At present, priority should be given to urgently addressing the following key issues: 1. Accelerate livestock breeding and ( ) pregnancy maintenance. (2) Address the feed issue, with particular emphasis on resolving the problem of coarse and concentrated feed for pigs. (3) Tackle disease prevention and control, preventing the spread of epidemics and immediately launching a disease-prevention campaign. ( ) Carry out extensive reforms of farming tools to improve labor productivity and livestock-rearing quotas. ( ) Strengthen the operation and management of collective livestock-raising efforts, properly organizing and developing livestock farms. (6) Enhance basic infrastructure in livestock-raising areas. (7) Intensify leadership over livestock production and launch mass movements. It is essential to place political leadership first, ensuring both dedicated leadership and specialized institutions and teams, so as to form a powerful livestock-production front, widely mobilize the masses, and achieve a great leap forward in animal husbandry.

--- Notes

Comments on the Issuance of Materials Regarding Harbin’s Completion of Two Automated Pig-Farming Lines (March 25, 1960) To be circulated among all comrades. These materials [1] are very good. Provinces, municipalities, and regions may send delegations to Harbin for observation and study; upon their return, they should implement similar measures following this model. Mao Zedong Date According to the manuscript. Notes [1] Refers to the document “Harbin Has Completed Two Automated Pig-Farming Lines,” submitted on March 25, 1960, by Li Xiannian, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and Vice Premier of the State Council. It was published in Issue No. 3011 of Xinhua News Agency’s “Internal Reference” compiled on March 23. The document states that the experimental farm of the Northeast Agricultural College in Harbin and the Xiangfang People’s Commune in the suburban district have each built an automated pig-farming line, allowing a single worker to manage over 2,000 and 3,000 pigs respectively, thereby significantly boosting labor productivity. The automated line at the Northeast Agricultural College consists of three sections: a feed-processing room, a nursery and sow feeding station, and a finishing-pig house, all operated by electric power. The automated line at the Xiangfang People’s Commune comprises feed grinding, steaming, and feeding mechanisms. Neither of these lines has a complicated structure; the one at the Xiangfang Commune is particularly simple, with much of the equipment made of wood. Any large-scale state-owned agricultural and pastoral farms or people’s communes with access to electricity can adopt them in their entirety. Places with less favorable conditions may implement only certain components.


Comments on the Need to Print Text Larger in Documents Forwarded by the Central Committee [1] (March 29, 1960) Comrades Peng Zhen and Yang Shangkun [2]: In some central documents, the typeface is too small, making them very inconvenient to read and possibly giving readers the impression that the documents are not very important. In fact, documents such as the Party Group of the State Economic Commission’s Summary of Work for the Forty-Day Period from January 1 to February 10 [3], the Party Group of the Ministry of Public Health’s Summary of the Field Meeting in Jishan County, Shanxi Province [4], and this very document [ ], are all highly important and should be printed with larger type, as is customary for most central documents. Please consider accordingly. Mao Zedong March 29 Based on the manuscript. Notes [ ] This is a comment written by Mao Zedong on a CPC Central Committee document dated March 21, 1960, which forwarded the Minutes of the National Livestock Secretaries’ Conference. [2] Peng Zhen was then a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee. Yang Shangkun was at that time an alternate member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee. [3] Refers to the outline of an oral report submitted by the Party Group of the State Economic Commission to the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on February 13, 1960, concerning industrial and transportation production during January and early February. See note [1] on page of this volume.


[4] Refers to the report forwarded by the CPC Central Committee from the Party Group of the Ministry of Public Health, dated December 16, 1959, on the national rural health work conference held in Jishan County, Shanxi Province. See note [2] on pages 82–8 of this volume. [ ] Refers to the Minutes of the National Livestock Secretaries’ Conference, forwarded by the CPC Central Committee on March 18, 1960, after being reported to Mao Zedong and approved by the Central Committee. The minutes state that the National Livestock Secretaries’ Conference, held from March 7 to 15, analyzed the current situation of animal husbandry and discussed policies, tasks, and specific measures for its future development. The main points were as follows: (1) Over the past two years, agriculture has experienced successive great leaps forward, and animal husbandry has also developed; however, nationwide, a great leap in animal husbandry has yet to be achieved. Since the Lushan Conference, Party committees at all levels have greatly strengthened their leadership over animal husbandry, establishing a well-organized front with clear leadership, institutions, and personnel. The interdependence between animal husbandry and agriculture has become increasingly understood by cadres and the general public, and enthusiasm for developing animal husbandry has reached unprecedented levels. All of this has laid a solid political, ideological, and organizational foundation for a major advance in animal husbandry. (2) The guiding principle for developing animal husbandry is to prioritize pigs while giving equal importance to cattle and horses, pursuing comprehensive and rapid growth in animal husbandry—raising more livestock, producing more fertilizer, and increasing grain yields to support the high-speed development of agriculture. We must dialectically understand the mutual dependence between pig farming and increased grain production, as well as between crop cultivation and animal husbandry, and follow a path of parallel development of both sectors. (3) A great leap in animal husbandry must be realized in 1960. The conference set the following targets: annual pig production should reach 500 million head, with year-end herd size doubling compared with 1959; the herds of large livestock should increase by 10 percent net, sheep by 26 percent net, poultry by 100 percent, and rabbits by 200 percent. (4) Several policy issues related to the development of animal husbandry were addressed. (a) Pig farming will continue to follow the policy of “public raising as the mainstay, private raising as a supplement,” adopting a dual-track approach. (b) Breeding stock forms the basis for the expanded reproduction of livestock and must be firmly protected. (c) Appropriate rewards will be given to individuals and units that have made outstanding achievements in breeding livestock. (d) The culling and slaughter of working animals should be strictly controlled, with clearly defined optimal and economical slaughter ages established. (e) Price policy is one tool for promoting the development of animal husbandry, but a major leap in this sector ultimately depends on political leadership and planned guidance. (5) Several concrete measures were proposed for developing animal husbandry. The fundamental measures encompass eight aspects: feed, water, breeding, seed, protection, management, housing, and labor.