Thanks to intelligent farming, the Pigsty, Cowshed, and Sheepfold emitted minimal foul odors.
Li Dong felt no discomfort—instead, he detected the strong scent of disinfectant. The Intelligent Cleaning System in the livestock building regularly processed waste from each enclosure and sanitized the areas.
Of course, the pig, cow, and sheep manure wasn't simply discarded as sewage. It could be processed into organic fertilizer, among other uses. Additionally, the biogas produced from decomposition could be utilized for electricity, lighting, cooking, and more.
In the post-apocalyptic world, soil fertility was ultimately limited, making supplemental organic fertilizer essential.
The Shelter Base's total cultivated area amounted to roughly 7,000 acres. With one acre sustaining one person, it could support around 7,000 individuals.
However, each acre's yield had to be high—at least 500 kilograms per acre. The average annual grain consumption per person in the Great Xia Nation was 1,000 catties, less than half of the Far Star Union's. Still, compared to many other nations, this was considered prosperous, ensuring everyone had enough to eat and lived better than landlords of the past—even enjoying meat regularly.
Maintaining pre-collapse living standards post-apocalypse was an immense challenge.
High yields required not only quality seeds but also fertile land. Depleted fertility could be replenished with chemical or organic fertilizers.
Yet, Li Dong's access to chemical fertilizers was limited—not by choice, but by the Shelter Base's restricted storage space for inorganic fertilizers.
It would be unwise to dedicate all available space to chemical fertilizer storage, especially since certain types, like ammonium nitrate, were explosive if mishandled, risking catastrophic losses.
After thoroughly inspecting the A003 Livestock Building from top to bottom, Li Dong refrained from questioning the staff extensively. He simply encouraged them to work diligently, removed his work attire, and left.
The Shelter Base housed fifty such livestock buildings, each serving different functions. Some remained unused—either unfinished or unequipped.
Currently, only small-scale operations were feasible. Collectively, the livestock buildings spanned 1.2 million square meters (1,800 acres), though the actual land footprint was just over 200–300 acres.
When Li Tiang originally zoned the base, Area A was designated for livestock farming, with the Breeding and Reproduction Center Building at its core.
This building was second only to the base's main structure in size and importance.
Each livestock building had its own Control Center to collect operational data, which was transmitted in real time to the main Control Center in the base's central building.
There, the AI Supercomputer analyzed the incoming data from each livestock building and implemented intelligent adjustments accordingly.
Leaving the A003 aquaculture building, Li Dong drove his electric cart to the Breeding and Reproduction Center Building.
The entire structure covered nearly ten acres of land and stood close to thirty meters tall. (Note: The main building in Chapter 43 occupies sixty acres—a typo was missed during editing, but correcting it would require another review, so it remains unchanged.)
Here, Li Dong could observe a wide variety of animals.
Poultry: chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, quails, guinea fowls, cormorants, etc.
Livestock: cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, donkeys, rabbits, etc.
Fish: including both freshwater and saltwater species such as carp, crucian carp, salmon, bighead carp, silver carp, freshwater bass, grass carp, black carp, yellow croaker, grouper, sea bass, mullet, red snapper, and many more.
There were also shrimp—both freshwater and marine varieties—like crayfish, freshwater prawns, tiger shrimp, whiteleg shrimp, white shrimp, oriental river prawns, giant freshwater prawns, and small long-armed shrimp.
In total, there were over three hundred different species.
To manage this, Li Dong had to invest heavily, hiring more than a dozen accomplished experts and professors specializing in animal genetics, breeding, and reproduction—even bringing along their apprentices to assist.
Compared to high-end engineers, scholars and scientists in animal genetics were relatively easier to recruit.
Of course, the top-tier ones were exceptions.
Elite geneticists in biology were national treasures—impossible to hire so easily.
Whether in research institutes or prestigious universities, they were titans in their field.
Naturally, the experts and professors Li Dong recruited were highly skilled, though not quite at that pinnacle level.
Each scholar focused on a different aspect of genetics—after all, human energy was limited, which was why Li Dong needed so many specialists.
Each was offered an annual salary starting at a million, along with numerous additional benefits.
"Professor Li, am I interrupting your work?" Li Dong greeted a middle-aged scholar whose brown-black hair was streaked with gray.
"Not at all, boss. What brings you here?" Professor Li smiled in response.
"Just here to observe."
Li Dong was curious about how they actually worked.
To him, scientists had always seemed shrouded in mystery.
But now that he saw them in action, they didn't appear as lofty as he'd imagined.
In truth, scientific research was an extremely tedious and repetitive job—testing hypotheses, identifying errors, shifting directions, and persisting until success was achieved.
Breeding fish fry wasn't particularly difficult as long as key techniques were mastered, such as controlling water temperature and flow rate, allowing for mass production of fish fry and shrimp fry.
This professor, who shared Li Dong's surname, had deep expertise in fish fry cultivation.
Aside from some fry purchased from other farms, most of the fry in the base were bred by this Professor Li.
His full name was Li Miancheng, a northern man.
He had been poached by Li Dong in February this year with a generous salary. Before that, he had been a professor at an ordinary university, but he had since resigned to work under Li Dong.
"About how many fry are in this tank?"
Li Dong pointed at a densely packed pool of tiny fish fry on the surveillance screen.
"About one million fry," Professor Li Miancheng said proudly.
"That many?" Li Dong was startled by the number, never expecting such an ordinary pond to hold so many fish fry.
It just goes to show how terrifying fish reproduction can be.
Take grass carp, for example—they can lay between 300,000 to 1.3 million eggs at once.
Of course, even if the eggs successfully hatch, the survival rate of these fry in the wild isn't very high.
However, with human intervention, the hatching rate of the eggs and the survival rate of the fry can become absurdly high—one of humanity's greatest buffs.