Luo Lian Gives Up Being a Boss to Return Home as a Shepherd, Leading Villagers to Prosper Together

Luo Lian Inspects the Sheep Raised by Villagers

The Sheep Raised by Luo Lian

Everyone has a dream of their own, and for Luo Lian, a young man born in the 1980s, his dream is simple and practical: he wants to go into livestock farming. In his "younger" days, he did many things, including apprenticing at a brick factory, learning massage from a blind master, and eventually, through his own efforts, opening a furniture factory and becoming his own boss. However, because what he wanted to do most was still livestock farming, in 2012 he resolutely returned from out of town to his hometown of Neijiang and began his farming dream. Today, Luo Lian's breeding goat farm has reached a certain scale and generates a certain income. And in order to help the surrounding villagers prosper together, whenever they need help with raising sheep, he provides the greatest assistance he can.

Fulfilling a Childhood Dream: Giving Up Being a Boss in Another Place to Return Home and Start a Business

Luo Lian is from Dongxing Village, Shunhe Town, Dongxing District, Neijiang City. He went out to work at an early age and did many jobs, "apprenticing at a brick factory and learning massage from a blind master." Luo Lian said that later, thanks to the experience accumulated from these jobs, he opened a furniture factory in Chenzhou, Hunan. The furniture factory was doing quite well, with an annual income of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan. However, just as the furniture factory was thriving more and more, he handed the factory over to his relatives to manage, and then resolutely returned to Neijiang with his wife and children.

"I came back to go into livestock farming." Luo Lian said that farming had always been his dream. In the past, he had neither the funds nor the skills, so this idea had always been shelved in his heart. Now, relying on the money he had accumulated from running the furniture factory and the skills he had gone to Shandong specifically to learn, with both funds and skills in place, Luo Lian finally put his shelved plan on the agenda and began to implement it.

Luo Lian Helps Inspect the Sheep Raised by Villagers

Investing Funds in Livestock Farming, Becoming a "Shepherd" and Delving into Techniques

After returning to his hometown of Neijiang, after much research, Luo Lian finally chose Qingliang Village, Pingtan Township, Dongxing District, Neijiang, as his farming base, and invested 400,000 yuan there to begin breeding goat farming. Raising breeding goats requires attention to technique and breed. After long-term research, Luo Lian chose the Boer goat as his main breed and adopted the method of crossbreeding Boer goats with high-quality local goats to cultivate a breeding goat breed suitable for local development. "At that time, I introduced 81 Boer goats from Shandong as breeding stock." Luo Lian said. From then on, Luo Lian became a veritable "shepherd."

Today, in Luo Lian's breeding goat farm, there are not only standardized sheep pens and sheep sheds, but also an "exercise yard" for the breeding goats to "work out." In Luo Lian's words, "raising sheep also requires science." To this end, when raising sheep, Luo Lian takes their temperature and gives them vaccines, and cleans the sheep pens two or three times a day to create a comfortable environment for the sheep. In addition, while Boer goats originally have an average litter size of less than two, those raised by Luo Lian can produce 3 to 4. Luo Lian said this is the result he obtained after dedicated research. Luo Lian explained that ordinary breeding goat farmers, in order to save on breeding costs, often use a one-time mating method when the ewe is in heat, and then mate again after some time if she has not conceived, which both wastes time and yields a low conception rate. According to his experience, when a ewe is in heat, it is best to choose three time periods - morning, noon and evening - and mate three times in a concentrated manner, which greatly increases the success rate of conception. Generally, a single ewe can produce 3-4 kids, with a litter rate twice that of ordinary methods and the number of kids doubled.

Becoming the Villagers' "Sheep Consultant," Diligently Helping Villagers Solve Problems

Luo Lian's breeding goat farm has now reached a certain scale, and in order to help the surrounding villagers also benefit from "sheep," in Qingliang Village, as long as villagers need help with raising sheep, Luo Lian will "without shirking" extend a helping hand. "If the sheep get sick, or are mating or giving birth, you can go to him." a villager from Qingliang Village said. For this reason, in Qingliang Village and the surrounding villages, Luo Lian even earned a nickname: "Sheep Consultant."

"One person being rich doesn't count as being rich; only when everyone is rich does it count as being rich. This saying may be old-fashioned, but it is true." These are Luo Lian's words. Today, at his breeding goat base, many villagers often come to visit, and at such times Luo Lian answers many of their difficult questions and also explains to them the benefits of raising breeding goats. Luo Lian said that his greatest wish now is to be able to share his knowledge and skills with others and lead the villagers to prosper together.