Second-generation reclamation workers at Bayi General Farm get rich by raising dairy cows scientifically

They are a family of cattle-raising specialists known far and wide, who have led the staff and workers onto a well-off path to prosperity through scientific dairy cattle breeding, and are called by the staff and workers: the most "cow" family on the road to entrepreneurship

When people talk about the Wei Xunjie family of Dongshan Community at Bayi General Farm, everyone who knows them gives a thumbs-up and says: "Raising cattle, truly impressive."

Wei Xunjie and his wife are second-generation children of the farm and were originally employees of the Bayi General Farm Machinery Plant. After the machinery plant's structural reform, due to poor performance, Wei Xunjie moved around to several places to make a living, enduring great hardships. Later, with the support of farm leaders, after 15 years of struggle and hard entrepreneurship, he successively set up a starch factory, a wild boar farm, and a cattle farm, and took the lead in establishing the Bayi General Farm Hongmu water buffalo and beef cattle breeding professional cooperative and the Dongshan fragrant pig breeding cooperative.

In 2000, Wei Xunjie set up a beef cattle and wild boar breeding farm in a remote small mountain area of Dongshan Community at Bayi General Farm. The "SARS" outbreak in 2002 dealt a heavy blow to the entire breeding industry; not a single one of his wild boars or cattle could be sold, so he had to temporarily shut down the farm, but he did not lose heart. After that, he began visiting specialized breeding households, traveling throughout Guangdong and Guangxi, as well as Chengmai, Lingshui, Ledong, Baisha and other places in Hainan.

In 2007, the couple became even busier. During the day they worked at the farm, and at night they rushed back to the sugar factory to accompany their child in studying, traveling more than 30 km back and forth every day. To save time, once while going up the mountain to cut grass fodder, his wife Lu Xiaoying accidentally cut her foot and bled a lot; she just grabbed a handful of green grass to bind the wound. His wife, always strong-willed, hobbled along and still did whatever work she could. She usually tied fodder grass in big bundles; carrying the heavy fodder back and forth up and down the mountain, sometimes she would inevitably be tripped by stones, but she would act as if nothing had happened, quickly get up and continue working.

What the couple worried about most was cattle getting sick; whenever the cattle fell ill, they always felt powerless. In 2009, their son Wei Caidiao had just graduated from high school, and the couple worked hard to persuade him to apply to the Guangxi Yellow Cattle Research Institute to study livestock disease prevention and treatment, artificial insemination, and embryo transfer. Their son did not let his parents down. After returning from his studies, he solved the problem of purebred breeding of three generations of water buffalo at the farm, and also solved the problem of breeding second- and third-generation Wagyu, realizing self-breeding and self-raising at the farm. Later, the farm was designated as Hainan Province's breeding cattle production base and the Provincial Department of Science and Technology's embryo research project. At present, led by their family, with households as units, a "company + farmers" cattle-raising cooperative has begun to take shape.

With their son joining in, the couple felt even more confident. In December 2012, encouraged by Bayi General Farm, they rode the momentum of the farm's second entrepreneurship and registered and established the "Hongmu water buffalo and beef cattle breeding professional cooperative" in Dongshan Community, investing 17.8 million yuan and continuously expanding the breeding scale. At present, the farm covers an area of 170 mu and has 346 cattle on hand. At the same time, they actively build ecological breeding and develop a circular economy, using biogas digesters for harmless treatment of cattle manure and using biogas to generate electricity, turning waste into treasure and achieving energy conservation and environmental protection, producing relatively good economic, social and ecological benefits.

The Wei Xunjie family became rich through scientific cattle raising, but they did not enjoy the fruits of prosperity alone; instead, they enthusiastically helped surrounding staff and workers get rich by raising cattle. At present, their scientific research and breeding training base is being built at a faster pace and can train more than 500 person-times each year. The cooperative will promote the "company + farmers" model, expand herd breeding, and plans to raise 5,000 Japanese Wagyu and 3,000 water buffalo, with output value reaching 300 million yuan. At the same time, they encourage and guide all farm staff and workers to join the cooperative. They not only give the bred calves to staff and workers to raise, but also handle technical guidance and buy back and sell the cattle. For fellow villagers with financial difficulties, they raise funds for them, and for those lacking technology, they provide technology, leading the staff and workers onto the road to prosperity through cattle raising.

While their family enjoys the sweetness of becoming rich by raising cattle, honors have also come one after another. The Hongmu water buffalo breeding farm founded by the Wei Xunjie family received the titles of "Hainan Province Agricultural Leading Enterprise" and "2012 Advanced Unit in Science and Technology Work"; Wei Xunjie was also elected by the staff and workers as a deputy to the Danzhou Municipal People's Congress and was awarded the title of "Star Chairman of an Agricultural Cooperative" by the Provincial State Farms Bureau.

"In the future, we will expand the Hongmu water buffalo milk processing plant, build a science and technology building, and create an ecological leisure farm, driving and leading the staff and workers to develop the eco-tourism industry." The Wei Xunjie family plans their beautiful blueprint in this way.