Choose the right path in sheep farming, and getting rich is easier

"Right now, my farm has a total of 600 goats. This year the price of goat meat has been rising all along, and 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 had tasted the sweetness of raising sheep, said cheerfully to this writer while cleaning the sheep pen.

Cheng Nianjun is a well-known Party-member leader in getting rich in Cheng Lou Village, Guantang Township, Liangyuan District, Shangqiu City. When it comes to his entrepreneurial experience, the story has to start from the beginning. In the autumn of 2007, by a chance opportunity, Cheng Nianjun learned from television that raising Boer goats required low technical skill, had large market demand and good returns, and decided to raise Boer goats. After on-site inspections, Cheng Nianjun became even more certain that this was a good way to make a fortune. When he told his family about this idea, however, he met firm opposition from his wife and son, because the family ran a plastics processing factory that could net more than 200,000 yuan a year, so there was simply no need for more trouble. But Cheng Nianjun had a stubborn temper: any path to wealth he had set his sights on, he would keep walking.

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, on the one hand, went to breeding bases elsewhere to inspect and learn others' techniques. On the other hand, he looked up goat-raising materials online and in books, and asked others for advice through a goat-raising QQ group. To help the goats grow quickly, he adopted a method of half-day pen feeding and half-day grazing, that is, letting the flock feed in the pen in the morning and driving them to graze in the surrounding woods 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, his goats 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 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. Once winter comes, customers from Shenzhen, Shanghai and other places rush to buy, and the goats have always been in short supply.

Now, 62-year-old Cheng Nianjun has become half a sheep-raising expert, and the survival rate of the lambs born to the sheep he raises has reached more than 98%. Talking about his future plans, Cheng Nianjun said with full confidence: "Next, I will continue to expand the scale of raising sheep, build another 120 standard sheep pens, and strive to market 200 Boer goats a year. In addition, I will also set up a cooperative, register a family farm, implement the 'farmers + company' model, and lead the villagers to get rich together."