Specialty farming leads farmers to prosperity, this is how Liu Heng of Yingzhou District does it

    Among rows of poplar groves, more than 10,000 specialty animals - black-and-white guinea fowl, royal pheasants holding their noble heads high, and seven-colored pheasants - roam freely and forage at leisure in the pristine woodland. This is Jinmu Farm, founded single-handedly by Liu Heng. Thanks to this farm, 130 surrounding farming households and laid-off workers have since embarked on the road to prosperity. 
   
Liu Heng is an ordinary employee of the Yingzhou District Animal Husbandry Bureau. As early as 1989, he had his eye on specialty farming. "At that time, animal husbandry raised ordinary poultry, the market competition was fierce and business was poor. Specialty farming could fill this gap and enable farmers to obtain greater economic benefits." 
   
With this idea in mind, Liu Heng began preparing in his spare time. He paid his own way to Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places to investigate and learn about market conditions, and after returning he sought out a suitable breeding base. "I saw that the West Lake scenic area has 300 mu of woodland. Generally, breeding is done in the woodland, using rural corn, wheat and bran, without any additives, antibiotics, or banned drugs harmful to people. Once the rare poultry get sick, they are treated and fed with traditional Chinese medicine. This not only cures the animal's illness, but also, after the products come out, they have a certain therapeutic effect on people." 
   
In his spare time, Liu Heng founded Jinmu Farm. At first, due to lack of experience, the pheasants, wild ducks, white geese and others Liu Heng brought in were not from regular suppliers - these animals had poor physical constitutions and were prone to illness. In addition, he did not understand the techniques and fed them according to conventional domestic chicken raising methods, resulting in a high mortality rate. Now, after years of exploration, the farming scale has grown steadily, the varieties have developed from a few to dozens, and the annual output of commercial rare poultry is about 800,000 birds. Products are in short supply, and at the same time more than 130 surrounding farming households have been driven onto the road to prosperity. 
   
Shi Jianquan, a laid-off worker from the former Fuyang Huayuan Pharmaceutical Company, learned of this information through the Internet and began engaging in farming techniques in 2007. The guinea fowl and Chinese black chickens he introduced currently have a stock of 5,000 birds, yielding a profit of 150,000 yuan a year, and he has shaken off his impoverished family circumstances in one stroke.