Malaysia Veterinary Forum (Archive)

Dr. TanDY

Hunting a big fortune from cattle dung

Date: 26 July 2006

By Lin Yingfang

"Cattle dung in other people's eyes means money in my eyes. If you are able to use your head, wealth is everywhere." This is what Wang Shouhong said on "The Second Annual Meeting of Common People on Exchanging Experiences of Making Fortune". Wang is a farmer in Linquan County of Fuyang City, Anhui Province, who only finished primary education, but who is able to make the impossible possible. He took the initiative in making a fortune, and now boasts a property of tens of million yuan. How did Wang Shouhong pave his way to wealth? He said: "one should use one's head when starting a new business; the economy should be developed in a way toward large scale, and environmental protection should not be ignored in the economic development."

Handling cattle dung becomes a problem

In 1996, Wang Shouhong bought four cattle with nearly 3,000 yuan. Later on, the number of cattle he raised became larger and larger. By the year 1998, he had raised more than 40 cattle. In order to save food, after repeated experiments he groped a method that raised cattle with lees and straw, that was to mix lees and straw for fermentation. Such feed was not only favored by cattle, but cut down cost. Raising one cattle can earn 1,500 yuan for Wang Shouhong. He and his wife gave their cattle farm a name as Dahongfa Cattle Farm.

In 1999, a businessman from Malaysia visited Wang's farm and said "OK" many times, ordering all the cattle he raised at a price that was even higher than the market price. Wang said: "OK means good, and I know that he was praising my cattle." However, Wang was beaten by the customer's requirement to export over 4000 yellow cattle a year. "My farm was a private one that I can't afford to sell so many cattle to him." said Wang. Moreover, other cattle in the village were incongruent in terms of quality, so the nearly got wealth was just slipped away.

In 1999, with the help of the local government, Changguan Town where Wang Shouhong lived established the yellow cattle association, and Wang was elected as the president to teach local people to raise cattle. Wang said: "I pass my way of raising cattle down to the farmers in the association. In the past, my cattle farm didn't form large scale; however now, we can afford 40,000 cattle, let alone 4,000." One question began to obsess Wang as the number of cattle increasing rapidly: what should be done when the more and more cattle dung caused environmental pollution?

Cattle dung can also be used to plant mushroom

Wang Shouhong was plagued by the environmental pollution caused by cattle dung.

In 2000, a farmer from Zhengzhou, Henan Province, came to Wang's home to buy cattle dung at the price of 0.2 yuan per kilogram. Wang couldn't believe his ears for it's the first time that he was asked to sell cattle dung. However, he still dried his cattle dung in the sun according to the customer's requirement. He dried altogether 50 tons of cattle dung in the whole summer, and sold them for 20,000 yuan, solving the problem of environmental pollution as well as earning money at the same time. Wang began to ponder what could cattle dung be used to do and why the farmer bought cattle dung.

After talking with the customer, he finally found out the answer: they used cattle dung to plant agaricus bisporus, which could be sold at eight yuan per kilogram. Wang thought now that others could plant mushroom with cattle dung, why shouldn't he have a try? He tried to plant agaricus bisporus in his field only with an area of 0.7 Mu, and to his surprise the mushroom yielded were sold for 4,000 yuan! Wang was agreeably surprised. After a year of grope, he mastered the technology that use cattle dung to plant agaricus bisporus.

In 2003, Wang rented an idle workshop and invested more than RMB300,000 yuan in building a 3000-square-meter agaricus bisporus planting base. In 2004, he sold agaricus bisporus of 80,000 kilograms, earning profits of more than RMB300,000 yuan. Gao Kui, vice secretary of CPC Linquan County Committee, said: "Linquan County yields 170,000 yellow cattle per year, and the annual production benefits will reach RMB1.2 billion if all cattle dung were utilized."

In 2005, Linquan County was awarded as "Good Agricultural Technology County in Anhui Province" and Wang Shouhong was named as "Hero of State Environmental Protection". In order to make more farmers command his technology, he also set up science and technology training class, promoting the technology of raising cattle and planting mushroom. He led farmers to visit his plantation and asked them to have a try personally. He said: "in the process of starting a new business, the most significant things are one's character and thought that one's heart should always think of other people."

Stepping into recycling wealth path

"A cattle farm can be an energy factory, a power plant. The waste in other people's eyes is treasure for me. Since cattle dung can be sold for money and can be used to plant mushroom, is cattle urine useful as well?"

Wang began to ponder over the question.

In 2005, an expert gave a lecture on "recycling economy", which inspired Wang greatly. He thought that he could use cattle urine to generate marsh gas and then use biogas residue as organic manure to plant crops. Yang Zhaohui, a marketing expert, gave such comment to Wang's experiences of initiative undertaking: "No matter industry or enterprises, they all spring from traditional agriculture, and the industrialization is the necessary way to develop agriculture. Wang Shouhong used lees and straw to raise cattle, cattle dung to plant mushroom, and cattle urine to generate marsh gas; such practices assure agriculture to step into a path of benign cycling."

Nowadays, Dahongfa Cattle Farm distributes its products all over the country, and their yellow cattle association has also been expanded to Inner Mongolia, Hainan, Yuannan and other provinces. From raising cattle to selling cattle dung, from selling cattle dung to planting mushroom, Wang now boasts a property of RMB16 million. However, he will not stop his steps. He said: "I'm not a man who is always contented. I will never hesitate to do anything I want to do. Lack of capital will not constitute a big problem for starting a new business, since rural areas are now places full of promise."