A farmer in Huaibin becomes the Pigeon King, driving local economic development
Old Tian's pigeon farm
Honors received by Old Tian (partial)
He loves pigeons and raises pigeons, and started his own business on the spot as the "Pigeon King." Old Tian, a farmer from Fanghu Town, Huaibin County, Xinyang City, founded a professional cooperative on the strength of his love for pigeons and his mastery of breeding techniques. After 7 years of development, Old Tian has now become the largest professional pigeon raiser in the Yunan region.
Old Tian is an ordinary farmer from Fanghu Town. After farming, working as a bricklayer, and doing odd jobs in the city, in 2009 he took up professional pigeon breeding.
On November 20, the reporter walked into Old Tian's farm, where cooing sounds came from row after row of pigeon houses. When the cages were opened, snow-white meat pigeons flapped their wings and jumped up and down. Meat pigeons, ornamental pigeons, peacock pigeons... a full 30-plus varieties and more than 20000 pigeons, from cheap meat pigeons selling for just over 20 yuan each to ornamental pigeons selling for several hundred yuan, a thousand yuan, or even tens of thousands of yuan each. Here, pigeon meat, pigeon eggs, and pigeon droppings are all money-making treasures.
While the reporter was conducting the interview, Old Zhang, a villager from another village in the town, came to pick out his favorite pigeons. Old Zhang said: "I have always liked pigeons. Old Tian's breeding operation is fairly large, so whenever I have time I come by to look around and see how he raises pigeons. In the future I plan to raise some myself."
After several years of development, Old Tian's pigeon business continued to expand. In 2011, Old Tian founded the Tianye Pigeon Breeding Professional Cooperative and actively taught pigeon-raising techniques to villagers, and the breeding profits doubled accordingly. After founding the cooperative, he also went many times to Shandong, Anhui, and other places to learn breeding techniques and continuously introduced new varieties.
Old Tian told the reporter that his pigeon farm is fully automated, and that he currently raises more than 20000 pigeons, with 5 people helping to look after and operate things. Old Tian's pigeon farm uses nearly 15 tons of feed each year, worth about 900000 yuan. Old Tian's customers mainly come from the developed coastal areas of Shanghai, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and other places. Because the pigeons he raises are of good quality, orders exceed supply, and due to scale limitations, many customers cannot get their goods, so orders are lost for nothing.
As the saying goes, "colleagues are enemies," but Old Tian does not see it that way. He believes that this is the information age, and whoever controls resources gets to call the shots. Only by raising pigeons together and venturing into the market as a group can everyone achieve prosperity together. He widely shares his pigeon-raising experience, and through the pigeon-raising professional cooperative, follows the path of breeding base + cooperative + farmers, helping nearly 100 farming households in surrounding counties and districts get on the road to prosperity, with each household raising more than 500 pairs of pigeons and increasing annual income by more than 30000 yuan, achieving good economic and social benefits.
The year 2017 is about to arrive. In the new year, Old Tian's greatest wish is to be able to expand the scale of his farm. Old Tian's plan is that if the local government can support him financially, his farm need only raise more than 200000 breeding pigeons to meet current market order demand, and by then it could also provide 50 positions for local farmers to find employment.
I hope Old Tian's pigeon business grows bigger and bigger, and also helps more farmers get on the road to prosperity.