Cattle and Sheep Fattening Professional Cooperative Leads Farmers and Herders onto the Road to Prosperity

Since the Zhennong Cattle and Sheep Fattening Farmers' Professional Cooperative in Biesterek Township, Jeminay County was established in 2011, farmers and herders from the township have come one after another to the Zhennong Cattle and Sheep Fattening Farmers' Professional Cooperative to sign cooperation agreements and become members of the cooperative.

In 2011, with the help of the Party Committee and government of Biesterek Township, Jeminay County, 6 farming households with experience in cattle and sheep fattening, scientific breeding techniques and sales channels established the cooperative and built the Zhennong Cattle and Sheep Fattening Cooperative, covering an area of 25 mu. The first phase of the cooperative's project included 4 cattle sheds, 1 sheep shed and 1 feed warehouse. Each cattle shed can fatten 30 cattle at a time, and each sheep shed can fatten 300 sheep at a time. Up to now, the cooperative has marketed cattle and sheep in 4 batches each, including 400 cattle and 1,500 sheep, with a net income of more than 50,000 yuan. Its economic capacity to prosper and lead others to prosperity is very evident.

Ye Jiming, head of the Zhennong Cattle and Sheep Fattening Farmers' Professional Cooperative in Biesterek Township, Jeminay County, said: “We officially started fattening work in October 2011 and have already marketed 4 batches. Business is very good. Now there are 80 cattle and 300 sheep in the pens, and there are 4 workers. In the future, we will further expand the scale, drive more of the labor force, and increase their income.”

It is understood that, on the basis of leading farmers to prosperity, the cooperative also absorbs poor households into the cooperative and drives their development. Poor households join the cooperative by contributing the poverty-alleviation livestock issued by the poverty alleviation office and self-raised livestock as shares, and enjoy dividends from marketed livestock. In addition to dividends, poor households can also earn labor remuneration by working in the cooperative. At present, the cooperative has absorbed 28 poor households.

In 2012, the cooperative is preparing to start the second phase of expansion, expand the fattening scale, and add three sheep pens, which will greatly increase the production scale. Through the support of poverty alleviation projects and the expansion of production scale, the cooperative will be built into the county's supply base for beef cattle and sheep and the township's forage reserve base. The cooperative will create a new model of cooperative + poor households + poverty mutual aid funds, so that more poor households can join the cooperative, expand the cooperative's scale, drive more poor households to prosperity, and also release more of the labor force to go out to work and increase income.

Kalima, a worker at the Zhennong Cattle and Sheep Fattening Farmers' Professional Cooperative in Biesterek Township, Jeminay County, said: “We have been working here for 5-6 months already, with a monthly wage of 1,500 yuan. We used to go out to work every year, but this year we are not going out to work; we are working right at our doorstep.”