Returning home to raise cattle and start a business, leading fellow villagers to prosperity together
Walking into Yang Wulin's farm, a few calves could be seen leisurely strolling outside the cattle pen, while inside the pen, Yang Wulin's 14-year-old eldest son, who had not yet started school, was helping his mother clean the pen. In the feed storage shed, piles of sugarcane feed that had just been delivered the day before were stacked up, and Yang Wulin's wife and workers were crushing sugarcane to prepare feed for the cattle.
Yang Wulin, 36 years old this year, is from Shiban Group, Yaxin Village, Puli Township, Guanling Autonomous County. He returned home to start a business in 2014, and is now a well-known large-scale cattle farmer in the township and the leader of the village cooperative. Under his leadership, half of the poor households in the village have gradually been lifted out of poverty.
In 2000, due to family poverty, Yang Wulin, who had only recently married, took his wife to work outside the province. They went to Sichuan and Yunnan, and this lasted 14 years. Yang Wulin says only he and his wife know best the hardships and difficulties of working away from home. In the first year away, they had their first child, so his wife could only take care of the child, and he alone had to struggle for a living. When the child reached school age, they sent the child back to their hometown to be cared for by the elders. The couple worked desperately every day, and after earning some money, they rented a place to do plastic waste processing on their own. It was not until 2014, seeing the development and changes in their hometown, that Yang Wulin discussed with his wife returning home to start a business, doing what generations before them had always done——raising cattle.
After returning home, Yang Wulin invested all 800,000 yuan of savings from 14 years of working away from home into building the farm. With his father's help and guidance, he began raising cattle, starting with more than 40 head.
“Since I can remember, every household in our village has raised cattle, and what we raise is Guanling yellow cattle. In the 1990s, one family in our village even took their cattle to Beijing to compete and won an award because they raised them so well, which greatly increased the fame of Guanling cattle.” Yang Wulin said.
“Every day I have to get up early to cut grass and prepare feed for the cattle, feeding them until noon, and after 2 o'clock I have to continue cutting grass to prepare the second meal of feed for the cattle. Working anywhere is hard, but working at home is much better. You can manage the household and take care of the elderly.” Yang Wulin's wife said.
Through the couple's efforts, the cattle they raised began to generate returns the following year. In order to expand the scale of breeding and get the villagers to raise cattle together, in June 2016, Yang Wulin established a farmers' professional cooperative.
Yang Wulin told reporters that this is one of the first standardized professional cooperatives built since the implementation of Guanling's three-year revitalization plan for “Guanling cattle.” The cooperative has 50 members, including 46 impoverished people. The farm built covers an area of 2,200 sq m. Following the principle of “determining livestock by grass, determining pens by livestock,” the cattle pens cover 1,500 sq m, and the feed shed covers 860 sq m. Currently, there are 200 head on hand. Most of the cattle raised are sold to Guiyang, Xingyi, Huajiang and other places.
Yang Wulin introduced that the cooperative's development model adopts “village collective + cooperative + farmers,” meaning the village committee participates in the cooperative's development, and the cooperative absorbs farmers as shareholders to share profits in its operation. The profit-sharing model is “345+127.” The 345 model means the village collective joins as a shareholder with pen subsidies, and farmers join with loans. During the three-year interest subsidy period, the cooperative bears the loan and repays it. With farmers bearing no risk at all, the cooperative pays dividends of 3,000 yuan each to the village collective and farmers in the first year, 4,000 yuan each in the second year, and 5,000 yuan each in the third year. The 127 model is the model in which farmers raise cattle on behalf of the cooperative, meaning farmers take in bred cows from the cooperative, and after the calves produced are sold, one tenth of the gross income goes to the village collective, two tenths to the cooperative, and seven tenths to the farmer.
The cooperative gives priority to arranging work for poor households at a monthly wage of 1,800 yuan while they work at the cooperative, and also encourages poor households to grow grass and sell it to the cooperative, so as to help more poor households increase their income. In addition, cooperative members whose children are admitted to university are given rewards.
“We pay nearly 130,000 yuan in labor wages every year, and at the busiest times we hire over a hundred workers in a day.” Yang Wulin introduced that this year the cooperative transferred 400 mu of land and encouraged villagers to plant double-cropping corn. For those willing to plant it, the cooperative purchases it at 300 yuan per ton; for those unwilling to plant it, the cooperative transfers the land at 350 yuan per mu per year.
“I came to work at the cooperative last year. My daily job is cutting grass and feeding the cattle. Working here I get a fixed wage, which is much better than working outside.” said a worker who was cutting grass.
“Our current development goal is to take in 40 members each year, and strive to reach 100 by next year. Among the members, poor households should account for more than 80%. We will strive to increase the cooperative's cattle inventory to more than 300 head within three years.” Yang Wulin is full of hope for his three-year cattle business plan.