Chapter 461 - 211: Cold Water

Chapter 461: Chapter 211: Cold Water

After its establishment, the subsidiary jointly formed by Hailufeng Company and Seaview Company quickly contracted a relevant company to lay an electrical cable.

Jiang Miao was currently at the Lufeng Breeding Base.

This was the same base a Norwegian salmon farming company had planned to invest in. It covered an area of about 5,460 mu, with 4,500 mu dedicated to farming and the remaining 946 mu for supporting facilities.

After Hailufeng Company took over the project, it successively invested nearly 1.5 billion yuan, with plans to invest another 2 billion yuan in the future.

Currently, 2,000 mu of indoor farms and their related facilities had been completed.

Although this was a land-based farm, it was actually only a little over two hundred meters from the coast, situated right next to the shoreline. A large pumping station was also built on the beach, specifically to draw seawater for the farm.

Jiang Miao had previously instructed the aquaculture division to also acquire a small mountain next to the breeding base. He then utilized the mountain’s natural rock caves to construct an underground cold storage facility.

The mountain before him covered about 470 mu. When he had inspected it before, he had taken a fancy to it at first sight. Not only did it have a natural cave that could be converted, but its rock formations were also stable, making geological disasters like collapses unlikely.

"Boss, we’ve widened, deepened, and reinforced this cave. It’s now divided into six chambers," Li Xiangzhe, the General Director of the breeding base, explained, briefing Jiang Miao on the operations of the Black Stone Mountain Cold Storage.

According to the structural diagram, the six chambers were arranged in two rows and were all interconnected.

They were equipped with refrigeration units and a cold-water circulation system. Four of the chambers were for regular cold storage, and two were for deep-freezing.

The pipes for the cold-water circulation system were buried underground, connecting to the thousands of mu of indoor farms.

Using electricity from photovoltaic panels, water in the cold storage was continuously chilled during the day, even to the point of making ice. The thick rock layers of the mountain provided insulation, creating an effect similar to an icehouse.

This massive cold storage facility could maintain the nearly 30 million cubic meters of water in the farm at a temperature between 10 and 16 degrees Celsius.

Of course, not all of this water was used for raising salmon.

Only about 10 million cubic meters, or 1,500 mu, were used for salmon farming. The other 3,000 mu of farms were used for raising other species.

After touring the cold storage, Jiang Miao went to see the salmon farms. Currently, three of Hailufeng Company’s farms were raising salmon.

The Chicken Cage Mountain Farm next to the headquarters had a scale of 500 mu, the Zhe Lang Peninsula Breeding Farm had 2,000 mu, and the Lufeng Jieshi Bay Farm had 1,500 mu, totaling 4,000 mu.

The total water capacity of these farms was 26.64 million cubic meters, capable of raising over one hundred million salmon.

However, Jiang Miao wasn’t overly focused on salmon farming at the moment. He observed for half an hour before moving on, heading to the sections with newly added species.

Within a 500-mu indoor farm, five types of seafood were currently being raised.

In a 10-meter-deep culture pond, the bottom was covered with a layer of artificial silt over a meter thick. Li Xiangzhe had a worker scoop up some of the silt from the pond floor.

Something was quickly scooped up along with the silt.

Jiang Miao squatted down and saw several conches in the net. These were the famous giant conches of the Chaoshan Region.

At this point, the conches were still tiny, about the size of a fingertip. They were still about 18 months away from reaching a marketable weight of one to two kilograms each. This was already a result of Jiang Miao’s intervention; only with his most scientific farming plan could these conches grow to one to two kilograms within 18 months.

Jiang Miao tossed the few conches back into the pond. While washing his hands at the edge of the pond, he asked, "How is the mixed-species farming going?"

"It’s going well so far. Our experimental projects—the conch and spiny lobster project, and the striped whelk and mantis shrimp project—haven’t shown any issues. It might be because they all naturally inhabit the South China Sea Region."

The main purpose of this mixed-species farming was to fully utilize the water column. The shellfish primarily lived in the sandy silt layer at the bottom, while the mantis shrimp and spiny lobsters inhabited the shallower water just above the seabed.

Of course, to prevent the mantis shrimp and spiny lobsters from preying on the striped whelks and conches, Hailufeng Company had installed a stainless steel mesh about half a meter above the silt layer.

Since it was a mesh, the openings were of a specific size.

Therefore, whether it was mantis shrimp, lobsters, conches, or whelks, they all had to be at least fingertip-sized before being introduced into the mixed-species environment.

"Let’s go see the King Crab and Arctic Sweet Shrimp farms."

"Right away."

The group arrived at the rows of farms closest to the underground cold storage.

The water temperature in these farms had to be controlled between 2 and 5 degrees Celsius, which was the ideal temperature for the growth of Arctic Sweet Shrimp and King Crabs.

The employees working in these farms all wore thick down jackets. Li Xiangzhe also handed out several sets of special insulated down suits to Jiang Miao and his group. The suits were one-piece.

The moment they entered the farm, despite it being winter outside, the temperature inside was still freezing.

