Rabbit Farmer Li Zheng and His Rabbit-Raising Story
Li Zheng, 23 years old this year, lives in Longtouwan Village, Wandian Town, Zengdu District, and is the chairman of Zhengxin Rabbit Breeding Professional Cooperative. Despite his young age, he has 7 years of experience dealing with rabbits. Because of rabbit raising, he was once the typical "black sheep" of the village; because of rabbit raising, he is now called by the villagers "a capable young man." Yesterday, the reporter interviewed this young man who started his business through hardships.
Loves Raising Small Animals Not Even Nine Oxen Can Pull Him Back
For various reasons, Li Zheng dropped out of school before finishing junior high. Unwilling to go out to work and fond of small animals since childhood, Li Zheng developed an interest in breeding. He successively bought quail, bamboo rats, and American king pigeons to raise, spending a lot of money and effort, but all ended in failure.
His parents watched him "destroy lives" time and again and became angry. Under family pressure, at the age of 16, Li Zheng followed his parents to Shanghai and worked in a stainless steel processing shop opened by his uncle. After only 1 month, Li Zheng quietly "slipped" back home. He thought rabbits eat grass, are "tough," and should be easier to raise. As a result, of the 6 rabbits he tried to raise, after only hopping around for a little over 1 week, they died again.
A young man not going out to earn money but instead hiding at home all day tinkering around, isn't that a "black sheep"! The village gossip made Li Zheng almost ashamed to face people. The repeated setbacks finally made him understand one truth: without skills, even grass-eating creatures cannot be raised. In 2004, at the age of 18, Li Zheng took the initiative to go out - he was going to Sichuan Province to learn from a master.
Learning from the "Rabbit King" Returning with True Skills
The master Li Zheng apprenticed under was named Ren Xuping, the director of "Xuping Rabbit Farm" in Jinyuan Town, Dayi County, Sichuan Province, known as the "Chinese Rabbit King." At that time, Ren Xuping was offering rabbit-raising training classes nationwide, each session lasting 10 days. In order to learn "true kung fu," Li Zheng studied in the rabbit-raising training class for 3 sessions in a row. Afterward, he stayed at the rabbit farm to work for free for 3 months, and finally mastered the secrets of rabbit raising.
That year, he purchased 40 breeding rabbits from Sichuan and began his business in the true sense. At that time, his parents and younger brother were all working in the stainless steel processing shop in Shanghai, and the family's 12 mu of contracted farmland was managed by him alone. That kind of exhaustion was unforgettable to him.
Hard work finally paid off. Li Zheng's rabbits flourished more and more, with 3000 able to be sent out of the pens in a year and income reaching tens of thousands of yuan. In 2007, Li Zheng's parents returned home to help him set up a standardized rabbit farm.
Forming a Cooperative Leading Everyone to Prosperity
Once the rabbit farm was established, Li Zheng's horizons became broader. In addition to raising ordinary meat rabbits, he also successfully tried raising "experimental rabbits" and "pet rabbits." The rabbit breeds he raised also increased, including "California rabbits," "New Zealand rabbits," "Japanese White rabbits with large ears," "rex rabbits," and so on.
In May 2008, with support from the Wandian Town government of Zengdu District and departments such as industry and commerce, Li Zheng registered the Zhengxin Rabbit Breeding Professional Cooperative. At present, the cooperative has developed 17 member households with 20 breeding rabbits and an annual output of more than 800 rabbits sent out of the pens. He explains rabbit-raising knowledge to members and other rabbit farmers free of charge, provides technical support, and organizes sales.
As the saying goes, "Among flying birds none is better than the partridge; among running beasts none is better than the rabbit." Li Zheng introduced that with the improvement of people's living standards, rabbit meat foods with health-care, beauty, and life-prolonging functions will have a very large market.
With modest success in his career, Li Zheng is not satisfied at all. He said that at present rabbit breeding in the Suizhou area cannot yet be called large-scale, and rabbit sales are still in a "scattered selling" state, with the main profits earned by middlemen. Next, he wants to further develop membership, expand the breeding scale, open a rabbit meat specialty store, and launch rabbit meat deep-processing projects, so that more farmers can become rich through raising rabbits.