Cheng Nianjun of Shangqiu, Henan: Choosing the right path of raising sheep to build wealth and prosperity

"Right now, my farm has a total of 600 goats. This year the price of goat meat has been rising all along. By the end of the year, there will be no problem making more than 200,000 yuan from selling the goats." At noon on March 30, Cheng Nianjun, who has tasted the sweetness of raising sheep, said cheerfully to this writer while cleaning the sheep pen.

Cheng Nianjun is a widely known Party member and wealth-building leader in Chenglou Village, Guantang Township, Liangyuan District, Shangqiu City. When it comes to the story of his entrepreneurship, we have to start from the beginning. In the autumn of 2007, by a chance occurrence, Cheng Nianjun learned from television that raising Boer goats required low technical skill, had large market demand and good returns, so he decided to raise Boer goats. After on-site inspections, Cheng Nianjun became even more certain that this was a good route to build wealth. When he told his family about the idea, however, he met firm opposition from his wife and son, because the family ran a plastic processing factory that could earn a net income of more than 200,000 yuan each year, so there was simply no need for more trouble. But Cheng Nianjun had a stubborn temper: as long as he was sure a path to wealth was right, he would see it through.

In the spring of 2008, Cheng Nianjun invested nearly 150,000 yuan to build a new farm and bought 70 Boer goats. To improve his breeding techniques, Cheng Nianjun visited breeding bases elsewhere to learn from others' skills. On the other hand, he consulted goat-raising materials online and in books, and asked others for advice through goat-raising QQ groups. To help the goats grow quickly, he adopted a method of half-day pen feeding and half-day grazing, that is, letting the flock eat in the pen in the morning and driving them to the surrounding woods to graze in the afternoon. In addition, he crushed peanut vines, wheat straw and corn stalks and scientifically mixed them with tofu residue and corn grits, then fed the mixture to the goats. Hard work pays off. Gradually, the breeding rate of his goats increased year by year, and the scale of his operation kept expanding. In 2011, the number of goats he raised reached 200, and that year he earned more than 40,000 yuan from selling lambs alone. This year, Cheng Nianjun also built more than 150 sq m of standard pens and introduced more than 40 Small-tailed Han sheep.

Because of the scientific mixing and green breeding, the goats he raises are fat and strong, with tender and firm meat and no gamy smell, and are highly favored by customers. As soon as winter arrives, customers from Shenzhen, Shanghai and other places come rushing to buy, and the goats have always been in short supply.

Now, at 62 years old, Cheng Nianjun has already become half a sheep-raising expert, and the survival rate of the lambs he raises has reached more than 98 percent. Speaking of his future plans, Cheng Nianjun said with full confidence: "Next, I will continue to expand the scale of breeding, build another 120 standardized sheep sheds, and strive to market 200 Boer goats per year. In addition, I will also set up a cooperative and register a family farm, implement the 'farmers + company' model, and lead the villagers to build wealth together."