Lu Zigan gave up working and returned to his hometown to raise stone goats and become the "bellwether" of the villagers to become rich.

Lu Zigan takes good care of the stone goats.

In the sheep industry in Qiaotou Town, Huaiji County, Lu Zigan is famous, and the villagers who start a business with him all call him a "shepherd". After six years of raising stone goats, Lu Zigan not only became rich in his own family, but also led and helped more than a dozen villagers in the village to raise stone goats and help villagers earn money to support their families on the land of their hometown.

Go back to your hometown to start a business as a shepherd

In July 1998, 16-year-old Lu Zigan went home after graduating from junior high school, took the ploughs and harrows used by his ancestors, got up in the morning and felt the dark, went through the wind and rain, turned his back to the sky facing the loess, and ploughed and sowed seeds in his own few mu of responsible fields.

Although he works at sunrise and ends at sunset, due to the lack of production skills, Lu Zigan can only make ends meet over the course of a year. Life is tight, and he has never found a way to get rich. Tired and boring farm work makes Lu Zigan more awake, and the wonderful outside world is also calling for dreamers. In 2000, with a surge of drive and passion, Lu Zigan, together with young people of the same age in the village, went to work in clothing factories and hardware factories in Dongguan and other places to pursue the dream of getting rich. However, he only earned more than 1000 yuan after working hard for a month. After deducting rent, food and other expenses, there was little left, and the dream of going out to work to make a fortune also came to naught.

"if God closes one door, he will open another window for you." The setbacks and failures of farming, working and starting a business did not stop Lu Zigan's progress and entrepreneurial passion, but made him more determined and passionate.

After thinking over and over again, Lu Zigan, who went out to work and returned home, found that there were many business opportunities for local stone goats: the market demand for mutton goats was increasing day by day, while the local characteristic breeds-- stone goats were raised in small quantities and in short supply. Stone goat has the characteristics of fast growth, strong fecundity and disease resistance, as well as tender meat, fresh taste, light taste and so on. The local vast stone mountains and rich mountain grass resources can solve the problem of raising sheep venues and food. therefore, in Lu Zigan's view, raising stone goats must have a bright future.

In the early spring of 2010, he cobbled together more than 40,000 yuan from relatives and friends, bought 80 local stone goats, contracted nearly 200 mu of mountain areas to plant grass and build sheep houses, and started a fiery way of raising sheep and became a "shepherd."

"make sheep's money" in the cracks in the stone

At the beginning of raising sheep, Lu Zigan was a layman, and he also encountered difficulties such as lack of technology and lack of funds, but these "obstacles in the way" did not stop him.

In order to solve the problem of development funds, Lu Zigan borrowed money from relatives and friends and applied for loans from the government, and his wife also started to help build a sheep shed to save money.

Without technology and experience, Lu Zigan went to the bookstore to buy relevant books on raising sheep to learn, and modestly asked his peers for advice; while inviting technical personnel from county science and technology, animal husbandry and other departments for on-site guidance; at the same time, actively participate in training courses organized by counties and towns to learn from the experience. Once he had finished the work at hand, Lu Zigan seriously studied the feeding and management of stone goats and the techniques of disease prevention and control.

After years of study, groping and summing up, Lu Zigan has mastered a solid scientific ability to raise sheep. Now, by observing the sheep's eyes, physique, skin color, defecation and other factors, he can diagnose whether the sheep is sick or not; he can also determine the physical condition of the sheep by wheezing.

In the process of raising sheep, Lu Zigan, according to the fact that the stone goat is a kind of herbivorous livestock with a wide range of recipes, is lively, clean and dry. He built the sheep house on the high and dry hillside of the stone mountain to ensure that there is no stagnant water in the place where the sheep move, and the sheep house sits north to the south and can be exposed to the sun in winter.

During the day, Lu Zigan drove the sheep to the hillside for grazing exercise, let the sheep eat the grass on the cracks in the stone mountains, and regularly fed corn and salt water to the sheep in the evening, so that the sheep could return to the sheep house on their own in the evening. On rainy days, when sheep cannot go out to look for food, they cut grass and prepare food, mix corn stalks, soybean stalks, red vetch vines, sweet potato vines, peanut shells, etc., store and ferment, make "rations" that sheep like to eat, and properly feed some food. so the sheep were properly served by him.

In the development of large-scale sheep breeding, Lu Zigan pays attention to fine tube care and insists on putting disease prevention and control measures in the first place. Regardless of the severe cold and heat, he purposefully chooses vaccines for sheep and carries out regular vaccination. At the same time, the environment from the forage to the sheep house ensures that the feed and drinking water are clean, pollution-free and mildew-free, and there is a disinfection pool at the entrance and exit, regularly changing the cleaning solution and cleaning the sheepfold to disinfect it once a week. Today, the stone goats raised by Lu Zigan have fewer diseases, grow fast, and the reproduction rate is also greatly improved.

"it is necessary to adjust the flock structure in a timely manner, eliminate old, disabled, weak, and sick sheep, increase the proportion of breeding ewes, raise them carefully, give birth to lambs, survive, and prevent epidemic." Now, Lu Zigan is good at talking about raising sheep.

How big the heart is, how big the dream is. Through unremitting efforts and hard work, Lu Zigan has achieved fruitful results. At present, there are more than 800 sheep in stock, more than 400 sheep are often produced each year, and the annual income is more than 600000 yuan, thus embarking on the road of raising sheep to become rich. He built a new building and bought motorcycles, televisions and other household appliances.

"I am prepared to further expand the scale and strive to grow to more than 1000!" Lu Zigan said bravely.

Lead the villagers to a well-off society

Relying on his industrious hands and economic mind, Lu Zigan's life has gradually become rich, but he does not forget to help the villagers and friends around him, often communicate with them, and help them solve the problems of production and life; he will not hide when he learns the technology of raising sheep, actively and generously provide breeding methods for other farmers free of charge, impart experience and provide information, and "escort" for farmers.

"I am not afraid of others robbing business. If we have money, we will earn it together. Besides, if one person is rich or not, everyone will be rich." Lu Zigan said.

In 2014, Lu Zijia and Lu Yulan from the same village turned to Lu Zigan because of the funds for raising sheep, sheep and technical difficulties. After Lu Zigan learned about the situation, he immediately provided 20 young sheep and helped contact relevant departments with interest-free loans of 30,000 yuan respectively, which solved the practical problems faced by Lu Zijia and Lu Yulan in raising stone goats. Lu Zigan replied that the reason why he is willing to provide sheep breeding and solve technical and sales problems to the villagers is to help some poor villagers avoid the financial and technical risks of raising sheep and strive to get rid of poverty and become rich as soon as possible. "

According to incomplete statistics, under the influence and drive of Lu Zigan, more than 10 professional households in the village, such as Lu Yuemei, Chen Jierong, Kong Aiqing, and so on, have developed successively. Raising stone goats to make "sheep money" has become a good way for local villagers to start a business and get rich.