Ma Wenkui becomes a star by making a fortune raising sheep

Mention Ma Wenkui, and everyone in Zhaojia Township, Dongxiang County knows him; people all say he is a fortune-building "star" who chants the "sheep sutra."

The rolling mountains have forged the mountain-like ethnic character of the Dongxiang people, and the harsh natural conditions have tempered their unyielding national spirit. Ma Wenkui is an ordinary farmer from Qiangtou Village, Zhaojia Township. Facing hardship without losing heart, he struggled to start a business and seek a path to prosperity. After successfully building his fortune, he did not forget his original intention and returned to his hometown to found a breeding cooperative, leading his fellow villagers forward briskly on the road out of poverty toward moderate prosperity.

A poor man's child takes charge early. Ma Wenkui, who only attended first grade, went to Wuwei at the age of 15 to try his hand at business because his family was very poor at the time and his mother had died early. The so-called business at that time was actually buying a bicycle in Wuwei and going through the streets and alleys collecting sheepskins.

How can you see a rainbow without going through wind and rain? It was precisely these trials that let Ma Wenkui accumulate rich social experience and practical knowledge, and also save the first pot of gold for building his fortune. In 2005, he began to make inroads into wholesaling mutton to other places such as Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia, **, and Qinghai.

A "careful" person never lets any business opportunity slip by. While wholesaling mutton in Wuwei, Ma Wenkui discovered that Wuwei had no local halal slaughterhouse or live animal trading market. After investigating and learning from many sources, he decided to take the plunge. In December 2010, he established the Wenkui Halal Slaughterhouse and Live Animal Trading Market in Wuwei, the only halal cattle and sheep market in the Wuwei area. Business was extremely brisk, and naturally he made a lot of money. He struck while the iron was hot and founded Wuwei Wenkui Animal Husbandry Company. Right after that, he opened a halal Wenkui Restaurant in the live animal trading market, achieving a one-stop chain of sheep raising, slaughtering, sales, and catering.

While building his own fortune, Ma Wenkui did not forget his fellow villagers. His slaughterhouse, live animal trading market, restaurant, and other operations employed more than a hundred Dongxiang people, with monthly wages generally around 4,000 yuan, and many people from the same township and village also found their way to prosperity.

Not forgetting his native place after making a fortune. Ma Wenkui kept thinking about how to help more fellow villagers get rich together, and how he still had to give full play to the Dongxiang people's traditional strength in raising sheep to lead them to prosperity through sheep raising.

In May 2016, he returned to his hometown and, together with four people from the same village, built the Wenkui Farmers' Breeding Professional Cooperative. At present, there are more than 1,000 sheep on hand. During the feeding process, no feed additives are used; they are mainly fed corn, bran, and so on, so the mutton quality is especially good and the sheep reach market weight quickly, winning the "pursuit" of consumers inside and outside the county. Now, more than 20 sheep are slaughtered every day, and after slaughter they are all sold to places such as Yongjing and Guanghe.

On the road out of poverty, he does not rest; with no need for the whip, he urges himself on. Relying on his own hard work, Ma Wenkui moved from poverty to prosperity. What is valuable is that after getting rich he did not forget his hometown, and with practical actions he stimulated his fellow villagers' drive for development and entrepreneurial vitality, moving forward together on the road to moderate prosperity.