Laid-off female worker He Guiqiong gets rich by scientifically farming ostriches

He Guiqiong, a laid-off female worker from Jinzhong Community, Jinzhong Town, Huize County, introduced ostriches for trial farming and successfully explored a way to farm tropical specialty animals in the high-altitude area of Huize County, embarking on a path to prosperity through scientific ostrich farming.

In the mid-1990s, He Guiqiong was laid off from the Yunnan Provincial Chemical Industry Construction Company and returned to her hometown——Jinzhong Community, Jinzhong Town. Having lost the “iron rice bowl,” she did not lose her spirit after unemployment. Relying on her broad experience and rich knowledge, she was determined to find a new path to prosperity. Once, He Guiqiong learned from the magazine “Roads to Wealth” that: ostriches are treasures from head to toe, their meat is edible and highly nutritious, with a market price of 40 yuan //kg; the eggs can be eaten and can also be made into egg-carving crafts; the feathers can be made into dusters, also called decorative items; the skin is the most precious, a single raw hide can sell for more than 800 yuan, and can be made into various leather products; even the bones can be made into handicrafts…… Ostriches have strong climate adaptability and are easy to raise. Each adult ostrich can sell for more than 5,000 yuan, making them a good way to get rich through farming, with broad market prospects. So she had the idea of trying to farm ostriches. With the help of her parents, relatives and friends, He Guiqiong raised more than 60,000 yuan and in May 2005 purchased 30 small African ostriches from Guangdong for breeding and trial farming. Due to lack of farming technology, incomplete equipment, and the cold winter weather, by the time spring came, only half of the ostriches had survived. Facing difficulties, He Guiqiong did not give up. She went to an ostrich farming base in Guangdong to learn farming techniques, humbly consulted the masters, and bought books on scientific ostrich farming, reading by lamplight every night and studying diligently. Hard work pays off, and the surviving ostriches grew healthily under her careful care, reaching a weight of around 90 kg. At the market price at the time, each ostrich was worth around 6,000 yuan, and the 15 ostriches earned a net profit of more than 20,000 yuan. He Guiqiong finally succeeded in exploring a way to farm tropical specialty animals in the high-altitude area of Huize County.

Having tasted success, He Guiqiong continuously expanded her farming scale, explored and studied, summarized experience, and mastered the techniques for large-scale ostrich farming: scientific feeding, mainly with green fodder such as pasture grass and vegetables as the main feed, supplemented by compound feed, to increase satiety and prevent indigestion; compound feed scientifically formulated according to the nutrients needed at different growth stages, mixing bone meal, calcium hydrogen sulfate and other trace elements with feed in proportion to promote ostrich growth and enhance disease resistance; for ostriches that grow quickly and develop weak legs, control food intake and supplement calcium in time; every 3 d, place some fine sand and gravel in the area for ostriches to ingest, helping grind the food in their stomachs; before and after vaccination, add 0.05% oxytetracycline powder rapid supplement to the feed to increase immunity and reduce stress; the area and shed are cleaned once a day and disinfected once a week, and outsiders are strictly prohibited from entering the area. After more than two years of continuous development, by 2008 the ostrich farming area had reached a scale of 1,400 sq m with more than 140 ostriches, and in addition more than two mu of high-quality forage grasses such as ryegrass and alfalfa were planted. The farm was thriving. In terms of operations, she emphasized credibility, strengthened business contacts with ostrich buyers in Guangdong, established smooth sales channels, and responded to the market to mitigate farming risks.

“Getting rich yourself does not count as being rich; my wish is for my fellow villagers to become prosperous together.” Speaking of her future plans, 42-year-old He Guiqiong expressed her true feelings. She plans to rent a few more mu of land or mountain forest, expand the farming scale, establish an ostrich farming development cooperative, use a self-breeding and self-raising method to provide ostriches on credit to nearby people who want to farm ostriches, and provide free technical services, then buy them back at market price by order after the ostriches are grown, so as to walk the new path to prosperity through specialty farming together.