Hoang Van Liem is taking care of the family’s cattle herd.

Born in 1986 into a poor farm family, Hoang Van Liem, like many other local young people, scrabbled to earn his living. As he matured, the Tay ethnic man continued to look for work everywhere.

Liem learned that doing hired work is very hard and barely give him enough money to survive, so he decided to return home and make his fortune in his native land.

He discovered the potential in Xuân Lai commune and other mountain communes for developing a forest economy in combination with cattle farming.

In 2009, Liem established the Thien An Cooperative, which specializes in raising and breeding cattle.

“Using available land reserves in my hometown and the knowledge and skills of my predecessors, I established a livestock cooperative with my friends. We now have 9 members,” said Liem.

During the startup period, Liem and others in the cooperative travelled across Vietnam’s northern provinces, buying lean buffaloes and cows and feeding them using the “isolation” method.

They strictly follow quarantine and vaccination procedures and give the cattle high protein feed that includes fermented grass, beer residue, and corn bran.

The cooperative uses a spraying system to bathe the cattle every 7 to 8 hours and select qualified breeders by artificial insemination to improve the quality of the breeding stock.

Each year Thien An Cooperative sells 1,500 beef and breeding cattle.

After three years, the Thien An Cooperative has gained a firm foothold in the market, raising 100 to 120 head of cattle each cycle.

Each year the coop sells 1,500 beef and breeding cattle to the local market and to markets in Tuyen Quang, Lao Cai, and Hanoi.

All members of the Thien An Cooperative enjoy a stable life with a yearly income of about 6,600 USD each.

Hoang Van Kiem, a member of the cooperative, said, “Since becoming a Thien An Cooperative member, my family has raised buffaloes with a stable output.”

Nguyen Van Thuong, Chairman of the Xuân Lai communal People’s Committee, says that in the past people used to graze cattle freely in the fields, which was not very profitable.

Hoang Van Liem has helped Cay Tre villagers and people in Xuan Lai commune to change their way of thinking.

“Other households in the commune have replicated Liem’s model. All the local farms have become breeding facilities. Their method of livestock farming has changed,” according to Thuong.

In addition to cattle farming, Liem’s family is growing 10ha of trees, mainly eucalyptus, and employing 10 workers with a monthly salary of 200 USD each. Liem’s family earns 88,500 USD per year from the mixed economic model.