The Rise of the European Emperor

In fact, for Scotland, Marin has been a headache. Scotland has a high latitude, and although it is not particularly cold because of the North Atlantic Current, it is not very warm either. The climate here is mainly wet and cold. Only the eastern region is less humid because of the mountains to the west blocking the point.

But the problem is, there are so many mountains in Scotland, most of them are mountains. The Highland County, which Edward gave to Marin, has an area of ​​up to 260,000 square kilometers.

And, because of the climate, there are only a few valleys where hardy crops like rye and oats can be grown. The rest of the area, not to mention high mountain areas and hilly areas, can only be used for raising livestock.

Therefore, in Scotland, the breeding industry of cattle and sheep is actually very developed. However, although there are many cattle and sheep in Sogra, it is very pitiful. Because, the local cattle and sheep breeds are not good.

Because it has just been unified with England, Scotland has not yet begun to introduce excellent cattle and sheep breeds on a large scale. Therefore, the current sheep breeds in Scotland are very general. They don't produce much milk and the wool isn't fine enough to do anything.

Marin has started to cultivate the East Fried sheep with excellent milk production and the North Sea sheep with high quality fine wool. However, the number of these sheep is not large, and they have not yet been spread in the North Sea, let alone provided to Scotland. .

However, in order to improve the native sheep breeds in Scotland, Marin has ordered the Scottish herdsmen in the Highland County to consciously select breeds with better milk or wool production and cultivate them separately. Then, Marin can mix a little East Frisian ram and a North Sea ram to improve the corresponding milk- or wool-producing breeds, respectively. Not as good as the original East Fried or North Sea sheep, but at least much better than the previous breeds.

As for the cattle industry, Scotland raises a lot of cattle, but what makes Marin depressed is that the local cattle are short and not suitable for farming.

In this age without tractors, cattle are an important animal power for arable land. Therefore, at present, Marin pays more attention to the large Simmental cattle, which can not only produce meat and milk, but also can be used as farming cattle.

The cattle in Scotland, although good at walking on mountain roads, are similar to Yunnan horses who are also good at walking on mountain roads - they are all short in stature.

Of course, it could be nature's choice. Because, if the body is too tall, the chassis of the mountain road is high, and it is easy to be unstable on the downhill and fall down the mountain to death. But for humans, it is still more useful than a tall and sturdy cow. The dwarf cattle in the Scottish Highlands are a bit tasteless to people of this age. Because the short stature of the Scottish Highland cattle is not good for draught, they can only be used as beef cattle.

Speaking of beef cattle, Marin thinks of it - Angus cattle produced in eastern Scotland, such as Angus and Aberdeenshire, are well-known beef cattle breeds in later generations.

This beef breed,

The meat is delicious, grows fast, and is easy to manage. It is easy to understand that the meat is delicious and grows fast. As for why it is easy to manage? Because it is small and has no horns, it is not life-threatening to the cowboy. Even if the cow is stubborn, the cowboy is easier to pull back...

Therefore, later generations of large-scale cattle ranches like this small hornless cattle. Without him, good management! Do you try raising a herd of Spanish bullfighting? Who can afford to lose cowboys every day?

However, the current Angus beef is more tasteless. Because Marin's human resources are limited now, it is impossible to allocate a large amount of manpower to breed such calves that are not suitable for farming cattle.

And if it is used for meat, the price is too high. Marin buys an Eastern European cattle from the Crimean Khanate that is bigger and stronger than Angus cattle for 8 to 10 gold coins. And to buy an Angus cattle in Scotland, it cannot be used as a farm cattle, and it costs more than 20 gold coins...

So, now Marlin is really not happy to buy Angus cattle. Without him, the cost is high! As for Angus beef? Marin is not a person who pays special attention to the pursuit of enjoyment, he only looks at practicality.

However, considering the future of Angus cattle, Marin still allowed Highland County to introduce a few hundred Angus cattle in a small amount, mainly for the cultivation and improvement of beef cattle breeds.

After all, when tractors start ploughing the land instead of cattle and horses one day, the role of cattle is left to kill and eat meat. At that time, the advantages of Angus beef's good quality and easy management were highlighted. Therefore, Marin is planning for the future.

However, the reproduction rate of the cattle was too slow, which made Marin panic. Just like the famous Dutch black and white cows, Marin has cultivated for many years, and now there are only more than 10,000 cows. Mainly, the fertility rate of cattle is too low...

On the other hand, the Taihu pig brought back by Marin from Daming is too fierce...

When Marin came back two years ago, he only brought back 495 Taihu pigs. However, in the past two years, the number of Taihu pigs has exceeded 10,000, and the number has increased by 20 times!

If we continue to breed, in a few years, hundreds of thousands of Taihu pigs can have...

"What's the matter, if only cattle and sheep could give birth like Taihu pigs!"

Because Taihu pigs are so prolific, Marin has allowed some Taihu pigs to be castrated and raised as meat pigs. As for the sows, all are still left to breed.

Although pigs and sheep are similar, they both have one or two litters a year. However, sheep give birth to one or two lambs at a time, while Taihu pigs have a dozen or so in their lifetime, which is completely incomparable!

At this time, Marin can also understand why there are so many wild boars in Laomei in later generations. As long as you lose a few of them, after a few years, you may be able to breed hundreds of them for you, and you can't kill them all!

Marin can be sure that if he dares to release a batch of Taihu pigs on the North American continent, a classic case of "species invasion" will be written into the history books in a few years...

And, it's even scarier than the rabbits in Australia. Australian rabbits are still afraid of people. And once the pigs are wild, they can directly threaten the safety of people.

...

Eventually, Marin realized the danger of Taihu pigs. Therefore, he ordered that all farmers who breed Taihu pigs must ensure that Taihu pigs are in the pigpen and must not be lost. Otherwise, with the vast land and sparsely populated areas in this era, you will have to taste the pain of the flood of old and beautiful wild boars in later generations. The biggest problem with the proliferation of wild boars in the United States is that wild boars eat crops and vegetables, which affects farmers' income.

But now Europeans raise pigs in a free-range manner. Fortunately, native European pigs only give birth to a few per litter, and they grow slowly. If it can live like the Taihu pig, it will grow faster...

Therefore, in order to avoid major incidents, Marin firmly stipulated that anyone who dares to raise Taihu pigs will be imprisoned...

...

However, this incident reminded Marin that when improving livestock breeds, the two rigid indicators of fertility and growth rate should not be forgotten.

These days, people's demand for quality is actually not that strong. Quantity is the core issue. Therefore, from this moment on, Marin no longer pursues the improvement of a single quality, but takes into account both the reproductive ability in order to achieve scale as soon as possible.

As for cattle, Marin also intends to give up purebred cultivation. For example, black and white cows, if a single breed is cultivated like this, the ghost knows when it will be fully spread.

So, Marin intends to - collect cows of good milk-producing breeds all over Europe, and breed them with bulls of Dutch black and white cows. Even if you can't breed a calf with the milk-producing ability like the black-and-white cow, as long as it is better than the average breed, it will be enough. Moreover, this speed is much faster than the cultivation of a single variety...

That is to say, from this moment on, Marin changed the practice of purely pursuing quality, and began to change to the animal husbandry development strategy of "quantity first, quality second"...

. ( )