Urban and Rural Integrated Development Network-Rural Science and Technology Reporter Liu Zaosheng Li Peng Special Correspondent Tao Xianfeng Zhang Dexiang
In 2009, after learning that his hometown implemented the industrialization cooperation model of "company + base + cooperative + farmer" and vigorously supported the grass-fed animal husbandry based on breeding beef cattle, he resolutely gave up the booming catering business and chose to return to his hometown to devote himself to beef cattle breeding. On the road of beef cattle breeding, Zhang Lincong is not afraid of hardships and dangers, hard work, and innovation, not only built the first local courtyard ranch in Fengdu, Chongqing, but also took the lead in establishing the Fengdu County Feixian Cave Beef Cattle Breeding Professional Cooperative in 2011. In 2022, he once again took the lead in establishing the Baoluan Town New Farmers Mutual Aid Association, adopting a development model of unified procurement, unified technical training, and unified sales to push the beef cattle industry to a new peak.
▲ Zhang Lincong introduced the meat sheep breeding situation to the staff of the Fengdu County Agriculture and Rural Committee who came to investigate
Under his leadership, the cooperative has more than 6,000 beef cattle and more than 5,500 beef cattle slaughtered, with an output value of more than 11,000 yuan. Today, the cooperative has become a key and demonstration unit at the municipal level, driving more than 300 migrant workers inside and outside the county to return to their hometowns to start a business and engage in beef cattle breeding, and at the same time developing the breeding industry, it has opened up a new road to solve the problem of talent shortage for rural revitalization.
Love the homeland, return to the hometown to build dreams
After graduating from high school, Zhang Lincong chose to go out to learn cooking skills, and then opened a restaurant in Fujian, which not only realized his entrepreneurial dream, but also accumulated the first pot of gold in his life. However, whenever he learned about the poverty in his hometown, he could not calm down. He knew that the parents and villagers in his hometown were still struggling on the poverty line, which made him determined to return to his hometown to start a business and lead the villagers to get rich together.
Fengdu is a large agricultural county with a tradition of raising beef cattle. Zhang Linlian's hometown, Feixiandong Village in Baoluan Township, is particularly suitable for beef cattle breeding, and some farmers also raise some beef cattle freely. In 2008, the Fengdu County Party Committee and the county government issued policies to encourage farmers to raise cattle to increase their income and build a beef cattle capital. Hearing the news, Zhang Lincong thought that the time had come to return to his hometown to start a business, so he returned to his hometown without hesitation and decided to change his career to develop the beef cattle industry.
▲ Zhang Linlian is feeding the cows
Through the experience accumulated from watching TV and reading newspapers, he decided to change the traditional free-range beef cattle breeding model to a centralized fattening model. In 2009, he invested more than 100,000 yuan of savings in the catering industry into beef cattle breeding, transferred 15 acres of land to plant grass, built 300 square meters of cattle sheds, purchased 20 calves, and began his large-scale breeding road. The road to entrepreneurship has never been smooth sailing, and Zhang Lincong encountered many problems in the early days of entrepreneurship, such as feed, forage, epidemic and other problems. In 2013, his beef cattle contracted the disease, and in less than a month, eight cattle died. This accident made Zhang Lincong not only not make money, but lost a lot. At this time, he realized that large-scale farming is very different from traditional scattered farming, and that the experience of cattle breeding passed on by his father alone cannot meet the needs of large-scale farming.
Where you fall, you get up. Zhang Lincong has developed a character of not admitting defeat since he was a child, he was not discouraged and decided to start from scratch. Through reading books, going to Shandong, Jilin and other provincial cattle farms to inspect and study, consulting experts from Southwest University and other institutions of higher learning, and participating in high-quality farmer training courses organized by Fengdu County Agricultural and Guangzhou School and Chongqing Municipal Agricultural and Broadcasting School, Zhang Linling was eager to learn cattle raising technology. Through hard work, he mastered the techniques of cattle farm construction, disease prevention, rapid fattening, etc., and successfully obtained the qualification certificate of veterinarian. After solving the technical problems, he went to Hengdu Company and other leading beef cattle breeding enterprises at his own expense to learn the "Red Xiben" ternary hybrid and Qinchuan-Wagyu binary hybrid technology. "The new breed of 'Red Xiben' beef cattle, which has been improved by the crossbreeding of local cattle and Simmental, has thick limbs and mouths, fast growth and tender meat, which is welcomed by farmers and the market, and the breeding efficiency is much higher than that of local cattle. Zhang Lincong has a deep understanding of the application of agricultural technology in beef cattle breeding. In addition, Zhang Lincong also went out with professional brokers to learn calf purchase knowledge. Through active exploration, he found a new way of "self-breeding + purchased fattening" to maximize breeding profits. He gradually became a local "cattle breeder". Today, his breeding scale has grown from the initial 20 heads to more than 300 heads slaughtered annually, and the annual net income has reached more than 1.5 million yuan.
