How a farmer's son from Pubei County found his way to prosperity
A farmer's son with only a high school education, after five years of working away from home, resolutely returned to his hometown to start a pigeon-breeding business. After more than three years of effort, the pigeons spread their wings and set his dream of prosperity flying. He is Liang Dewei, a villager of Shuanglong Village, Baishishui Town, Pubei County, Qinzhou City.
Recently, led by Liang Dewei, the reporter walked into his pigeon farm and saw rows upon rows of pigeon cages neatly arranged. Inside the cages, some pigeons were greedily pecking at the grain in the troughs, now and then letting out cheerful "coo-coo" calls; some were drinking water with all their might; some were feeding their squabs; some were hopping up and down; some were flapping their wings; some were crowing in unison.
Liang Dewei, who was feeding the pigeons in the cages, told the reporter that he had loved birds since childhood and often ran up the hills to observe various kinds of birds. In July 2012, after returning home from out of town, he immediately bought 1,000 pigeons and began trial breeding at his own home, learning techniques as he raised them, and at the same time built a pigeon house. During the construction of the pigeon house, he even traveled a long distance to observe and learn at pigeon farms elsewhere.
Liang Dewei told the reporter that Shuanglong Village has a good natural environment, fresh air and good water quality, meeting the conditions for pigeon breeding. So far, he has invested more than 500,000 yuan in the entire pigeon farm. The pigeons in the farm mainly feed on corn, sorghum and wheat, and drink water from a deep well. At the bottom of each pigeon cage there are two small plastic scoops, one holding water and one holding food. The water scoop is connected to a thin flexible hose; this is the automatic watering equipment Liang Dewei introduced to ensure a round-the-clock water supply.
According to Liang Dewei, his pigeon farm currently still has more than 10,000 pigeons. Apart from being sold locally, the pigeons are also shipped far away to Beihai, Qinzhou, Yulin, Nanning, Zhanjiang, Guangzhou, Hunan, Fujian and other places. Last year the pigeon market kept rising, with the wholesale price of each meat pigeon reaching 16.5 yuan. In 2015, he had already sold 15,000 meat pigeons, with a very good income. "Now more and more people in Baishishui are raising pigeons. Aren't you worried that competition will become too fierce?" Faced with the reporter's question, Liang Dewei said that the more people raise pigeons the better, because then a specialized pigeon-breeding cooperative can be set up, so that they can learn from each other's strengths to offset their weaknesses, make pigeon breeding industrialized and large-scale, and let flocks of pigeons spread their wings and set more people's dreams of prosperity flying.
In the new year, Liang Dewei hopes to follow ecological circular breeding standards, continue to expand the scale of his pigeon farm, and raise more than 30,000 pigeons a year, spreading his wings and setting his own dream of prosperity flying.