Cattle and Sheep Farmer Sun Yujiang Shares His Breeding Experience

    Ten years ago, he was penniless. Today, relying on the farm's policies that benefit the people, he has taken up cattle and sheep breeding. He has not only become a breeding "champion" who brings wealth to those around him, but has also driven the development of the local breeding industry, becoming a new highlight for increasing workers' income. He is Sun Yujiang, a 48-year-old worker at Jianshe Farm. 

In the early days of starting his business, Sun Yujiang, who had experienced the hardships of life, held a strong desire to escape poverty and become prosperous, and chose the breeding industry. He bought 20 breeding sheep from out of town. Due to the long-distance transport, the breeding sheep fell ill as soon as they arrived home. He carefully nursed the sick breeding sheep, staying up all night to watch over them, and invited breeding experts to inject the sheep with medication. After more than a month of careful feeding, the breeding sheep recovered their health. But hope, like a beautiful soap bubble, soon burst. As the high summer temperatures arrived, the lambs born to the breeding sheep began to die one by one, and in the end, fewer than half survived. The money he had invested was completely lost. 

At this point, relatives and friends all advised him, saying: "Just farm honestly. If you keep messing around and lose money, it will be too late for regrets." But he believed that as long as he chose the right goal and found the right development path, with his own hard work and endurance he would certainly succeed. Supported by this firm belief, in the winter of 2000, he successively went to Jilin Province and other places to investigate beef cattle projects. Through investigation and study, he saw that the benefits of raising beef cattle were considerable, and that the team's abundant water and grass resources, along with large amounts of bean stalks, bean husks, corn stalks and other forage, were very suitable for beef cattle raising. Before the farm's support policies were introduced, he and his wife borrowed 50,000 yuan and bought 17 beef cattle in 2001. Seeing his high enthusiasm for raising cattle, the farm took the initiative to support him, successively lending him 100,000 yuan, and he also raised part of the funds himself to buy 60 more beef cattle. 

In the process of raising cattle and sheep, Sun Yujiang accumulated a certain amount of practical experience. He also bought a series of cattle- and sheep-raising books and publications such as "Scientific Sheep Raising" and "How to Improve the Calving Rate of Cows." He grazed the animals by day and studied hard at night, taking time to consult experienced animal husbandry and veterinary personnel. After several years of self-study, he mastered a set of methods for the prevention and treatment of cattle and sheep diseases and scientific feeding. For common minor illnesses, he could treat them himself without calling a veterinarian. Because Sun Yujiang persisted in scientific feeding, his cattle and sheep were fat and strong, and they grew quickly with a high reproduction rate. Of the 85 beef cattle he purchased, more than 60 conceived that same year. Since 2002, the conception rate and the survival rate of calves and lambs have reached over 97%. At the same time, feeding the cattle with silage shortened the marketing period by 6 to 7 months. In just three years he paid off the farm's loans. In 2007, he generated an output value of more than 1 million yuan and a net income of 290,000 yuan. 

With the support of the farm and the production team, Sun Yujiang embarked on the road to prosperity. Last year, he sold 6 beef cattle on credit to 4 workers in the team, and these 4 households have now grown to 12 cattle. This year, he again provided free support to 4 households to develop beef cattle breeding, and often personally visited them to give technical guidance. Driven and helped by him, of the more than 80 households in the whole team, more than 60 now raise cattle and sheep, among which 7 households have more than 20 cattle and more than 20 households have more than 10 cattle. 

Nowadays, he has 117 beef cattle and 238 sheep in stock, a brick-and-tile house of more than 100 sq m, a brick-and-wood cattle shed of 320 sq m, a sunlit fattening cattle shed of 500 sq m, 2 silage pits of 5,500 sq m, one four-wheeled vehicle, one grinder and one shredder each, fixed assets of more than 800,000 yuan, and an annual net income of more than 300,000 yuan.