Pig-farming expert Guan Mingli leads villagers to get rich together

Guan Mingli is an ordinary Party member in Zengshou Village, Waxing Town, Bayan County. A farmer himself, he has always kept in mind the vanguard and exemplary role of a Communist Party member, working tirelessly to help farmers escape poverty and become well-off. When people mention him, the villagers all say: "Xiao Guan is the pace-setter on our village's road to prosperity."

In 1998, Guan Mingli used the only few thousand yuan his family had to buy 13 sows, beginning his career as a pig keeper. When he first entered the pig-farming business, owing to a lack of professional knowledge and the crude conditions of his pig sheds, the pigs would always die for no reason, and in less than half a year few were left. In order to raise pigs well, he went many times to the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute to consult experts, and in the process of constantly learning from experience and lessons he gained valuable knowledge about pig farming. Hard work pays off: the following year the pig mortality rate on Guan Mingli's farm dropped sharply, the meat pigs reached market weight in 4 months, and that year output value reached more than 100,000 yuan. Afterwards, Guan Mingli also adopted the sow gestation-stall rearing method; the advantages of this technique are that it takes up little space, the sows consume less energy, and the pens stay clean. In 2007, he bought what was then the largest pig farm in Bayan County, and by expanding the scale he established Bayan Waxing Animal Husbandry Development Co., Ltd., vigorously introducing fine breeding pigs from the United States, the United Kingdom and Belgium, as well as the local fine breed the Harbin White pig, and creating a unique high-yield rearing model, which raised the farm's production level. Through snowballing development, Guan Mingli became in just a few years a pig-farming expert known far and wide in Bayan County.

Guan Mingli often says: "Being rich yourself doesn't count as being rich; only when everyone is rich does it count as being rich. I am a Communist Party member, and I should lead all the villagers to common prosperity." Seeing Guan Mingli grow rich by raising pigs, the villagers came one after another to learn from him. Guan Mingli answered every question and responded to every request, holding nothing back. Seeing how urgent the villagers' desire to become well-off was, he discussed it with his family and decided to set up a pig-farming cooperative, letting villagers join voluntarily. When Liu Rongbin, a poor household, first started raising pigs, Guan Mingli not only taught him hand in hand how to raise them scientifically and helped him with pig epidemic prevention free of charge, but also advanced funds to build pig sheds for Liu Rongbin and sold him piglets and feed on credit. With Guan Mingli's help, Liu Rongbin escaped poverty and became well-off in less than two years.

Over these years, driven and supported by Guan Mingli, Zengshou Village has built 8 specialized pig farms, more than 60 households in the village raise 50 or more pigs, and last year the village's per-capita net income for farmers was 4,730 yuan. Guan Mingli has been named one of Bayan County's Top Ten Outstanding Youths, a county model worker pacesetter, and a Harbin municipal model worker.