Siziwang Banner's company-plus-farmer model helps farmers raise sheep, increase income and become prosperous

In 1996, Buhe Chaolu, 31 years old, became Party branch secretary of Bayin Gacha in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia. That year, he met Li Junlong, who was about the same age, at the sumu (township) veterinary station. Whenever Li Junlong went to the countryside, he always stopped by his home, and whenever Buhe Chaolu went to the sumu on business, he also liked to drop by the veterinary station. Every time the two met, the topic they talked about most was how to achieve "the benefit of raising one sheep equal to that of several sheep."

Twenty years have passed, and neither of them ever imagined that the topic and dream that seemed like casual chat at the time are now becoming reality. The Sainuo company founded by Li Junlong has for nine consecutive years vigorously promoted efficient ecological animal husbandry based mainly on Dorper-Mongolian crossbred mutton sheep improvement, and has achieved remarkable results. The number of demonstration households for mutton sheep crossbreeding improvement has reached more than 1,700, the improvement scale has reached 250,000 sheep, and the individual net income increase from crossbred sheep is more than 250 yuan, achieving the goals of reducing livestock numbers while increasing income and protecting the grassland ecological environment, and powerfully promoting the transformation of traditional animal husbandry into modern animal husbandry.

In 2006, as soon as Sainuo company was established, Buhe Chaolu contacted several Party member households to form a herders' sheep-raising cooperative and join in. The next year, some herders who had been waiting and watching saw the benefits and also asked to join one after another. By last year, the cooperative already had 120 herder shareholder households and was driving more than 500 breeding households.

It is reported that through the "company + herder households + market" cooperative business model, Sainuo company signs contracts with herders to buy back crossbred meat lambs. For member herder households with 150 to 200 Mongolian ewes, it provides Dorper breeding rams and charges herder households a deposit of 3,000 yuan per ram, with the government subsidizing 3,000 yuan per ram. The lambs produced are purchased at a price 1 yuan per kilogram higher than the market price and enter the company's centralized fattening farm. For each lamb a herder delivers to the company, 30 yuan of the ram deposit is returned to the herder. The company provides embryos and embryo transfer technology free of charge. For embryo-produced breeding sheep with a body weight of more than 40 kg, the company buys them back at a live weight price of 20 yuan/kg. After the breeding rams are grown out, they are provided free of charge to member herder households for use.

Herder Qin Youhe said that his ancestors raised sheep for several generations, and only in his generation did they catch such a good opportunity. He has been raising sheep with Sainuo company for almost 5 years, and his average annual net income is around more than 200,000 yuan. Buhe Chaolu put it more directly: "Take the wire netting commonly bought in pastoral areas. In the past, buying one roll of wire netting required selling 2 sheep; now selling 1 sheep can buy back 5 rolls."

Our reporter Zhang Wusi