Cattle-Raising Couple Becomes the Guide to Prosperity for Their Fellow Villagers

"Qiao Yunfen, a great beauty like you, following your husband into the cattle-raising business - isn't it hard and tiring?"

"Working alongside my husband, no matter how hard or tiring, my heart is happy!" Qiao Yunfen said with a smile as she cleaned the cattle pen.

Recently, a conversation at the Yucao Beef Cattle Breeding Professional Cooperative in Group 9 of Caojia Village, Wuyang Town, between Tang Suying, the village's general coordinator, and Qiao Yunfen, a major cattle-raising household, deeply moved everyone present.

Going South, Working from Dawn to Dusk to Learn the Trade

In 1990, Yuan Taiming, a veteran who had returned home, was introduced to Qiao Yunfen and married her. Relying on traditional farming for a living, they could not change their impoverished circumstances, so they decided to go south to work, learn a skill, and then return home to start a business.

On March 16, 1991, Yuan Taiming and his wife boarded the train heading south and arrived in Guangzhou. Although they had no skills, the couple was fairly educated and able to endure hardship, so they were quickly spotted by the owner of a cattle farm. While working at the cattle farm, during the day, Yuan Taiming and his wife worked from dawn to dusk carefully raising cattle; at night, they took time to read books on raising cows that they had bought from a bookstore, enriching their theoretical knowledge. In this way, Yuan Taiming and his wife became more and more proficient at the breeding work, and they were often praised by the boss.

They worked in breeding for 10 years. Every night, Yuan Taiming and his wife missed their family back home more and more. Their child needed companionship, and their elderly parents needed someone to care for them, so Yuan Taiming and his wife decided to bring the breeding techniques they had learned back to their hometown, so they could both support the family and take care of their relatives.

Yuan Taiming and his wife told the boss their thoughts. The boss was deeply moved, believing they were filial and responsible, and immediately agreed, supporting Yuan Taiming and his wife in returning home to start a business.

Turning Losses into Profits in Two Years, Becoming an Expert

In October 2011, with strong support from the Wuyang Town Party Committee, the government, and the "two committees" of the Caojia Village Party branch, the couple rented a site in the village that had been idle for many years, spent a week completing the relevant procedures, and invested more than 700,000 yuan to build a cattle farm of more than 2,000 sq m. Yuan Taiming purchased 100 breeding cows from other places and hired 5 fellow villagers to help with feeding.

Because the burden of workers' wages was too heavy, after one year, after deducting costs, they still lost several tens of thousands of yuan.

Yuan Taiming did not lose heart because of this. The next year, he bought another 100 breeding cows. To reduce expenses, the couple ate and lived at the breeding farm, raising the cattle carefully, and the benefits increased year by year.

Leading More Than 50 Villager Households to Prosperity Together

Yuan Taiming, who had been tempered in the military for many years, had a heart of selfless dedication. He often said, "Being rich yourself doesn't count as being rich; only when you lead the villagers to become rich does it count as being rich."

He said this, and he did exactly that.

After the breeding farm got on track, whenever Yuan Taiming had spare time, he would go from village to household doing work, encouraging nearby villagers to use the village's natural resources to raise cattle. At the same time, he also provided free training to the villagers, teaching them breeding techniques.

Soon, Yuan Taiming mobilized several dozen villager households, including Tang Yuzhong and Shi Chaobao of Group 8 of Caojia Village, to raise breeding cows at home.

"Working for yourself, you can take care of your family, increase your income, and not worry about techniques - what more could we ask for?" Tang Yuzhong told the reporter that his family raised more than 100 breeding cows, and they calved every year. He calculated an account for the reporter: the cattle he raised were not fed feed, but were fed with corn and sweet potatoes from his own home and surrounding forage. Each breeding cow produces one calf a year, and a calf can sell for 3,000 to 4,000 yuan each, and if the market is good, the price may still rise. So the annual income far exceeds working away from home.

To ensure that the villagers' breeding cows and beef cattle could sell for a good price, Yuan Taiming often traveled to slaughterhouses in Shanghai, Kunming, and the main urban area of Chongqing, Fengdu, and other places to sign sales contracts.

Over 6 years, driven by Yuan Taiming and his wife, more than 50 villager households in the whole village gave up going out to work and found at their doorstep the "golden key" to prosperity, and from raising breeding cows alone, each household increased its income by more than 20,000 yuan.