A village shepherd in a mountain village blazes a trail to entrepreneurship by raising sheep
Wen Hongtao, nearing fifty, has a lame leg. Whenever anyone asks about it, he always smiles and avoids mentioning it. Those who know him well know that he is just that stubborn - despite his physical disability, he refuses to be outdone by anyone able-bodied. Wen Hongtao gives the impression of being quick-witted. The small-tailed Han sheep farm he founded now has 800,000 yuan in fixed assets, 4 workers, and an annual profit of 40,000 yuan.
Nanlong Village in Niudian Town is located in a hilly and mountainous area, with a good environment and fresh air, making it very suitable for ecological livestock farming. Wen Hongtao had long been mulling over how to use his hometown's natural advantages to realize his dream of wealth. After a period of market research and repeated verification, Wen Hongtao decided to develop the livestock farming industry.
In 2010, with the support of the government's interest-subsidized farming loan, Wen Hongtao purchased 40 small-tailed Han sheep and built a series of supporting facilities including sheep sheds, hay storage rooms, concentrate and roughage storage rooms, a quarantine room, and a grinder. After nearly several years of scientific development and improvement, there are now more than 200 sheep. He also introduced Dorper breeding rams from Shandong, and through breeding improvement and development, the flock has grown to more than 80. At present, there are nearly 300 sheep raised in sheds, including nearly 200 breeding ewes.
Wen Hongtao said that raising improved breeds of sheep has obvious characteristics and good prospects - as people's living standards improve, the demand for mutton keeps growing, so its development prospects are broad, market potential is great, and sales are good; raising sheep is easy to manage, the sheep have strong disease resistance, and as long as they are raised and vaccinated scientifically, there is not much risk; it requires little labor, is low in labor intensity, and is easy to manage.
Wen Hongtao has become rich, but he knows even better how hard it is for people with disabilities to start a business. In order to provide an employment environment for some people with disabilities in the neighboring villages and help them shake off poverty and become prosperous as soon as possible, he invited Zhang Xiaofeng (Grade 1 disability) and Jia Haijun (Grade 4 disability), both people with disabilities, as well as Wen Fushun, a low-income household, to the farm to help feed the sheep. With the support and guidance of the government, the farm has gradually expanded its scale and has been built into a large-scale, standardized breeding base integrating improvement and development, fine breed cultivation, mutton sheep farming, and fine breed promotion.