Increased Income Leads to a Better Life

By Heifer China

October 3, 2019

Last Updated: December 31, 2012

With the funding provided by Heifer, Tuerdi — who with his family has a small farm in Yarkant Village, Xinjiang, China — had bought a cow of a fine breed, and with his painstaking care it had been raised into a rather large animal. However, Tuerdi was in a great anxiety, for the cow had never been in heat during the past several months. With the help from the Heifer project community facilitator, Tuerdi got in contact with the local animal husbandry bureau. After examining the cow, the vet told Tuerdi that the obesity of the cow may have prevented her from being in heat. He advised Tuerdi to transfer the cow to a more spacious and cooler place where the cow would be able to move around for some exercises. Following this advice, the cow was really in heat after a while. Tuerdi was so excited that he could not wait to phone the veterinarian to mate the cow. Now that one month has passed, Tuerdi is waiting for the miracle with high expectations.

The the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Tuerdi and his wife fasted in accordance with the Uighur's custom. For their children's health, they bought five kilograms of meat and slaughtered three chickens and three ducks the family had raised. All of these foods were enough for the children. In addition, the four Bada wood trees and an acre of walnuts (of high quality through grafting) began to bear fruits, resulting in a total of 15 kg of Bada wood and 5 kg of walnuts. Although the gains are not very much, Tuerdi is very pleased to see that their work is finally paying off, and he says he will save these fruits for his family instead of selling them.

Tuerdi is also looking for additional ways to increase his income. Soon, his one acre of corn will be harvested. He hopes to use the corn stalks as forage. And he will grasp another chance to realize another plan: the season of cotton harvest season in South Xinjiang is coming soon, and many Shache farmers would earn money through picking cotton in other places. Because there will be no one left at home, they will sell all their sheep. The price will fall and Tuerdi plans to buy the sheep to increase his flock from 10 to 20. After a while, when price of these sheep is better, he will sell them all to earn some money. He believes that through his effort, his life will be much better in the near future.

Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that follows the progress of specific families, starting at the beginning of their work with Heifer. You can read previous posts about Tuerdi and his family here.