1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 372 Selling Reputation

My father probably summed it up quite well. Prawns are naturally large in size, and the ones he has raised so far are all quite large.

The shrimp meat is plump and crystal clear, firmer and a little chewier than ordinary shrimp, but at the same time very tender and smooth. It is very fresh in the mouth, and has a hint of sweetness.

Liang Ziqiang later ate farmed shrimps in the construction site canteen. The meat was relatively loose and the taste was bland, lacking the firm texture and sweet fragrance.

It is possible that there are wild shrimps that are better than this, such as the particularly plump and large prawns from Wuming Island.

Apart from that, this one is really not inferior to the prawns caught by ordinary shallow sea nets.

Experts in later generations praised Artemia as "gold from brine ponds" and "the best feed for shrimp farming." Now it seems that there was really no exaggeration in their words.

In 2010, Artemia was processed into the most valuable shrimp feed and sold at a high price, and there is a reason for that.

The next morning, the father and his two sons went to the east of the village early in the morning and caught some prawns by casting a net.

In fact, from the perspective of growth cycle, the shrimps can be sold out by now and the ponds can be emptied. In addition, the growth rate slows down significantly in winter, and even if you continue to feed them, they will not grow as fast as before.

But Liang Ziqiang knew very well that the price of prawns would continue to go up in the next two or three months. As long as he kept them and sold them at that time, his income would definitely increase greatly. So of course he had to keep most of them and sell a part of them first just to test the waters.

The complete life cycle of prawns is one year, although some live for more than two years, which is rare. Liang Ziqiang just needs to sell them all within one year, that is, before June.

Liang Ziqiang paid attention to the density control when releasing the shrimp fry. After the shrimp grows to its current size, it should be about 100 kilograms per mu. Even if it is fatter, it will not reach a density of 200 kilograms.

This density is not good enough in the eyes of later generations. Some farms in later generations can produce hundreds of kilograms, even thousands of kilograms or more than a thousand kilograms of prawns per mu. That is because later generations used equipment such as aerators. In his current era, it is impossible to find an aerator.

Without aerators, the stocking density cannot be high. If it exceeds 100 kilograms per acre, all the shrimps will stink and rot due to lack of oxygen.

He initially contracted seven mu of shrimp ponds. Judging from the size of the shrimps now, it is estimated that the seven mu can produce more than 1,000 kilograms of shrimp. My father and eldest brother each contracted two mu, and each family should be able to produce about 200 to 300 kilograms of shrimp.

Liang Ziqiang caught about 100 to 200 kilograms, while his father and eldest brother caught about 40 to 50 kilograms each from their shrimp ponds. Liang Ziqiang assured them that if the price continued to rise, it would only get more expensive in the next few months, so they decided to catch only this much and try to sell it first, otherwise they had originally planned to sell it all out.

We boarded Liang Ziqiang's lotus-patterned boat and headed for the county fishing port as soon as possible. My sister-in-law Kuang Haixia was also on the boat because she was going to the county to buy something. The four of us sat on the boat and got closer and closer to the county.

"Dad," Kuang Haixia looked at the buckets of shrimp for a while, and an idea came to her mind. "People in the county don't know that you are raising shrimp, right? The shrimp you raise tastes just as good as wild shrimp. Why don't you just sell them to them as wild shrimp you caught? This way, you can save a lot of time and energy bargaining, and you can even sell them at a higher price!"

After saying that, the sister-in-law looked at them, not knowing whether what she said was right or not.

"That depends on whether the people at the purchasing station are careful enough. If you look carefully, you can still see a slight difference. Ours is still a little lighter in color than wild shrimp!" Liang's father didn't think there was anything wrong with his eldest daughter-in-law's suggestion, but he thought it might not work.

In fact, Liang Ziqiang also felt that his sister-in-law's idea was not a big problem. The taste and quality of his prawns were not inferior to wild prawns. Even if he sold them as wild prawns, the other party would not suffer any loss.

