The cattle-raising story of beef cattle farmer Gan Fengxiang

    She is an ordinary farm woman, yet she quietly carries on the business her husband had just started, fostering a harmonious atmosphere among the three sisters-in-law. She is Gan Fengxiang, wife of Ju Hu, the original founder of Zhangye City Fengsheng Forage and Livestock Co., Ltd. 

Gan Fengxiang, now 48 years old, has worked the fields ever since she married into the Ju family. Her husband has many brothers, who for years have contracted projects and traded grain away from home, earning only about 50,000 yuan a year. In 2000, after a land dispute with a contracting company, Ju Hu and his brothers decided in anger to reclaim a stretch of land themselves and prove what they could do. His wife Gan Fengxiang fully supported her husband's decision; she believed that on this land where their forebears had lived, they could certainly accomplish something. 

In 2001, after her husband obtained the operating rights to 2,000 mu of barren beach land, the brothers threw themselves wholeheartedly into developing and improving the wasteland. Her husband spent his days raising funds and finding casual laborers, while Gan Fengxiang led the sisters-in-law in directing the workers on the land, and after the workers got off work she busied herself planning the next day's tasks. After two years of working day and night, they had developed more than 1,000 mu of land fit for cultivation. But as farmers for generations, they knew very well that the economic returns from land are limited; if they kept farming this way, they might not even be able to repay their debts, let alone develop. 

So they sought advice from wealthy households, consulted experts and ran around doing market research, and finally discovered a good project: relying on the area's rich resources to fatten beef cattle, that is, to set up a beef cattle fattening farm. But establishing a large-scale beef cattle fattening farm was no easy matter; funding alone kept them awake at night. By careful calculation, a simply equipped beef cattle fattening farm required an upfront investment of at least 500,000 yuan, plus 600,000 yuan needed to plant 200 mu of forage grass, for a total of 1.1 million yuan, while the four families' combined savings were only 400,000 yuan, far short of the amount. So Gan Fengxiang and her husband discussed with the brothers and their wives selling the farm machinery and tools at home that were worth anything, plus borrowing from relatives and friends by each person. After more than a month of running around, they raised another 500,000-plus yuan in loans, opened up 1,070 mu of land on the barren beach south of Sihao Village, planted 68,000 poplar trees, and built one livestock farm and one fattening livestock community. In January 2006, Zhangye City Fengsheng Forage and Livestock Co., Ltd. was officially inaugurated... 

Unfortunately, that year Gan Fengxiang's husband was diagnosed with a terminal illness and had only a few months to live. Yet her husband still rushed about every day, facing each day with confidence and facing the business he had just started. Gan Fengxiang gradually grew stronger from her original grief and heartache, and became even more energetic about her husband's business. From her husband's death to now, the farm's scale has grown to more than 700 head, and the three sisters-in-law still stand shoulder to shoulder behind the men, bearing hardship without complaint and full of drive. 

As the mother of two children, every day she must both labor over the farm's affairs and manage the children's food, clothing, housing and travel, so she truly has no spare time at all. But her faith in life, her husband's unfinished business and her responsibility to the family constantly entwine this farm woman's heart. Years of tempering have turned this farm woman from delicate to strong; she knows clearly that a released arrow never returns, and only by pursuing her set goal unremittingly will life bloom into a brilliant flower bud. Every morning, when her peers are still in sweet dreams, she is already in the front and back yards of the house, chopping grass and feeding the cattle; in the evening, when others are already holding their grandchildren and enjoying family happiness, she is still in the cattle shed cleaning manure, and in the feed-mixing room swinging a shovel to add ingredients, preparing tomorrow's feed. Day and night, over and over, busyness fills her with fulfillment, and sweat permeates powerful self-confidence. 

To run the beef cattle fattening farm well, Gan Fengxiang and the brothers and sisters-in-law poured all their effort into it. By day they raised cattle, and at night, dragging their weary bodies, they persisted in reading books on beef cattle fattening under the lamp to improve their feeding and management skills. They got up before dawn every day to clean the cattle shed and feed the cattle. Several months passed in a flash, but the cattle did not grow fast, which meant better returns could not be generated. For this reason they went many times to the municipal and district animal husbandry bureaus to consult experts, and invited livestock experts from colleges and universities to inspect the company. Only through the experts' guidance did they learn that to raise cattle well, first they had to raise cattle of fine breeds, second they needed high-quality feed, third they had to feed scientifically, and fourth they had to do a good job of environmental sanitation. So they again subscribed to and read a great deal of material such as "Beef Cattle Fattening Techniques" and many other books, learning while reading and practicing, conscientiously exploring in practice and summarizing on their own, and soon mastered the techniques of silaging and ammoniating straw and beef cattle fattening. Because the beef cattle they raised were well suited to market demand, and thanks to scientific feeding and management methods, that batch of 240 commercial cattle made a profit of 180,000 yuan, achieving very good economic returns. 

In 2007, as the farming returns continued to grow, Gan Fengxiang and the brothers and sisters-in-law turned their eyes to the idle stone beach. After hauling stones and filling and leveling it, they built one livestock community, built 3 high-standard steel-roofed cattle sheds of 1,440 sq m, 3 silaging and ammoniating pits of 2,520 cubic meters, 1,260 tons of silaged straw, and 150 sq m of gatehouse, trading hall, disinfection room and dormitory. They also opened up another 148 mu of land, laying a solid foundation for the company's greater future development.