The story of Zhao Guangcai, a cattle herder in Shidian County, getting rich by raising cattle

Zhao Guangcai, 65 years old this year, from Youwang Town, Shidian County, is a well-known "cattle herder" in the local area.

In December 2014, relying on his rich breeding experience and with the help of relevant departments, Zhao Guangcai raised 450,000 yuan of his own funds to build the Shidian County Guangcai Beef Cattle Farm, covering an area of 10 mu. In the early days of founding the farm, Zhao Guangcai paid special attention to the quality of breeding cows. He successively introduced more than 80 dual-purpose crossbred improved breeding cows such as Simmental, Angus and Brahman from cow farms in Baoshan, Dali and other places, laying a good foundation for the development and growth of the farm.

In the process of developing the beef cattle breeding industry, he actively integrated himself into the poverty alleviation work of Youwang Town, and relying on the beef cattle farm, he gradually drove the masses to develop breeding cow farming. "What people worry about most is that beef cattle breeding requires high investment and carries great breeding risks." Zhao Guangcai identified the key to the problem and tried every possible way to adopt various measures to reduce the risks for the people as much as possible and fully mobilize their enthusiasm for developing the beef cattle industry.

"We implemented the 'five unifications' and 'one autonomy' breeding development model: unified purchase of breeding cows, unified isolation and disinfection, unified vaccine injection, unified technical training, unified minimum-price sales, and farmers' independent breeding and sales, so as to dispel the people's concerns." Zhao Guangcai said that he took the initiative to assume the role of breeding consultant for the whole village, guiding farmers to raise beef cattle scientifically and do a good job in disease prevention. He also used the farm as an education and training base to provide hands-on on-site teaching and training for farmers, improving the breeding level of the surrounding people. To help people in difficulty, the farm also advanced more than 300,000 yuan for breeding cow farming.

As the number of beef cattle farmers increased, in response to problems such as limited breeding pens and labor shortages faced by some beef cattle farmers, Zhao Guangcai took the initiative to undertake the task of cow breeding, using a 30-70 split between farmers and the farm to provide farmers with a "cattle nanny" style foster-care service, allowing farmers to reap the benefits of breeding without doing the work. At present, more than 10 farming households have placed more than 20 breeding cows in the beef cattle farm for foster care.

Since 2014, driven by Zhao Guangcai's beef cattle farm, more than 2,000 households in 16 village committees of Youwang Town have developed breeding cow farming with more than 3,000 head, and more than 660 calves have been born.