Raising cattle in the remote mountains with unyielding self-reliance, leading the way to prosperity through scientific farming

The sky is deep blue and the sunlight bright; on a vast grassland with lush green pasture, a herd of plump Simmental cattle grazes leisurely and greedily on the tender grass, and the herders are an elderly Miao couple past sixty. This is a scene like an oil painting that the author witnessed on the hillside of Houcao in Xingfeng Group, Xinglong Village, Xinglong Township, Dafang County, and the protagonists of the picture are Yang Yuanhua and his wife, the township's largest cattle-raising household among the households enjoying the Five Guarantees.

I

Yang Yuanhua was an orphan from childhood and had no money to take a wife; it was not until the age of 51 that he happily married his current wife, Si Daxiu. Yet behind happiness there are always bitter tears. Xinglong Township lies deep in the mountains at over 1,500 m in the north of Dafang County and is a Class-I impoverished township of the province, with deep poverty and a wide incidence of poverty. Yang Yuanhua's plain Miao family, like many poor households, had not escaped the fate of poverty. Although he was then in the happiness of newlywed life, the family's straitened finances drove him to take his wife out to work for a year, and after returning home the couple discussed and bought a Simmental cow for 670 yuan to raise. From then on, he formed an indissoluble bond with cattle raising.

Starting in 2013, he dealt with cattle all day long, even moving into the mountain forest, living together with a herd of cattle day and night. It was precisely this persistent devotion to cattle raising that took him from raising 1 Simmental cow to raising 26 crossbred Simmental cattle today, worth more than 200,000 yuan.

II

On June 7, 2016, the Party Committee and government of Xinglong Township used the 24th session of the cadre night school to organize all township and village cadres to watch a video on Angus beef cattle breeding, so as to gain an in-depth understanding of the breed characteristics, economic value and production performance of the high-quality beef cattle breed Angus introduced by the county. Yang Yuanhua stood outside the window of the meeting room and secretly watched the video inside. Later he said with emotion: "When I heard the government was organizing a viewing of a video on raising beef cattle, I ran over to watch. I want to raise cattle from elsewhere too. I hope the staff can give me a disc; after I take it home I'll play it for my neighbors, and we must definitely let 'Angus beef cattle' settle down in our Xinglong Township." Xiao Hua, Party Secretary of Xinglong Township, arranged for a staff member to deliver a breeding technology disc to Yang Yuanhua's home, fulfilling his dream of scientific farming. On June 20, 2016, at the first session of the Angus feeding and management training of the Evergrande-assisted Dafang training program for 100,000 farmers, the main leaders of the county Party committee arranged for him to speak. Yang Yuanhua spoke with fervor: "Fellow trainees should understand the leaders' good intentions for Dafang County's poverty alleviation. I am 62 years old and this is the first time I have attended this kind of study and training; I have learned quite a lot. After going home I must raise cattle well and lead the people out of poverty to prosperity." Having gained an in-depth understanding of Angus beef cattle, the elderly Yang Yuanhua took the lead and supported the government's bull castration work, taking the lead in having the 3 breeding bulls he raised castrated. He mobilized the people to plant 249 mu of golden buckwheat, becoming the village's leader in developing cattle raising to escape poverty and achieve prosperity.

III

Yang Yuanhua, whose thinking was transformed by attending the training, did not forget the poor. He actively cooperated with the government in publicizing Angus beef cattle breeding among the people, mobilized 21 farming households (16 of them poor households) to establish a professional cooperative, and by his own practical example led the poor household Wang Longjun to raise 16 cattle; in 2016, the Wang family earned more than 30,000 yuan from selling cattle alone. Ming Xiqiang raised 11 cattle, and other free-range households each raised more than 3 cattle. It is understood that at present the farming households of Xingfeng Group raise more than 80 cattle, making it a village group widely known for having developed cattle raising as its main path out of poverty.

IV

Yang Yuanhua and Si Daxiu, a couple past sixty, met the conditions for the Five Guarantees because they had no children, and the township government urged him to move into a nursing home, but he said: "That has a bad reputation and does not look good. Even if I am a household enjoying the Five Guarantees, I must still rely on myself and work hard, not add to the state's burden, not become a burden on society, and not let people laugh at me. I will never do anything just to cling to the minimum living allowance."

On June 5, 2016, at the Dafang County cattle improvement work scheduling meeting, Yang Yuanhua was commended in a circular by the county Party committee and government for not wanting the state's bottom-line poverty relief, for getting rich by raising cattle, for believing more in science and voluntarily having his bulls castrated, and for being old in years but firm in will and mobilizing 16 poor households to establish a professional cooperative.

"Yang Yuanhua is a household enjoying the Five Guarantees; he could have sat back and lived on state subsidies, but more than ten years ago he bought 1 cow, and now it has grown to 26. What Yang Yuanhua can do, we ordinary people should be able to do too." On February 17 this year, Zhang Hanshi, Secretary of the Dafang County Party Committee, said with deep feeling at a symposium on poverty alleviation held during his stay-and-study visit to Xinglong Township.

"The transport in Xingfeng Group is inconvenient now. If the government can help us improve transport conditions, I will raise cattle until the day I die, and I will lead everyone to raise cattle together, escape poverty, get rich and strive for a moderately prosperous life," said Yang Yuanhua.