"As long as you can make money, you must seize the opportunity to become bigger and stronger. The new barn that my family is building will be put into use in September 2023 and is expected to produce more than 900 beef cattle a year. Zhang Lincong introduced. Today, he has not only become a well-known local cattle farmer, but also was rated as the first "Top Ten New Farmers" in Fengdu County.
Group development and broaden the road to common prosperity
Over the past ten years, Zhang Lincong has experienced ups and downs on the road of breeding beef cattle, but he has also gained rich experience. He is well aware that a lone farmer is like a lonely boat in the huge waves of the market, and the slightest carelessness can capsize. "I have received a lot of help on the road of cattle raising, so now, I also have the responsibility and obligation to help more people who have the dream of raising cattle. Zhang Lincong said emotionally. In order to reduce the cost of breeding, improve market competitiveness and increase income, he took the lead in organizing more than 10 cattle farmers to establish Feixiandong Beef Cattle Breeding Professional Cooperative in 2011 after careful consideration, and built a whole industrial chain of beef cattle breeding, fattening and sales in accordance with the "three unifications" model of unified procurement, unified technical training and unified sales, which solved many problems of cattle farmers and gave them a greater right to speak in the market.
▲ A corner of the cattle farm
The establishment of the cooperative has opened up a new situation for Zhang Linlian to develop the beef cattle industry. Relying on Hengdu's cow breeding plan, he not only found a stable feed supply channel, but also learned the knowledge of a variety of interest linkage mechanisms, which enabled leading enterprises, cooperatives, and farmers to develop together and jointly resist market risks. Today, the cooperative has more than 120 members, with an annual profit of more than 100,000 yuan per household, and has become a key cooperative and demonstration cooperative at the municipal level.
In 2022, Zhang Lincong took the lead in establishing the Baoluan Town New Farmers Mutual Aid Association to further expand the beef cattle industry. Now, Zhang Lincong's cattle farm slaughters more than 400 beef cattle every year, making a profit of more than 1 million yuan, which has played a leading role in demonstrating for the villagers.
He is well aware of the truth of "getting rich without forgetting the roots", and always cares about the villagers. In the process of developing the beef cattle industry, the "cooperative + farmer" model is adopted, which not only leads the surrounding villagers to develop the beef cattle industry, but also increases the income of farmers by purchasing corn, straw and pasture, and also provides 5 long-term jobs for poverty alleviation households. For example, Hu Chengxiu, a villager in Feixiandong Village, also breeds beef cattle, and the cows produce more than 10 calves every year, with an annual income of more than 200,000 yuan.
Zhang Lincong's spirit of cooperation and forward-looking vision have also brought good news to more people. He worked with COFCO, a Fortune 500 company, to solve the feed problem and provide a solid backing for the cooperative, surrounding cattle farmers and even cattle farmers outside the county.
Up to now, he has driven more than 120 migrant workers in the county and more than 200 migrant workers outside the county to return to their hometowns to start a business to engage in beef cattle breeding, and more than 200 households have been engaged in planting and sales industries related to beef cattle breeding, driving farmers to increase their annual income by more than 50,000 yuan, and growers to increase their annual income by more than 8,000 yuan. Among them, under his influence, 3 migrant workers will return to their hometowns to start businesses and develop the beef cattle industry in 2023.
Zhang Lincong believes that as a new farmer, we should look at agriculture from the perspective of development, continue to learn new technologies and new knowledge, let our beef cattle industry continue to develop on the road of agricultural and rural modernization, attract and drive more migrant workers to return to their hometowns to start businesses, and contribute to rural revitalization.
Farm Science & Technology (Issue 03, 2024)