Chapter 12 Buying Cattle and Horses to Increase the Family's Prosperity (Part 1)
Just half an hour after dinner, Ju An was still digesting in a rocking chair when Thomas brought over several sheets of paper.
"Alright, I've made a list of the things we need to buy. Come and discuss it with me." Thomas put his cowboy hat on the coffee table, sat down, and handed the paper in his hand to Ju An.
The top reads: Add a few more saddles, buy ten water belts and reins, and purchase ten sweat pads. Then there are the numbers of cows and sheep to be purchased.
After a few minutes, Ju An said to Old Thomas: "I don't want to raise dairy cows, mainly beef cattle, sheep are also mainly mutton sheep, and horses I plan to buy all Quarter Horses, what do you think?"
Thomas thought for a moment and said, "Well, the main breeds of cattle here are Angus, Brahman, and Zebu." He then explained the pros and cons of each breed. He suggested buying more cows with calves or pregnant cows, so that economic benefits can be generated quickly.
"Better be safe than sorry. Let's choose Angus cows then, and as you said, let's try to pick some mother cows with calves."
"As for the horse, actually, the pasture itself doesn't need to be so particular, a flower horse or a wild horse is also fine. The price of a Quarter Horse is higher by several hundred dollars, and the current market price of each horse is around $4,000."
"Wait a minute, you're saying it's over $4,000?" Julia looked at Thomas in disbelief.
"What's up?" Thomas looked at Ju An strangely.
"I remember those imported Quattro from China cost more than $20,000 or $30,000" said Ju An.
Thomas smiled and said, "Those Quarters are all descendants of famous horses with a proven track record of winning awards, which is why they can sell for so much money. The Quarters used in pastures can't be sold for that much. Award-winning Quarters are very expensive. Two years ago, a prize-winning horse in California was sold for $600,000. Every year, those famous horses produce dozens of offspring, but the proportion of them that can actually win awards is too small. Moreover, Chinese stables have been fond of three-year-old young horses recently, and buying one for over $30,000 is basically equivalent to getting a completely untrained horse. The risk is too great."
Thinking of this, I felt a bit annoyed: "Well, are we going to go to a specialized horse farm then?"
Thomas nodded: "Here, the division of labor in animal husbandry is very fine. There are specialized horse farms, cattle farms and sheep farms. Cattle need to be selected from the market, but sheep don't have to be. Several nearby farms can buy a few hundred sheep. Tonight I'll make a phone call to ask if there are any sheep for sale at the nearby farms. For 1,000 head of cattle, we might need to find a cattle broker. As for ten or so horses, we can just go directly to the horse farm to buy them."
"Alright then." Ju An nodded slightly.
The two men talked for a little while longer and then old Thomas took up his hat and bid them goodnight.
Jū ān yě shàng le lóu, kàn kan diàn shì, biàn jiàn zhōu gōng lǎo rén jiā qù le.
Translation:
After living a peaceful life, he went upstairs to watch TV and saw that the old man Zhou Gong had passed away.
The next day, he slept soundly until dawn, and after washing up and going out, he found that Thomas, Wayne, and Nancy had already gotten up. Several people were sorting out the warehouse, while Hu Tou and his three men followed behind, shaking their heads and waving their tails.
"Good morning!" said An as he greeted him.
"It's getting late, today we also arrived after six o'clock, and when the cattle and sheep arrive, every day we have to get up at five o'clock to work," Thomas said with a smile.
Followed by four people to collect goods from the warehouse and had breakfast.
Thomas arranged for Wayne and Nancy to take the four-wheeler today to check the fence for any damage, if so, repair it. The nearby ranch will come over at noon to deliver sheep, let them be in charge of receiving it. Ju An will go with Thomas to the cattle market, and in the next few days, they will go to several horse farms that Thomas had arranged last night to pick horses.
Two people, Juan and Thomas, opened this big trailer and went out.
Listening to the rural songs that have remained unchanged for thousands of years, listening to Old Thomas introducing some tricks of the ranch, it's a relaxing and carefree journey.
When they arrived at the small town of Lewistown, under the leadership of Old Thomas, they came to a saddle shop.
As soon as I entered the door, I was shocked. Good guy, looking around, it's just row after row of saddles, basically all Western cowboy saddles. On the wall hung water reins and various cowboy hats. Against the wall, a row of cabinets were neatly arranged with at least over a hundred pairs of riding boots. These boots had some with carved patterns on the toe caps, and the colors of the toe caps were also varied.