But as my father said, if you meet a careful person, you can still see some difference in color. This is just one point. More importantly, Liang Ziqiang has his own ideas. He took over the words of his sister-in-law and father and said:

"Dad, brother and sister-in-law, I've thought about this too. In terms of quality, our shrimps are indeed worth the price of wild shrimps. But after thinking it over, I decided to tell them directly that these are farmed shrimps!
Think about it, we can raise good shrimps, and the price of shrimps is high now. Will you still only contract two acres of ponds next year or the year after? Do you want to contract more and expand the scale? If you expand the scale, we have to let those outsiders recognize our shrimps. Regardless of whether they are farmed shrimps or not, as long as they are in our hands, the market will be happy to take them! "

"That's right," Liang Tiancheng began to think it made sense, "If I don't go out to sea in the future and raise dozens of acres of shrimp, I can't tell others that they are wild shrimp caught at sea, right? The quantity is too large, and I can't make it up!" "Your way of raising shrimp is indeed better than going out to sea!" Liang's father still seems to be dissatisfied with Liang Tiancheng's ability to go out to sea to catch fish, "Aqiang is right, eating shrimp is ultimately about the taste. In the past two years, some people have tried to raise fish and shrimp, but the price can't go up because the taste can't catch up with wild ones. Our advantage is that the taste is good, and maybe we can also raise a good name for breeding, and then we won't have to worry about sales!"

Liang's father obviously listened to Liang Ziqiang's words, and this time he changed his mind after thinking about it.

After hearing what several people said, Kuang Haixia seemed to have thought of another level and didn't say anything else.

Seeing that everyone had the same idea, Liang Ziqiang felt relieved. In fact, there was a deeper reason why he insisted on speaking frankly and making it clear that he was farming prawns.

He couldn't explain his subsequent plans clearly to his father and elder brother at the moment.

After driving to the county fishing port, Liang Ziqiang did not go directly to the purchasing station.

There are two other smaller purchasing points near the purchasing station. Unlike the purchasing station, these two points are run by individual businesses.

Liang Ziqiang randomly entered one of the shops. The shop owner's surname was Wei Pan. Liang Ziqiang came to the fishing port quite often, so he and Wei Pan were acquainted.

"Boss Liang, the New Year is almost coming and you are still busy going out to sea to make a lot of money!" Wei Pan saw that Liang Ziqiang did not go to the purchasing station this time but came into his store, and greeted him warmly.

In fact, the number of fishing boats going out to sea has further decreased during the days approaching the Chinese New Year. Although Wei Pan still opened his shop these days, his business was much less than usual. Seeing someone coming, he was naturally happy instinctively.

"The weather forecast says that there will be big waves in the deep sea every now and then, so I haven't been out to sea in the past few days." Liang Ziqiang said truthfully, "These are some prawns I raised myself. I brought over 100 to 200 kilograms today. You can take a look first!"

As he said this, he brought the shrimp closer to show him.

Wei Pan looked into the bucket, squatted down, picked up a few pieces with his hands, looked at them carefully, and became interested:

"Your technique is pretty good. Except for the fact that the shrimp shell and shrimp thread are a little lighter in color, the size and luster are very good!"

However, in the next sentence, Wei Pan changed the subject:
"But you know, Boss Liang, that appearance alone doesn't mean much. In the past two years, some farmed shrimps have appeared on the market. The main thing is that the taste is much worse, obviously not as good as wild ones. So no matter how much the price increases, it will always be lower than wild shrimps!"

This was naturally expected. Liang Ziqiang was not in a hurry. He looked into the store and asked, "Do you have any pots in your store?"

Wei Pan understood immediately: "Do you want to steam a few on the spot to try it out?"

"What can you tell from a few?" Liang Ziqiang smiled cheerfully. "Pick a few dozen from these buckets and steam them to taste. Have your shop assistants come over and try them later. You'll know the taste after you try it!"

After hearing what he said, Liang's father and Liang Tiancheng also carried up their buckets.

Wei Pan became curious when he heard him speak so confidently. He immediately picked out some from each bucket, and there were dozens of them in total.

The store usually cooks, so there must be kitchen utensils.

Steaming is the easiest and most convenient method, but it is also the most challenging for the shrimp's meat quality and taste. It didn't take long before the hot air from the top of the large aluminum pot began to drift out...

(End of this chapter)