Dr. Niu in Chenzhou raises cattle and sells fresh milk, boosting rural tourism
Original title: "Dr. Niu" resigns to become a new farmer
Dr. Zeng's "dairy cattle passion" (video screenshot)
San Nong Zhi Tong Che comprehensive report: In early June this year, with the opening of the third fresh milk chain store in Chenzhou, Hunan, Dr. Zeng Bo preliminarily realized his new pasture plan. From pasture to tongue, citizens can drink locally produced, freshly made fresh milk in as fast as 3 hours.
In 2006, Zeng Bo was admitted to the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences for a combined master's and doctoral program, choosing the major of ruminant nutrition. After graduating with his doctorate, he did not pursue a scientific research path, but instead entered the animal nutrition department of a well-known multinational company, responsible for market and technical services in the Central South region. During several years of work, he traveled to more than 400 pastures across the Central South region and found that developing specialty pastures had great potential in this area. At the end of 2012, Zeng Bo, whose annual salary had reached more than 300,000 yuan, made an unexpected decision: to start his own business.
"What I studied was the 'cattle major,' after graduation I did 'cattle work,' and now I want to go to the countryside for 'cattle entrepreneurship,' to transform knowledge into productivity and create higher value." Zeng Bo persuaded his wife, who also studied agriculture, and aimed the pasture site at his wife's hometown - Daxiawei Village, Liangtian Town, Suxian District, Hunan Province. Daxiawei Village is only half an hour from downtown Chenzhou, with a beautiful natural environment and suitable for livestock breeding. In 2013, he raised 1 million yuan to establish Bozhi Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd., initially raising beef cattle.
However, plans cannot keep up with changes. With fluctuations in the beef cattle market, a single product, and severe homogeneous competition in the market, profit margins kept shrinking, and after a year the business encountered difficulties. Later, after market research, Zeng Bo found that dairy cattle farming in Chenzhou was still a blue ocean, and people in the Lingnan region rarely had access to locally produced, authentic and pure fresh milk. He began to change his philosophy and turned his entrepreneurial direction toward the fresh milk market.
After 2 years of exploration, in December 2015, Zeng Bo decisively applied to register the "Milag Zhi Lian" fresh milk trademark. In 2016, he opened three chain stores in succession in Chenzhou.
"In the next 3 to 5 years, about 40 fresh milk community service stations will be established in the urban area of Chenzhou, and chain operations will be carried out in each county town. Next, a comprehensive ecological agricultural base integrating a standardized breeding base of 1,000 dairy cows, a forage planting base, agricultural sightseeing experience, and science education will also be built." Zeng Bo was full of confidence. He will firmly follow the path of integrating planting, breeding and processing and the integrated development of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and build the most distinctive and largest-scale pastoral pasture in the Lingnan region. (Li Gui, staff reporter Zhang Zhenzhong)