Shi Zhanyou Rides Donkeys into the Market and Opens the Door to Prosperity

Nowadays, it is common to see people get rich by raising cattle, sheep, and chickens, but Shi Zhanyou, a villager from Touhao Village, Qianjingou Town, Taipusi Banner, took a different path and started a specialty breeding business: raising donkeys.

At present, although it is the slack farming season, Shi Zhanyou, a villager from Touhao Village, Qianjingou Town, is not idle. When this writer saw him, he was adding hay for the donkeys, and a row of sleek, glossy donkeys was especially lovable. Shi Zhanyou told this writer that these donkeys were bought in April 2015 from a breeding donkey farm in Liangshan, Shandong, 28 breeding donkeys in total, costing about 200,000 yuan. After raising them for a while, they proved quite suitable: easy to raise, saving on forage, and highly profitable. Twenty-two have already conceived foals, and this year's profit will have to be at least around 100,000.

As the saying goes, in boxing one wins with surprise moves, and in getting rich one explores niche markets. For the previous two years, Shi Zhanyou had been raising cattle, accumulating rich breeding experience and capital. The quick-witted Shi Zhanyou discovered that compared with raising other livestock, meat donkeys have lower breeding costs, and donkey meat has high nutritional value and is easily accepted by the market. In 2015, he tentatively adopted a barn-feeding method to raise donkeys in his own courtyard, beginning the path of "riding" donkeys into the market. Shi Zhanyou told this writer that raising donkeys has low costs, relatively stable returns, and little market risk.

In China, since ancient times there has been a saying: "In heaven there is dragon meat, on earth there is donkey meat." Donkey meat is tender and delicious, deeply favored by consumers, and has broad development prospects. Donkey hide is also an important raw material for making ejiao, so it can be said that the whole donkey is a treasure. Shi Zhanyou is full of confidence in the prospects of breeding, and he also wants to lead the people of the surrounding villages within ten li or so to raise donkeys together and get rich.