Exhaling a puff of white breath, Jiang Miao looked at the Arctic Sweet Shrimp at the bottom of the pond. Since Arctic Sweet Shrimp need to live in deep water, this 20-meter-deep culture pond was built with 12 meters entirely underground, while the remaining 8 meters were achieved by raising the pond walls.

As a result, staff had to use underwater cameras to observe the shrimp.

In truth, this depth didn’t meet the natural habitat requirements for Arctic Sweet Shrimp.

In their natural environment, Arctic Sweet Shrimp live at depths of 100 to 600 meters.

But Jiang Miao understood that biology wasn’t static. The reason Arctic Sweet Shrimp lived at depths of 100 to 600 meters was due to habits formed over a long period, and these habits could be changed.

As long as the light and water temperature were suitable, the water pressure at a depth of 100 meters was not an insurmountable barrier.

Moreover, the fact that the shrimp’s natural depth range was 100 to 600 meters—a pressure difference of nearly five to six times—indicated that their bodies already had a mechanism to regulate pressure.

By interfering with the inorganic salt concentration in their bodily fluids and inducing them with other nutrients, Jiang Miao ensured that these Arctic Sweet Shrimp fry could live in water depths of 15 to 20 meters.

"How long have they been in this pond?"

"Boss, this is the first batch of Arctic Sweet Shrimp fry. It’s been 12 days since they were introduced," the farming team leader replied nervously.

"Not bad." Jiang Miao could tell at a glance that these Arctic Sweet Shrimp were being well cared for.

Compared to their natural growth cycle of at least two to three years before reaching market size, the Arctic Sweet Shrimp in this farm would only need about six months to reach the marketable standard of 14 to 18 grams.

Jiang Miao turned to the feed from another underwater camera.

The screen showed a large number of juvenile King Crabs. They resided on the stainless steel mesh panels, in the water layer above 10 meters.

At the moment, they were still very small, just a little larger than a fingertip.

Under normal conditions in the wild, a King Crab takes 8 to 12 years to grow to a marketable stage of 3 to 4 kilograms.

But that wasn’t necessary with artificial cultivation. In this farm, they had the optimal water temperature, light, and salinity. They didn’t need to move around much and were fed the most suitable diet. It would only take about 18 months for them to grow to 2 to 2.5 kilograms, and about 28 months to reach 3 to 3.3 kilograms.

During this period, they would begin their first molt around the 12th month and their second around the 24th month, which also marked the beginning of sexual maturity. If they were raised for another four months after that, with their reproduction cycle interrupted by adjusting their feed and water temperature, their weight would surge, and they would quickly reach marketable standards.

If their reproduction wasn’t interrupted, they would start laying eggs after just another eight months of conventional farming.

Actually, raising these King Crabs was just a side project.

These ultra-low temperature ponds were built to raise Arctic Sweet Shrimp, but the shrimp couldn’t adapt to water depths of less than 15 meters. To avoid wasting this upper space, it was used to raise King Crabs.

After all, compared to the Arctic Sweet Shrimp, which could be harvested every six months, the King Crab’s growth cycle was relatively slow, requiring 28 months to reach market standards.

And based on the current farming data, one mu of an ultra-low temperature pond could produce about 3,000 kilograms of Arctic Sweet Shrimp per harvest, for a total of 6,000 kilograms a year.

The current import price for Arctic Sweet Shrimp is 30 to 50 yuan per kilogram. Calculating at 30 yuan per kilogram, the annual production value per mu is 180,000 yuan.

King Crabs are expensive, but their growth cycle is too long, their feed costs are not low, and their farming density can’t match that of Arctic Sweet Shrimp.

King Crabs are known to be cannibalistic. If the farming density is too high, they will easily kill each other, leading to a massive drop in production.

To prevent this cannibalism, they had to use a double-layered stainless steel mesh to create two separate levels, which barely doubled the farming density. Moreover, the crabs had to be moved to a new pond every six months to adjust their density in the water.

For one-year-old King Crabs, each one must be guaranteed 3 square meters of surface area to move. One layer in a one-mu pond can house a maximum of 222 King Crabs, so two layers can hold a maximum of 444.

At harvest time, these King Crabs would each weigh just over 3 kilograms, for a yield of about 1,332 kilograms per mu.

Even if the price of King Crab doesn’t collapse in the coming years and remains at around 400 yuan per kilogram, the production value per mu would be about 530,000 yuan. This averages out to an annual value of 220,000 yuan per mu, which is only a few tens of thousands of yuan more than the Arctic Sweet Shrimp.

The problem is that the 400 yuan per kilogram price for King Crab is clearly inflated. It’s only this high because extreme weather in recent years has led to a massive decrease in the King Crab catch.

Of course, for Hailufeng Company, it was just making use of what would otherwise be wasted space.

Raising both King Crabs and Arctic Sweet Shrimp was all about increasing the overall efficiency of the culture ponds.

Even if the price of King Crab dropped to 100 yuan per kilogram, it would still be profitable for Hailufeng Company.

Having built such a large area of high-standard, cold-water farms, Jiang Miao naturally had to choose high-value aquatic products to raise. Ordinary fish and shrimp would never recoup the costs.