What story lies behind the three tears of "Sheep Mother" Tian Xiuzhen?

Wearing her husband's military uniform, standing on a high mountain in Zhongzhai Town, Yanhe Autonomous County, she held an aluminum basin full of corn. The white goats on the hillside grassland swarmed toward her, straining their necks and catching with their mouths the corn kernels scattered from the basin.

She is Tian Xiuzhen, known by people as "Sheep Mother." When people who have dealt with Tian Xiuzhen talk about her, they all say she applies motherly love to her goats and an iron will to every difficulty on the road of entrepreneurship.

Since returning home to start her business, Tian Xiuzhen's eyes have held tears of setbacks and bitterness as well as tears of success and harvest, while her body has been soaked in hard-earned sweat.

Setting out on the road home to start a business - shedding tears of hard work

Tian Xiuzhen's initial reason for raising goats was her fascination with that patch of grassland in Zhongzhai Village, Zhongzhai Township, Yanhe Autonomous County, her hometown.

More than 1,000 mu of natural large grassland, surrounded by forests like a green belt, with a mountain pond set in the middle. Such beautiful scenery made the village girl Tian Xiuzhen dream sweet dreams since childhood. "It is very beautiful, but back then I did not know what could be done with it." Recently, when Tian Xiuzhen spoke of how she felt back then, she still could not hide her excitement.

After growing up, she became the wife of a soldier, went with her husband to his garrison to work, and had the idea of returning to her hometown grassland to herd goats. As a soldier's wife, she could have followed her husband to the garrison and taken a much easier job, but in March 2008 she resolutely returned to her hometown and joined the project to develop grassland ecological animal husbandry, becoming a goat-herding "shepherd."

In September 2008, the 188 foundation ewes she borrowed from the center entered the pen. According to the agreement, after 3 years she had to repay the same number, and the lambs produced by the ewes were split between her and the center on a seven-to-three basis.

Only after becoming a "shepherd" did Tian Xiuzhen realize the hardship of entrepreneurship; every day she was drenched in sweat.

Setbacks and failure - shedding bitter tears

In the spring of 2010, the back mountain of Zhongzhai Town took on a new look. Nourished by the spring rain, the young grass in the fields sprouted and pushed through the ground.

One early morning, just as the sun peeked out, Tian Xiuzhen walked out the door and quickly went to the goat pen. Amid her calls, the goats walked in a line toward the hillside not far away. Before long, Tian Xiuzhen's "children" were enjoying the tender shoots of the grass.

"Oh no, that goat..." Just as she was comfortably preparing to return to the house, the condition of one goat put Tian Xiuzhen on alert.

She ran over in a stride and saw that the goat had been poisoned.

Before long, this phenomenon spread rapidly through the flock.

While using methods to detoxify her "children," Tian Xiuzhen hurriedly contacted the town animal husbandry station.

But still she could not save "Sheep Mother" from her losses, and 200 goats died of poisoning. "Looking at my 'children' lying motionless on the ground, I wanted to cry but had no tears." Tian Xiuzhen said that in this poisoning incident alone she lost 200 goats, with more than 50 goats remaining.

After a brief period of grief, Tian Xiuzhen thought of the nearby herders. Immediately, after holding a simple funeral for the dead "children," Tian Xiuzhen's family went from one herder's home to another, warning the herders that the grass on the mountain was poisonous.

Testing by relevant technical personnel revealed that a highly toxic grass had grown on the mountain; as soon as cattle, sheep and other livestock ate it, they would immediately die of poisoning.

In addition to warning the herders and urging them to pay attention, Tian Xiuzhen also mobilized herders and relatives to launch a "hoe out the poisonous grass" operation in the major grasslands on the mountain.

The "poisonous grass" was hoed out, but this caused a severe break in the funding chain of Tian Xiuzhen's goat farm.

After visiting and reporting to multiple departments, with the help of the relevant county and town departments, 80,000 yuan in working capital was coordinated.

Helping fellow villagers get rich - shedding tears of joy

Soon the second winter arrived, and those who had gone out to work returned home one after another for the New Year. This became the peak season for herders to buy goats.

In order to sell her goats at a good price, Tian Xiuzhen personally drove the truck loaded with goats, going as near as the surrounding county towns and as far as Zunyi, hawking them along the way.

"What made me happiest was selling more than 150 lambs in one month." Tian Xiuzhen said that some people came to the goat farm to buy goats, while she drove to surrounding markets to hawk them. In that one month, she sold the first batch of more than 150 lambs, and put more than 60,000 yuan into her purse.

That year, Tian Xiuzhen sold all the lambs she had in stock, with a net income of nearly 700,000 yuan.

Gaining wealth without forgetting her fellow villagers, Tian Xiuzhen, whose business had grown, did not forget to give back to her hometown. Using the skills she had mastered, she actively repaid her fellow villagers. Whenever her fellow villagers needed help, Tian Xiuzhen helped enthusiastically and served free of charge as a veterinary technical consultant. Yang Shengqiang, a large-scale breeder, with Tian Xiuzhen's help, vigorously developed a goat-raising project, reaching 243 goats in stock and more than 400 sold, with an annual income of 800,000 yuan, becoming another large-scale breeder after Tian Xiuzhen.

At present, Tian Xiuzhen has more than 300 goats in stock, sells more than 500 per year, and has an annual income of one million yuan. Driven by her, more than 40 households of surrounding people have developed goat raising. She has helped 35 poor households raise goats, with each household's annual income reaching more than 100,000 yuan. "Next, I plan to mobilize 280 village households to join in by contributing land as shares, so that more villagers can get rich and I can make my own contribution to poverty alleviation." Tian Xiuzhen said.

Heaven does not fail the determined. Tian Xiuzhen not only won the praise of the surrounding villagers, but was also elected as a representative of the 11th People's Congress of Guizhou Province, and is also a provincial-level model worker.

At this moment, "Sheep Mother" Tian Xiuzhen shed tears of joy...