GUIYANG, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- In Xinpu township of Guanling county, southwest China's Guizhou Province, the mountains are covered by green grass, standing in total contrast to its original bleak rocky landscape.

The county belongs to the rocky desertification karst areas, and the land is not arable for corn, rice, and fruit trees. But the hybrid giant Napier (HGN) grass is adaptable to rocky land conditions and has vigorous vegetative growth with low planting costs, which ensures a stable food supply to Guanling cattle, a fine yellow cattle breed in Guizhou.

Guanling has a long tradition of raising cattle. In 2016, the Guanling government decided to tap into the cattle industry and rolled out supportive policies on cattle raising, beef processing, sales, and branding.

Local residents have since been encouraged to grow grass and raise cattle. Hu Shengjiang, 47, was one of the Wolong villagers to follow the directions.

"I used to drive a coach to make a living. In 2016, I sold my coach and invested all that money in cattle raising," said Hu.

Hu took out a loan of over 3 million yuan (about 430,000 U.S. dollars) to raise 160 heads, earning himself 700,000 yuan a year.

He hired local villagers for his expanding breeding businesses and sent out over 60,000 yuan in salaries every year. He also set up a rural cooperative and offered breeding skills free of charge to help his fellow villagers to raise 500 heads of their own.

Hu planted 400 mu (about 26.6 hectares) of the HGN grass to feed cattle.

"We used excavators to level barren hills and slopes into terraces for grass growing and drove the cattle to designated areas for rotational grazing. In this way, we can not only use cow dung as fertilizer to cultivate high-quality grass but also greatly improve the breeding efficiency," said Xiao Ze, secretary of the political and legal affairs commission of Xinpu Party committee.

Since 2016, the government has invested more than 2.45 billion yuan in the cattle industry. A leading enterprise has been established to lead large-scale standardized farming, slaughtering, processing, and distribution.

Official data showed that Guanling has 155,200 heads, 151,000 mu of feeding grass, and 1,526 family farms with over five heads. Slaughterhouses in the county slaughtered more than 100,000 heads every year. More than 50,000 Guanling residents from 11,000 households have been engaged in the cattle industry, which has brought an additional 8,000 yuan to each household's annual income.