Li Zheng: Once the "spendthrift," now the "Rabbit King"
Li Zheng, 23, lives in Longtouwan Village, Wandian Town, Zengdu District, Hubei. He is the chairman of Zhengxin Rabbit Breeding Professional Cooperative. Young as he is, he has been dealing with rabbits for 7 years. Because of rabbit breeding, he was once a typical "spendthrift" in the village; because of rabbit breeding, he is now called by his fellow villagers "a capable young man." Yesterday, the reporter interviewed this young man who started his business through hardship.
Loves raising small animals, and no force on earth 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 became interested in breeding. He bought quail, bamboo rats and American king pigeons to raise, one after another, spending a lot of money and effort, but all ended in failure.
His parents, seeing him "destroy lives" time and again, got angry. Under family pressure, at 16, Li Zheng followed his parents to Shanghai and went to work 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-lived," and should be easier to raise. As a result, the 6 rabbits he tried to raise lasted only a bit more than 1 week before dying.
A young man who does not go out to earn money but hides at home all day tinkering around, isn't that a "spendthrift"! The village gossip made Li Zheng almost ashamed to face people. The repeated blows finally made him understand one truth: without skills, even things that eat grass cannot be raised. In 2004, at 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" and returning with the real skills
The master Li Zheng apprenticed himself to was named Ren Xuping, manager of "Xuping Rabbit Farm" in Jinyuan Town, Dayi County, Sichuan Province, known as the "Rabbit King of China." At that time, Ren Xuping was offering rabbit-breeding training courses nationwide, each lasting 10 days. In order to learn the "real kung fu," Li Zheng studied for 3 consecutive sessions in the rabbit-breeding training class. Afterward, he stayed at the rabbit farm to work for free for 3 months, and finally mastered the secrets of rabbit breeding.
That year, he bought 40 breeding rabbits back from Sichuan and began his business in the true sense. At that time, his parents and younger brother were all working in a 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 etched deeply in his memory.
Hard work finally paid off. Li Zheng's rabbits thrived more and more, producing 3000 per year and bringing in 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 to lead everyone to prosperity
Once the rabbit farm was established, Li Zheng's horizons broadened further. Besides raising ordinary meat rabbits, he also successfully tried raising "experimental rabbits" and "pet rabbits." The breeds he raised also increased, including "California rabbits," "New Zealand rabbits," "Japanese White rabbits," "rex rabbits" and so on.
In May 2008, with the support of 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 each and an annual output of more than 800 rabbits. He explains rabbit-breeding knowledge to members and other rabbit farmers free of charge, provides technical support and organizes sales.
As the saying goes, "Among birds none beats the partridge, among beasts none beats the rabbit." Li Zheng explains that as people's living standards improve, the market for rabbit meat products, which have health, beauty and life-prolonging benefits, will be very large.
With modest success in his business, Li Zheng is far from satisfied. He says that rabbit breeding in the Suizhou area cannot yet be called large-scale, and rabbit sales are still in a "loose selling" state, with the main profits earned by middlemen. Next, he wants to further develop membership, expand the breeding scale, open specialty rabbit meat stores, launch deep-processing projects for rabbit meat, and help more farmers get rich through rabbit breeding.