The shopkeeper was an old man with a white beard that reached down to his chest, who warmly hugged Thomas and then shook hands with Ju An.
Thomas began making large purchases, one by one water reins, each of which Thomas looked very carefully, then saddles, while selecting them, he explained to Ju An what defects this vice had, where this was good, and also explained to Ju An what mechanism saddle, what is handmade saddle. Under Thomas' suggestion, Ju An chose a handmade saddle made by the store owner for himself, with shiny silver buckles on the brown saddle, and a carving of a fine horse on both sides of the skirt. Ju An liked it very much. The remaining four spare saddles were chosen to be cheaper mechanism saddles, each with a large thick pommel at the front, which was very different from the domestic western saddles that Ju An had seen. Thomas told Ju An that western saddles are divided into many types, and this type of large thick-headed saddle is a ranch saddle, which needs to be tied with a rope, and must be sturdy. For each item, Thomas was very careful in selecting, and Ju An couldn't help but admire the professionalism of this old cowboy.
After picking out these, he also chose two pairs of leather overalls and two pairs of riding boots for Ju An, one high-top and one half-high. This Ju An understood that when working on the ranch, it was generally knee-deep in grass, and who knows what would be inside, so the main purpose of the riding boots was to prevent bites.
Bought a lot of things, the old shopkeeper was delighted and sent two cowboy hats and two leather belt buckles, the large oval-shaped buckle is very eye-catching, each one is almost as big as a palm, very cool.
With the boss's help, they made several trips to put everything in the back seat. They finally left Lewistown and drove to the nearby town of Mule. This time, the cattle market was in Mule. Listening to Thomas' introduction, Ju An felt it was a bit like the rural fairs she had when she was young. Today this town has a fair, next month that town does. Every time Grandpa's turn comes around, the town is crowded with people, and there are vendors selling sugar figurines and rice candies, just like during holidays.
After about half an hour's drive, the car arrived at the trading market on the outskirts of Mul town. As soon as we approached the town, I saw many trailers and even some large trucks, like the kind you see in movies. We drove to a vast empty space filled with cars and Thomas stopped the car saying we had arrived.
He got off the bus and looked around, saying that the market was just a large empty space. Many cars were driving down to deliver cattle. The empty space was divided into many small blocks by fences. Everywhere was filled with the sounds of cows mooing and horses neighing, and there were also many cowboys chatting in groups of three or five.
Yu An followed Thomas into a large shed with two big doors, only to find that the shed had something like stadium stands on both sides, with many people seated on them.
In between, there was a group of cows, and a person holding a microphone, introducing how heavy these cows were, what breed they were, and how old they were.
Thomas led the way up one side of the stands and found two empty seats.
It wasn't until then that I realized there was a large scale in the middle, and on both sides of the viewing platform, there were display screens showing the weight of these cows.
After watching several batches of cows, I saw two black cows rushing to the gate again. The cows looked very sturdy and their black fur was as beautiful as a piece of jade.
Just as he rushed in, Ju An saw the display above showing 1765. He immediately understood that these two heads of cattle weighed 1760 pounds. Then he heard the host introduce that they were two Angus cattle, and then reported the price. At this time, Ju An found that Old Thomas had raised his hand, and the host looked around, no one added a bid, and announced the deal.
Just bought these two heads of cattle, an old cowboy walked over and sat down beside Thomas, saying: "Thomas, it's been a long time since I've seen you appear in the cattle market, what are you busy with now."
Thomas smiled and shook hands with him, then introduced: "This is my boss, An. Today he came to pick some cattle. How about old Mack? It's been more than a year since we met, you're still so spirited. What do you recommend?"
Mack and Juan shook hands: "The past two days, the hay has risen by a few cents again. Not many people are selling cattle, and drought is beginning to appear in Texas. This year, many ranches will not have a good time. The grass price has gone up, but the beef and mutton prices have basically not moved. Those bastards on Wall Street."
"My boss is planning to buy some Angus cattle. It's still a bit short here, so I need your help," said Thomas.
"Oh, old Thomas, thank you so much, and thanks to Mr. An too." A smile immediately spread across Mack's face.
Thomas and Mike talked about the cattle breeds, the size of the mother cows, and the calves. They discussed the requirements in detail. Then Mike left for a while and came back after a while to chat with Thomas again.
Next, Thomas picked a few more heads of cattle and several groups of cows with calves, and it took Thomas and Ju An more than three hours to buy over 300 heads, which was far from the number of 1,000.
