fish for two months before slaughtering them.

So they can’t be sold in groups.

"Let me take a look first." Li Long walked up to the flock of sheep and checked them one by one.

These sheep were a little scared, but they didn't dare to leave the group. Li Long acted quickly and checked them one by one. He found that these sheep had no skin diseases and no injuries on their bodies. They all looked healthy, so he felt relieved.

"Sure," Li Long was too lazy to bargain, "Wait a minute, I'll go ask that truck if they can help me pull it down, my tractor can't pull that much."

Li Long nodded, then turned and walked towards the truck.

The sheep seller was stunned by Li Long, but he was happy that he agreed to buy it.

He bought this flock of sheep for 450 yuan. It was hard work to drive them here, but he made 50 yuan round trip, which was already very good.

Those who came to ask before all wanted to sell them in groups. He just came here on impulse to test the waters. He had no place to graze the sheep at home. The big ones would be picked away, and he would have nowhere to graze the small ones if they couldn't be sold, so he thought of selling them in groups.

In fact, he still lacked experience, so he asked people to pick and sell the sheep. When he had sold enough sheep to make a profit, he could sell the remaining sheep at will. As long as the price was low, there would always be someone who wanted them.

At that time, you can control how much you earn.

Of course, newbies will have concerns, and that’s normal.

Li Long went over to the truck and saw three sheep tied to the side of the truck.

There were two men there, one sitting on a rock smoking, and the other looking at the sheep with some frustration, then looking back towards the road from time to time, obviously waiting for new sheep to join.

Li Long thought that the person sitting there should be the driver, but he first looked for the one who bought the sheep.

"Brother, can you smoke a cigarette?" Li Long took out a cigarette and handed it to the other party. The other party took it. Li Long lit it for him and said, "Are you here to collect sheep?"

"Well, it seems that there are not many suitable ones." The other party took a puff, shook his head and said, "Wait a moment."

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

"My brother, from the Eighth Division Construction Company." The sheep buyer said, "Are you here to buy sheep too?"

"Well, I want to discuss something." Li Long pointed at the flock of sheep and said, "I bought the sheep, but my tractor can't pull them back. I think it may take you a while to select the sheep. Can I hire your vehicle to help me pull the sheep back? I'll pay for the freight."

As soon as he said this, before the sheep buyer could say anything, the driver who was sitting and smoking suddenly stood up and said:

"Okay."

He came here to pull sheep for his brother for free, and he was willing to do it, but now he could earn extra money, so he would naturally be more willing.

Anyway, his brother hasn't chosen the sheep yet, so he might as well just wait.

"Then... where is your home? Will it take up too much time? If it's far..."

"Not far, not far. My home is in a team under Ma County, about 20 kilometers away." Li Long said with a smile, "It only takes a few dozen minutes by car to get there."

It is difficult for the elder brother to stop this. Although he is not happy about it, he cannot stop his younger brother from making money, right?
Li Long discussed with the other party and decided on fifteen yuan for the shipping fee.

It is unexpected wealth in itself, and the distance is not far, so the price is negotiable.

After agreeing on this, the driver drove the car to the flock of sheep with a smile.

Li Long made a handover with the man selling the sheep, and then one went up and the other went down, caught the sheep and threw it into the truck bed.

The truck bed was relatively high, as they were originally there to pull sheep. The lower rear bed was raised further, so once the sheep were caught and thrown on top, they couldn't run away.

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

At this time, there is no need to worry about the driver running away - the number of cars is limited, and there is a license plate number on the back. We have just found out that the other party is from Shicheng Agricultural Division 8 Construction Company, so it is easy to find the person.

After Li Long settled the money with the sheep seller, he drove back on his tractor without waiting any longer.

The truck was moving very fast, and by the time it got onto the Wuyi Highway, the other party was only a small shadow left.

Li Long was not in a hurry. He drove the tractor back to the big yard, then changed to a jeep and drove towards the fourth team, and caught up with the truck in the village.

He did not overtake, but followed the car all the way. When they reached the reed ditch, he honked his horn and overtook the car, stopped in front, and got off the bus. The driver followed him.

The driver was so surprised to see Li Long driving a jeep that he followed Li Long obediently all the way to Laomahao.

Uncle Luo was drying sugar residue when he saw the jeep coming with the truck. He and two other five-guarantee elderly people walked out of the gate.

Li Long parked the jeep in the open space outside the yard and greeted Uncle Luo and two other people - one of them was actually Yang Laoliu, and he was a little embarrassed.

"I bought more than 20 sheep," Li Long said to Uncle Luo, "Put them in the new pen and raise them first. They grow faster in the pen and can be fattened with sugar residue. We can slaughter them and sell them before the New Year."

"Okay." Uncle Luo never refused anyone who came to him. He felt that the more animals he had under his command, the better.

Then it was time to unload the sheep. More people meant more work, and it wasn't hard to drive more than 20 sheep into the pen.

Uncle Luo and Yang Laoliu went to get grass and water for the sheep excitedly. The driver did not rush to leave but came over to try to get close to Li Long.

"Brother, you are amazing. You are driving a small car... Is this from a government unit?"

"Yes, from the supply and marketing cooperative." Li Long said vaguely, "Brother, what's your name? If I have time in the future, I might ask you to pull sheep."

"No problem, no problem. My last name is Bai, and my home is on Ziwu Road in Shicheng. If you need to transport something, just come to me!"

The other party left his contact information, and after Li Long gave the money, he drove away.

This was just the first batch, and it didn’t even fill a small circle.

Li Long planned to watch it slowly these days, buy when it was suitable, buy more, and sell the meat after fattening it up.

Now that everyone has more money, they will buy a few kilograms of meat for the New Year. Beef is expensive, so pork and mutton are the mainstream meats.

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

I think it should be okay to just eat and not exercise.

There was a lot of experience for later generations at that time, so Li Long had the confidence.

Seeing that it was almost noon, he did not rush to the market but went to his eldest brother's house.

As for having a free lunch, that's definitely possible.

It's rare for Li Long to come here to eat, and the family is also very happy. (End of this chapter)