The rise in beef prices does not stimulate farming without policy support. Raising cattle is better than raising pigs.

On the morning of January 18, Boss Chen came to the administrative service center of Renhua County in Shaoguan City to go through the last procedure. "when it's done, you can get the industrial and commercial license."

Boss Chen has raised more than 170head of beef cattle, and if all of them are out of the fence, the market value is now nearly 6 million yuan. But it will take another year to really eat beef. In fact, Boss Chen used to know nothing about raising cattle and was insulated from agriculture and animal husbandry. At the beginning of last year, when he left his hometown of Huirenhua in Shenzhen to start his second business, he set his sights on the "Bull Devil King" who kept rising prices.

2013 is the 12th year in a row that beef prices across the country have risen. Since the beginning of last year, national beef prices have soared: from April to the end of 2012, national beef prices rose 35% from a year earlier. Even in Gansu and Henan, a major beef farming province, beef prices are up more than 30% from a year earlier. However, a survey by a reporter from Yangcheng Evening News found that beef prices continued to soar, but few cattle farmers responded. Among the beef cattle farmers in Guangdong, there are not many enterprises with a stock of more than 100, even less than a thousand, and the beef self-sufficiency rate is less than 40%. What is the difficulty of raising cattle?

The investment is large and the cost is high, but the benefit is not ideal

Raising cattle is much more tiring than running a factory.

"at the beginning of last year, the market price of scalper meat was only more than 20 yuan per jin, but now it has risen to 38 yuan per jin, and last year's National Day once rose to 42 yuan per jin." Boss Chen told reporters that he hopes that in a few years, the stock of his own beef cattle will reach 1000.

Under the leadership of Boss Chen, he drove out of Renhua County for about half an hour, and the reporter went to his cattle farm. The workers were crushing the grass that had just been cut from the field, and the whole barn was filled with the fragrance of grass. Boss Chen took reporters to inspect his "cattle regiment". "this is Limousin cow, this is Simmental cow."... " At the same time, he also affectionately patted the cow's head and rubbed its ears. Boss Chen told reporters that these shelf cattle (beef cattle over 12 months old) bought from Shandong are good European breeds and are much larger than local yellow cattle. "each head can grow to 1500-2000 jin."

Since the beginning of 2012, Boss Chen has invested 4 million yuan to build this cattle farm. "if you want to raise beef cattle on a large scale, the threshold for investment is quite high, and it is almost impossible for local farmers to invest!" Boss Chen got even with the reporter: "Shandong is the main producing area of shelf cattle in the country. I bought a shelf cow from Shandong for 10,000 yuan, and 170head is 1.7 million yuan." There are also fixed inputs for various factories. From last September to now, I am very lucky, the cattle are very healthy, but each of them has grown to 1200 jin, but it will take nearly a year to get out of the fence, all of which are pure investment. "

The upfront investment is high, and the cost of raising cattle is not low. The reporter learned that cattle basically only eat green grass, and one cow takes up the output of two or three mu of land, so cattle farms have to rely on large areas of pasture. When you have land, you have to find someone to farm it. Boss Chen said that in order to take care of these cattle, he hired 16 workers and a professional technician, and his monthly salary was about 30,000 yuan. With forage seeds, fertilizer and land rent included, the cost of one cow a year was 3000 yuan. This does not include unexpected expenses.

Boss Chen told reporters that from the shelf cow to the final out of the pen, a cow will take a year and a half to sell 3.7-38000 yuan per head, and it is good to make a net profit of 4000-5000 yuan per head. "so I intend to increase my income in three ways: first, after I am familiar with the techniques of raising cattle, I will buy calves to raise. One costs only 1400 to 1500 yuan, and I can raise a shelf cow in half a year, and the cost will be reduced by about 6000 yuan. Second, after learning to raise calves, buy breeding cattle and cows to give birth to calves, and save 1500 yuan. The third is to ask farmers to help me raise cattle for a year. According to the calculation that two people take care of four cows, I collect them. They can make a net profit of 10,000 yuan per head a year, and I can hire fewer employees. "

But on the whole, Boss Chen still sighed that it was too hard: "it's much harder to open a factory in Shenzhen than it was then!" Work starts at 7: 00 in the morning and ends at 8: 00 or 9: 00 in the evening. It's good to earn 500000 yuan a year. "

Another big cattle farmer in Renhua raises more than 300 beef cattle, including imported cattle and local yellow cattle. The boss, Mr. Zhong, told reporters that they raised cattle purely "by the way". "We mainly produce tea seed oil and have tens of thousands of mu of land in our hands. Forage grass can be planted between tea trees. We have an inherent advantage, and cow dung can also be used as fertilizer. Because several industries work together, the cost is not easy to calculate, we roughly estimate that a cow will only make a net profit of a thousand yuan. I haven't thought about raising cattle. "