The Recipe for Prosperity in Mutton Soup: A Bowl of Soup Brings a Good Life

In Jianyang City, Sichuan Province, everyone is proud of the local specialty mutton soup. "This is the 'Number One Soup of the West' - the broth is fresh and delicious, the mutton has no gamey smell, and the meat melts in your mouth. Not only do Jianyang people love it, but you can see signs for Jianyang mutton soup all over the country - it's incredibly popular," said Huang Hui, director of the Jianyang City Animal Husbandry and Food Bureau.

Thanks to this pot of mutton soup, Jianyang City started with breeding and vigorously developed the sheep industry. Last year, mutton output reached 23,600 tons, sheep-raising income reached 1.5 billion yuan, and the per capita sheep-raising income of farmers reached 1,250 yuan. The sheep industry has become a pillar industry of Jianyang's agriculture and an important path for local farmers to get rich and for enterprises to increase efficiency.

"To master the 'sheep classic,' science and technology are the magic weapon"

Why is Jianyang's mutton soup so delicious? Huang Hui said the deliciousness comes from the sheep itself - the uniquely flavored mutton soup comes from a high-quality sheep breed: the Jianzhou Big-Eared Goat. In March of this year, the National Commission on Livestock and Poultry Genetic Resources officially awarded the Jianzhou Big-Eared Goat the title of national-level new meat goat breed, making it the second new meat goat breed cultivated in China since the founding of New China.

Breeding is difficult, and breeding livestock and poultry varieties is even more difficult. Behind the Jianzhou Big-Eared Goat lies years of diligent exploration by scientists. In the early 1980s, the national livestock and poultry breed resource survey team discovered a rare goat breed in the Jianyang area of the Longquan Mountains. This goat breed was tall and sturdy, with a straight back and waist, thick limbs, and large, long, drooping ears... After on-site visits by Professor Liu Xiangmo and other experts from Sichuan Agricultural University, it was found that this goat breed was a new variety formed by crossbreeding the Nubian goat, gifted by the United States in the 1940s, with local goats.

Afterward, scientists carried out arduous breed selection and breeding work. It went through three stages - introduction and crossbreeding, crossbreeding and selection, and cross-fixation - before an excellent population with high reproductive rate, large individual size, fast growth and development, and tender, non-gamey meat was cultivated. By September 2012, Jianyang had completed systematic measurement, selective breeding, and genetic testing of the Jianzhou Big-Eared Goat across all generations, and completed the selection and breeding of four generations of the Jianzhou Big-Eared Goat.

Science and technology are also reflected in livestock and poultry farming and the research and development of mutton products. "Here, we use the 'six unifications' farming model for raising sheep. The company unifies the seed stock, management, epidemic prevention, forage, and also uniformly collects lambs, which has raised the level of standardization, regulation, and branding in the sheep industry, and our income keeps rising," said Xue Zhiguo, a large-scale sheep farmer in Wuli Village, Jiajia Town, Jianyang City.

Even eating mutton can be done in many creative ways. Based on modern people's eating habits and health needs, Jianyang people have developed more than 200 mutton dishes and a unique all-mutton banquet, and have also developed a series of special new products such as pickled pepper lamb trotters, cured lamb ears, and boxed mutton soup. Among them, "boxed Jianyang mutton soup" has become the flagship product of every Mutton Food Culture Festival.

"To master the 'sheep classic,' modern management is indispensable"

The end of the year is approaching, and as Li Mingcai, a villager from Nanyan Village, Tanguan Township, Jianyang City, tallies up this year's accounts, he is beaming with joy. "I've raised sheep for more than 20 years. In the past, I only sold four or five fat sheep a year, and profit or loss depended entirely on luck. After joining the 'six-party cooperation + insurance' model, my income doubled!"

"Six-party cooperation + insurance" is a major feature of Jianyang's development of modern animal husbandry. It links six major entities - financial institutions, guarantee companies, feed processing enterprises, breeding farms, association farmers, and meat processing enterprises - and adds agricultural insurance to guarantee the healthy development of the sheep industry through institutional mechanisms.

From 2009 to 2010, Jianyang City fully implemented the "three bigs and five modernizations" modern animal husbandry development strategy of "big groups, big enterprises, big bases, improved breeds, scale, standardization, branding, and regulation." Leading enterprises such as Dadagda, Zhengdong, and Xiangyu Animal Husbandry responded actively, integrating multiple links including feed raw materials, forage planting, breeding goat reproduction, mutton sheep farming bases, and slaughtering and processing, forming a complete industrial chain.

With the government setting the stage and enterprises performing, the brand promotion path of Jianyang mutton has grown wider and wider. Since 2004, the Jianyang municipal government has held the Jianyang Mutton Food Culture Festival, attracting people from all over the country to exhibit. In 2008, in the selection of achievements for the 30th anniversary of rural reform and opening up in Sichuan Province, the Jianzhou Big-Eared Goat won first place in the "Ten Treasures of Tianfu" selection; in 2011, Jianyang mutton passed national review and was granted geographical indication product protection...


The Jianyang municipal government has also combined the development of modern animal husbandry with the construction of civilized new villages, established a resource-saving and environment-friendly production model, and promoted the construction of "ecological breeding + specialty planting" circular economy parks. According to the "Jianyang City 'Twelfth Five-Year' Sheep Industry Development Plan," by 2015 the city will have built 20 breeding-planting circular parks and will build new biogas digesters of 50,000 cubic meters in standardized goat farming communities.

Jianyang's leading enterprises are also striving to become major players in energy conservation and emission reduction in the goat industry. At Xiangyu Sheep Industry Company, ecological parks such as walnut plantations, vegetable plantations, and grape plantations developed using sheep manure are full of vitality, with obvious economic, social, and ecological benefits.

Breeding good new sheep varieties, making good mutton soup, and mastering the sheep classic - Jianyang has combined science and technology, management, market, culture, and ecology in multiple ways to find the golden key to developing modern animal husbandry. One sheep, one pot of soup - it fattens farmers' wallets, raises enterprises' profits, and improves life in the new countryside.