Chapter 357 - 173: Brushing Past

Chapter 357: Chapter 173: Brushing Past

Therefore, it was essential to build farms, particularly those that could weather the winter. They also needed to prepare various supporting facilities, management staff, and technical personnel.

Based on Wu Song’s current assessment of the construction progress, they could likely build enough farms to support 30,000 cattle and 100,000 sheep and recruit sufficient livestock technicians by early November.

The Monan Branch’s frantic expansion of its livestock operations had already begun to cause price fluctuations for cattle and sheep in the areas surrounding Zhelimu City.

To ensure sufficient operating funds, the Monan Branch was already preparing to make money by selling fodder and then use the proceeds to purchase lambs and calves.

Of the 30,000 Small-Tailed Han sheep currently being raised, 13,000 were being fattened for meat. In September, they would reach the 120-day mark and be ready for market.

"By the way, Da Song, has our application for the designated slaughterhouse license been approved?"

Wu Song smiled and nodded. "It came through. Zhelimu City approved our application for a designated slaughterhouse half a month ago."

The reason they obtained the designated slaughterhouse license so smoothly was thanks to the influence of United Mining Company. After all, the state-owned asset management company of Home County in Zhelimu City held a 10% stake in United Mining Company. After seeing the once-barren Tamin Chagan Desert now lush and green, they must have realized the value of their United Mining Shares, even if they were slow on the uptake.

As a result, Hailufeng Company’s application for the designated slaughterhouse license went through the entire approval process in less than two months.

Jiang Miao then recalled the work briefing from headquarters last night. It mentioned that the growth in registered users for the specialty store app was becoming increasingly sluggish. After nearly two months of operation, the app had about 27 million registered users.

After a moment’s thought, he asked, "When is the first batch of Small-Tailed Han sheep scheduled for slaughter?"

"The slaughter date?" Wu Song wasn’t sure what his boss was thinking, but he answered truthfully, "We can start around September 5th."

The moment Jiang Miao heard the date, he gave his orders. "So, that’s before the Mid-Autumn Festival? Excellent. Prepare 500 legs of lamb every day for a Mid-Autumn Festival giveaway. Run it for twenty consecutive days."

"Uh... five hundred a day? We’re just giving them away to customers?" Wu Song was taken aback.

"Give them all away," Jiang Miao said, completely unconcerned.

A single leg of lamb weighed five to six kilograms, and the local wholesale price in Monan was just a little over 140 yuan.

Ten thousand legs of lamb would only cost a little over 1.4 million yuan.

To break into the market, the e-commerce division had been running giveaways constantly these past few days, forcing other e-commerce platforms to launch their own promotions to compete.

However, the other e-commerce platforms were as ridiculous as ever, frequently pulling all sorts of ’brilliant’ stunts.

For example, they would raise prices before issuing all sorts of coupons, or hold a giveaway where the odds of winning were pathetically low. Some even pulled a classic bait-and-switch.

Ironically, it was their competitors’ shady tactics that led to a steady increase in downloads for the Hailufeng Specialty Store app.

After almost two months of rapid growth, the rate had finally slowed to just tens of thousands of new users per day.

However, Jiang Miao had already decided that as soon as he returned, he would have Zhang Xinyi begin preparations for the Mid-Autumn Festival event.

Furthermore, before the Mid-Autumn Festival, all 50 of their physical specialty stores in the Pearl River Delta would be open for business. They could ship some of the lamb to be sold in those brick-and-mortar stores, in addition to selling the rest online.

Just last night, Jiang Miao had asked Wu Song to pick out a few plump sheep to be slaughtered and prepared into various dishes.

There were roasted dishes like whole roasted lamb, lamb skewers, and grilled lamb chops.

There were also braised dishes like red-braised lamb and lamb curry.

And there was the clear-broth stewed lamb, which was popular in the Lingnan Region.

Jiang Miao tasted it all. Thanks to their special diet and short growth cycle, the Small-Tailed Han sheep had very little of the usual gamey taste. Instead, the meat was tender, juicy, and had a subtle milky aroma, somewhat similar to the flavor of Tan sheep.

In fact, Tan sheep get their unique flavor because they graze in areas with vast saline-alkali grasslands. After eating grass and drinking water with a certain salt and alkali content, the synthesis of the compounds that cause a gamey taste is suppressed in their bodies.

This was a well-known secret among sheep farmers in the North. Many of them would imitate the Tan sheep’s breeding methods to achieve the same results: less gamey flavor, a milky aroma, and tender meat.

However, this farming technique required an experienced hand to guarantee the quality of the meat.

But the best Tan sheep came from the Salt Lake Area. They were not only a designated national geographical indication product but also an ingredient worthy of state banquets.

But with Jiang Miao’s guidance, which involved a specialized feeding regimen tailored to the genetic traits of the Small-Tailed Han sheep, their flavor was now nearly on par with that of the Tan sheep from the Salt Lake Area.

However, Jiang Miao didn’t have high hopes for lamb sales in the Lingnan Region. The main reason was that the locals there disliked chilled lamb, preferring freshly slaughtered local meat. They were also more accustomed to the gamey flavor of their local lamb.

’Cultivating a customer base that prefers low-gaminess lamb would likely take some time.’

Fortunately, there was a considerable number of northerners living in the Pearl River Delta Region, and they could sell some of the chilled lamb to them.

Though the Pearl River Delta Region wasn’t as well-known for it as the "Northeast Fourth Province," it still had a large population of northerners.

’In any case, a little over ten thousand sheep is only about seven hundred-plus tons of meat, bone-in. After setting aside ten thousand legs for the giveaway, there won’t be that much left over.’

As for the sheep being fattened after September, specialty stores in the Yangtze River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region would be opening successively. Then, they could unleash these high-quality Small-Tailed Han sheep upon the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, a major market for lamb consumption.