College graduate returns home to raise donkeys and leads villagers to prosperity together
Diao Long raises donkeys and loves them; this little donkey foal that he delivered with his own hands has become his good "friend."
Diao Long observes and records the donkeys' growth conditions.
Sanmu Guanzhong Donkey Farm was rated by Sanyuan County as an advanced unit for promoting employment through entrepreneurship.
Recently, attracted by its reputation, a reporter came to the Sanmu Guanzhong Donkey Farm in Luqiao Town, Sanyuan County, Shaanxi Province, and saw villagers pulling corn stalks to the farm in groups. While unloading the cart, Grandpa Wang said happily that in past years, whenever the autumn harvest came, corn stalks could not be thrown away or burned, and they were piled up everywhere in and around the village. Now things are better: sending corn stalks to the farm can even earn money. A good young man has emerged in the village, and we all benefit from him!
The young man Grandpa Wang mentioned is Diao Long, owner of the Sanmu Guanzhong Donkey Farm. In 2009, after Diao Long graduated from Xi'an International University with a major in logistics management, he worked as an operations supervisor at a company in Xi'an, with a monthly salary of more than 5,000 yuan, and he was doing very well. His wife opened a travel agency in Xi'an, and her business was thriving. The young couple lived a comfortable and warm life and became the object of envy among classmates and neighbors, and Diao Long's parents felt very proud of this.
However, as time went on, Diao Long felt that this stable life was monotonous and dull, and he began to wonder whether he could do something on his own. Once, when he returned to his hometown of Wujia Village, he saw his parents busy with the more than ten Guanzhong donkeys raised at home, and his heart stirred: could carrying forward this industry become his own path to entrepreneurship? Quitting his job and returning home to raise donkeys would let him both inherit his father's business and stay by his parents' side to fulfill his filial duties. Would that not be the best of both worlds?
However, ideals are full, but persuading his parents was very difficult. When Diao Long laid out his thoughts completely, his father, who had raised donkeys for more than 20 years, turned livid with anger: "You come back to raise donkeys! Then what did we send you to college for?" The first conversation ended unhappily. This time, Diao Long, a young man from Guanzhong, showed his "donkey temper." For several days in a row, he appealed to emotion and reason, describing his grand blueprint. "You raise donkeys in your own yard and can only sell at most a few dozen head a year. The scale cannot grow, and there is no competitiveness. If I run it, the first thing is to build a modern farm and carry out large-scale breeding; it also has to become an industrial chain... Not only get rich ourselves, but also drive the villagers to get rich together!" Diao Long finally won his parents' understanding and support.
No sooner said than done. In June 2012, Diao Long leased 35 mu of land in the village, invited experts to design a standardized farm plan, and the Sanmu Guanzhong Donkey Farm, with an initial investment of 2 million yuan, broke ground amid the sound of firecrackers. During construction, Diao Long worked as a laborer himself, digging foundations, carrying bricks, and mixing cement, and built a farm with infrastructure including offices, employee dormitories, standardized donkey sheds, feed rooms, and silage pits, beginning large-scale donkey raising. Afterwards, the farm also gradually raised camels and horses for villagers to rent for tourism.
In order to understand the donkeys' temperament, Diao Long lived alone in a simple room next to the donkey shed, letting the donkeys become familiar with his scent and making friends with them. He carefully observed and learned about the donkeys' diet and preferences for forage, and delivered foals in the middle of the night. Relying on accurate judgment of market conditions, his one-stop industrial chain of breeding, slaughtering, and processing ran quite smoothly, with more than 1,200 donkeys sold per year. Last year, sales exceeded 10 million yuan and net profit surpassed one million yuan.
In order to lead more villagers to get rich together, Diao Long adopted a farm plus farmer model, developing 6 large breeding households in the surrounding area, providing them with donkey foals and silage feed, following up with door-to-door services, and implementing unified epidemic prevention... Each household can earn at least 50,000 yuan a year. What made him even happier was that every year he bought all the corn stalks left by the villagers after the autumn harvest as silage feed. For this item alone, each mu of land could increase net income by more than 300 yuan. Watching the villagers' wallets gradually bulge, Diao Long was overjoyed. He himself was also rated as a Shaanxi Province college student independent entrepreneurship star.