Liu Mingli, who got rich by raising cattle, never forgets to help his fellow villagers

"I started raising cattle quite early, and now the villagers from all the nearby villages have followed me into the cattle-raising cooperative, which I have run thrivingly..." Recently, when talking about his experience in cattle raising, Liu Mingli, head of the cattle-raising cooperative in Quanzhuang Village, Huanggang Town, Ningling County, was beside himself with joy.

Liu Mingli did the math for this writer: in the just-past 2015, the cattle market was especially good! The selling price of beef was basically stable at 25 yuan per jin, while the prices of feed such as bran, forage and corn dropped quite a bit. Corn alone fell from 1.3 yuan/jin last year to 0.7 yuan/jin this year, which was really good news for our cooperative. He personally keeps more than 70 head of cattle on hand, with an annual slaughter of more than 40 head. Calculating a net profit of 5,000 yuan per head, that comes to an income of 2 million yuan in a year.

Being rich yourself does not count as being rich; only when everyone is rich is it truly prosperity. Starting from his first attempt at cattle raising in 2005, Liu Mingli wanted to test the waters first: if the returns were good, he would encourage the villagers to join in. In 2009, Liu Mingli, who had already made a name for himself in the cattle-raising industry, established the Quanzhuang Cattle-Raising Cooperative, driving relatives, friends and neighboring villagers to form an industrial chain and jointly carry out beef cattle breeding under an order-based agriculture model. Just like that, 30 member households joined him in the ranks of getting rich by raising cattle.

Although it is self-breeding and self-raising, the cooperative implements the "four unifications" of breeding, fattening, feed supply and sales, so the villagers do not have to worry about technology or sales channels. Everyone said that raising cattle with Liu Mingli not only fills them with drive but also leaves them with no worries. Member Quan Hongsheng said: "In the past, when raising cattle, we did not understand technology or market conditions, and sometimes we could not even recover our costs. Now with the cooperative, the quality of the cattle is guaranteed and sales channels have opened up. When it is time for slaughter, brokers from Hubei, Hebei, Anhui and other places come to buy right at our doorsteps."

At present, the Quanzhuang Cattle-Raising Cooperative has more than 30 member households, and more than ten of them raise over 50 head of cattle. According to incomplete statistics, the Quanzhuang Cattle-Raising Cooperative now raises more than 2,000 head of cattle in total! The breeding industry has not only brought Liu Mingli rich returns but also brought tangible profits to the local people.