As a qualified landlord, although Marin was not Zhou Papi or others, he could not bear to see the serfs resting freely. So Marin thought about it and ordered his manor managers to start organizing the serfs to harvest the grass.
In addition to planting a large amount of grain, Malin also vigorously promotes a very excellent forage grass in the country. Moreover, farmers and herdsmen usually need to help manage alfalfa while managing farmland.
After all, it was not for nothing for Marin to let them have bread every meal. You should know that in this era, the poorer manors could not afford bread at all. Those poor serfs could only make some rye, add a lot of wild vegetables, grass roots and other things to cook bitter porridge from a country's dark cuisine. The manors that could eat bread were all very good for serf owners. Moreover, even if they had black bread, they were also the kind of black stick bread mixed with a lot of soil, wild vegetables, wood chips and even stones, which could be used as bricks.
The bread Marin gave to the serfs was just a small amount of "Korel bread" mixed with ryegrass grass bran, which tasted very soft. For those serfs, it was definitely a top-notch treatment.
However, these breads are not given in vain. When there is nothing to do, Marin will recruit serfs to do it. However, there are extra meals.
Of course, the serfs had no complaints. After all, they lived much better than the serfs in other places. Not only did they eat bread every time, but they also had dried salted fish from time to time. This also led to the serfs in East Friesland, especially the serfs in Marin Manor, who were very strong and had the energy to work.
For example, in addition to planting alfalfa in large quantities in horse farms, Marin also requires the manor under his name to plant alfalfa in large quantities in the open space of the manor after finishing the farm work.
Not only that, Marin also arranged for each manor to set up a beekeeper. Because alfalfa is a flowering plant and needs to be pollinated during the flowering period. If you raise bees, you can not only use bees to pollinate alfalfa and increase the yield of alfalfa seeds (to facilitate the expansion of planting area), but also collect high-level honey - alfalfa honey (first-class honey).
In addition, raising bees can also obtain beeswax, which is used in various packaging to isolate air. For example, the canned food that Marin plans to make requires a large amount of cork and beeswax.
Autumn is not only the harvest season for rye, but also the period for alfalfa to harvest seeds. Therefore, Marin asked the manors to organize serfs to harvest the remaining alfalfa to obtain more seeds and expand the planting area of ​​alfalfa.
The remaining alfalfa is completely different from the remaining alfalfa. The remaining alfalfa is harvested once every two or three months (except in winter). The alfalfa that grows in this way is all tender grass. The remaining alfalfa is not harvested once every two or three months, but is pollinated in spring and harvested in autumn. After obtaining the seeds, dry them and wait until they are sown to a new place next year to expand the distribution area of ​​the alfalfa.
Therefore, this harvesting not only focuses on alfalfa seeds, but also on fresh and tender alfalfa grass. The reason for harvesting those fresh and tender alfalfa grass that does not leave seeds is to prepare feed for livestock in winter.
In winter, heavy snow will sometimes occur in northern Germany. Once heavy snow covers the ground, cattle and sheep will not open up the snow to find food. Therefore, when encountering rainy and snowy weather, if there is no feed reserve, livestock will easily starve to death.
Therefore, every winter, European countries, especially in the northern half of Europe, will slaughter a large number of livestock in the early stages of winter and marinate the meat with salt to avoid starving to death in winter.
If you reserve enough alfalfa, the animals will not easily starve to death. Alfalfa is rich in nutrients and is also excellent feed even if it is dried into hay. It is best to eat it for the animals in winter.
Of course, what is better than hay is silage. When Marin reads those online articles in his previous life, he saw the application of silage more than once.
However, Marin had never studied the specific silage technology in his previous life, but had only seen it in online articles. The specific method is to harvest the green and tender grass, cut it into pieces immediately, and then add some additives. The main ones are feed enzymes, organic acids, lactic acid bacteria, etc. The purpose is to allow lactic acid bacteria to reproduce and expand and affect all grass.
Marin has neither feed enzymes, organic acids, nor lactic acid bacteria. However, he knew that there must be lactic acid bacteria in one thing, that is, natural yogurt produced by dairy farmers (the yogurt sold in supermarkets that do not need to be refrigerated were not live lactic acid bacteria).
At that time, when sealing the cellar, sprinkle some yogurt on the green and tender alfalfa every 50 cm high...
The reason why Marin wants to make silage alfalfa is actually for those British semi-fine wool sheep that have been grown. You know, they are Marin's treasures now. Especially this winter, it is the pregnancy period of British semi-fine wool ewes, so they cannot be eaten badly. Therefore, Marin does not hesitate to reserve a large amount of alfalfa, and even plans to use yogurt to silage alfalfa to supplement nutrition for pregnant ewes.
Although alfalfa hay is rich in nutrition, it is still much worse than silage alfalfa. For ordinary sheep, eating alfalfa hay is enough. But ewes during pregnancy need more nutrients. Therefore, Marin ordered the construction of multiple sealed cellars to store fresh alfalfa hay. When there is no fresh forage in winter, open the cellar and take it out for pregnant ewes to eat.
If pregnant ewes eat nutritious silage alfalfa, they will definitely give birth to strong sheep babies by next spring. At that time, Marin can allow their subordinates to give birth to excellent breeding and cultivate excellent new sheep breeds.
Under the supervision of the managers of various estates, the serfs picked up sickles and went to harvest alfalfa. Those who harvested and planted alfalfa must be responsible for separating the alfalfa seeds after the harvest, dried and preserved. Next spring, it will be better for sowing.
The people responsible for harvesting fresh alfalfa grass are divided into two batches. The work of one batch is very simple, and they are only responsible for harvesting the alfalfa grass, then drying and baleting it.
Another group of people were responsible for making the harvested tender alfalfa grass into silage alfalfa grass. After cutting the tender alfalfa grass in the morning, they first dried the alfalfa grass for most of the day, and began to cut the alfalfa grass into small pieces of grass in the afternoon. At night, they put the alfalfa grass into compacted, and sprinkled a layer of natural yogurt rich in lactic acid bacteria on it every 50 cm. Then, they pressed the cut tender alfalfa grass to fill the cellar until the cellar was full. Then, the silage cellar was covered and the outlet was sealed with mud.
Chapter completed!