On October 21, at Yongxing Ecological Farm (owned by Mr. Yin Chunyun) of Hejiaping Town, Changyang Tujia Autonomous County, the villagers were busy helping him with pasture leveling and sheep houses repair. While working they said jokingly, "Yin Chunyun, konjac giant will become a sheep giant." What’s up?

　　Here comes the answer: konjac grower Yin Chunyun plans to sell 1,000 mutton sheep next year, so he is extremely busy sowing grass seeds and constructing standardized sheep yards. He said, "The county issued the first county level grass seeding & sheep breeding development plan in Hubei Province in order to achieve 1,000,000 mutton sheep with high-quality in 3-5 years, hoping to create a comprehensive value of 1.5 billion RMB ($245,230,000). It is indeed a good opportunity for the farmers to get rich!

　　This plan marks the official start of raising one million mutton sheep in Changyang County. Li Jing, Director of the Changyang County Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau, introduced that the county’s capacity of breeding mutton sheep is expected to reach 650,000 in 2014, with the value of about 800 million RMB ($130,787,300), which will make it rank first in Hubei Province. After nearly 20 years of breeding, the hybrid mutton sheep of local goats from Changyang County and South Africa’s “Boer Goat” are now stable and excellent. Meanwhile, Chang Yang has a natural grassy hill of 1.63 million mu (1087 square kilometers) and it is also the center of “Yichang White Goat”.

　　In August, Changyang was honored as an advanced county of mutton sheep raising in Hubei. Only two counties in the province were awarded. Li Jing said, this means the first step of Changyang “Three-step Strategy” has successfully completed. The next step is to turn Changyang into an animal husbandry and goat production-oriented county, with its ultimate aim of being one of the important mutton sheep raising counties in China.

　　In the next five years, the county will transform from livestock industry shift small-scale farming economy to industrial economy, from the decentralized management to scale of operation, and from traditional breeding to scientific breeding. To achieve these three changes, the county will build up a standard based on “2361” model, which means farmers will construct 2 standardized animal yards, plant 30 acres of artificial grass and raise 60 breeding ewes, ideally 100 mutton sheep can be sold with possible income of 100,000 RMB (about $16,350) and 1000 or more new core model households to be set up during this period.

　　Currently, Changyang is trying to raise guaranteed funds, planning to implement some preferential policies such as subsidized loans and bring in leading enterprises. Besides, the county has already set up a Modern Grassland Animal Husbandry Development Association, with more than 100 members and a platform has been established for exchanges and cooperation of farmers. Standardized waste treatment facilities have been installed in each animal yard to protect the ecological environment. Yang Chenlin, very successful in breed aquatics in Langping Town, said that sheep droppings can be sold to Huoshaoping vegetable base for 700 RMB (about $114) per ton as farmyard manure. (Reporter: Gao Wei; Correspondent: Zhou Rui)