How can sheep farmers avoid being scammed? These methods are worth knowing
Raising sheep is hard, raising sheep is tiring, it is difficult to make money, and you suffer for it too.
This is a very common situation in the sheep farming industry today. First, the market is extremely sluggish, and we cannot change that. Le Zong of Yangzhi Yijiaren published an article these past two days analyzing the current situation and proposing corresponding countermeasures, which is worth everyone's attention. Second, there is a lack of technology. For thousands of years people have been used to grazing, and suddenly everyone rushed in a swarm to switch to confined feeding, lacking corresponding supporting technical research. Industry experts actually also lack the corresponding technical reserves for confined feeding. The first group of people who dared to eat the crab not only failed to enjoy the delicacy, but basically all beat a retreat and made a quiet exit. Latecomers slowly groped their way to some accumulated experience, and confined feeding gradually made a little progress, but the entire sheep farming industry is still very backward, at least twenty years behind the farming level of pigs and chickens.
Under such a sluggish overall market, there is no lack of responsible companies that think what sheep farmers think and sincerely help farmers solve problems, pass on technology, and improve efficiency; but there are also many "concept"-type companies that play with empty concepts and confuse sheep farmers so much that they do not know east from west. For example, we have seen things like straw decomposition agents, products that replace clenbuterol, and others that can guarantee production speed, guarantee economic benefits, allow credit, and even more absurdly, people impersonating salesmen of other companies to trick customers into buying goods.
To prevent being taken in, Lao You reminds everyone of a few points:
1. Do not covet cheapness
Many people are taken in because someone has exploited their mentality of coveting a bargain. As long as you want to covet a bargain, there will definitely be no good result. Some companies exploit everyone's mentality of coveting a bargain and play tricks with price, but when the truth really comes out you are dumbfounded. The comparative benefit after use differs enormously, far beyond what that little bit of price can compensate for. Feed is a means of production, not a daily consumer good. You must consider its cost performance, not just its price. A low price that cannot bring final benefits is meaningless.
2. Do not cling to credit purchases
In business, talk business. Selling on credit definitely carries risk. The simplest way to avoid risk is to raise the price. In the north it is very normal for middlemen to add 300-500 yuan/ton to the selling price, and northern herders are relatively simple and honest. As long as they agree to buy the goods, they generally accept the product price by default, and even if farming loses money, sooner or later they will repay the debt. This model is actually equivalent to borrowing at usury to raise sheep, except that interest is not compounded. In fact, the interest is also astonishingly high, so we often remind sheep farming friends not to covet quantity. When raising sheep, you must act according to your means. Better to raise fewer sheep and buy feed with cash than to raise more and buy feed on credit. Under the sluggish market conditions of the farming industry, you must save every cent of cost.
3. Do not be blinded by brands
In the feed industry, everyone knows many domestic and international big brands such as CP, Hope, Dabeinong, Tongwei, Purina……, and many well-known brands lead the field in pig feed, chicken feed, aquaculture and many other areas, becoming brands users trust. However, every trade has its own specialty. A brand that is famous for pig feed may not necessarily perform well in aquaculture, and a brand with leading technology in aquaculture may not necessarily be equally outstanding in ruminant feed. In the field of ruminant animal feed, a successful brand is not one that is bigger and therefore more technologically advanced. Enterprises that can make a technological breakthrough are exceedingly rare. Jiangsu Boduo Agriculture and Animal Husbandry still does not have much fame in the feed industry, but its "Jinweinong" total mixed ration pellets truly stand out in the industry.
4. Do not buy for the sake of personal ties
Chinese people place relatively heavy importance on personal ties, the same from south to north; acquaintances and friends make things easier. If a friend asks a favor, somehow you have to help get it done; if a friend speaks up hoping to use some feed, you just cannot bring yourself to refuse the face, so one way or another you always use a little. These are all human nature. Because of buying for the sake of personal ties, there really are quite a few cases of suffering losses and being cheated. There are no eternal friends, only eternal interests. This saying may be a bit too absolute, but a true friend should be helping the other party, not eyeing the money in the other party's pocket. Without business, you can still be friends, drinking and chatting. If not friends, as long as they can bring benefits, you can still do business. It is not that friendship is unwanted; Lao You is only reminding you that you must never confuse friends with business.
5. Do not fall for dirty tricks
Those of us engaged in livestock production all know that the differences between breeds, between individuals, and between seasons are very large. If you want to confirm the effect of feed, there should be a sufficiently large and representative group. We have encountered goats that gained 16 jin in 20 days and goats that gained 20 jin per month for 7 consecutive months, and we have also encountered sheep that gained 45 jin in one month, but we have never used these to advertise the effect of feed. After more than twenty years in feed, this year I actually found a company advertising like this: "Fastest gain of XX jin in one month"! Impressive! I suggest everyone be careful when encountering this kind of advertising! Without average data for a whole pen of sheep, it is not worth believing at all. Some companies do not work hard on their products, but actually impersonate salesmen of other companies, saying the phone number and bank account have changed, to trick customers into buying feed. A company that can even do such a thing is no different from deliberately injuring someone on a football field, and does not even want its own dignity. I call this "doing ghost business," and remind friends not to fall for dirty tricks!
Having said so much, in fact the key point is to suggest that everyone keep their eyes sharp and distinguish the good from the bad. When the forest is big, there are all kinds of birds; when the market is big, there are all kinds of people. Whether you can tell good from bad, what is said above are some principles, but the fundamental thing is to fully understand the company you want to choose: understand whether it has a big vision and goals, understand whether it has technical strength and service awareness, and understand whether its consistent style of doing things has perseverance and endurance. The methods of understanding can be your own observation; you can also ask others and listen to market feedback; and there is also making comparisons yourself.
(Yangzhi Yijiaren)