T27 - Learn from Dazhai in Animal Husbandry and Build New Pastoral Area

Animal husbandry requires vast grassland.  China's grassland mainly distributed in the provinces of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu and Tibet.  At the founding of the Peoples' Republic of China, animal husbandry was still very much under-developed and primitivistic.  After the implementation of scientific breed selection, breeding, management and other technique, animal husbandry developed in leaps and bounds.

In 1975, the slogan building Daizhai-type counties through the nation was proposed in the national congress of "Learning from Dazhai in Agriculture".  To commemorate and showcase the development in animal husbandry, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of PRC released a set of three stamps on June 30, 1978.

(3-1) 8 fen, Building artificial pastures on a large scale  大搞草库伦建设
(3-2) 8 fen, Raising livestock scientifically  科学养畜
(3-3) 8 fen, Mechanization in animal husbandry  牧业机械化

(3-1)【Building artificial pastures on a large scale】Grass Cullen (草库伦) is a form of pasture fence or enclosed grassland.  "草库伦" is Mongolian, meaning "grass circle."  Enclosed pasture lands are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, etc.   The stamp depicted a Grass Cullen in Inner Mongolia.  Near the end of cultural revolutionary era, the "gang of four" came out with some rubbish simplification of the chinese characters, which were removed from use nowadays.  In this stamp, there is one of such word.  The character "寨" in the slogan on the red flag "牧业学大寨" ("Learning from Dazhai in Animal Husbandry") was a rubbish simplified character.

(3-2)【Raising livestock scientifically】The stamp depicted a scene at Xinjiang, with high mountains, forest, flowing river, electricity transmission tower in the background; and flock of sheeps in the foreground.  The stamp showed Uighurs and Kazakh people selecting livestock for scientific breeding to improve the breed.

(3-3)【Mechanization in animal husbandary】The stamp depicted a scene at Tibet, with undulating mountains and vast pasture lands in the background.  The stamp showed mechanization that are being used there.

T27 – Learn from Dazhai in Animal Husbandry and Build New Pastoral Area              牧业学大寨，建设新牧区 Issue Date: 1978.6.30
Serial Number:	T27
Scott Number:	1412-1414
Michel Number:	1422-1424
Number of stamps in Set:	3
Denomination:	8 fen for stamp 1, 2, 3
Quantity of Issue:	12,000,000 for stamp 1, 2, 3
Perforation:	P11½
Sheet Composition:	40 (10 X 4) for stamp 1, 2, 3
Size of stamps:	31 X 52 mm for stamp 1, 2, 3
Designer:	Cheng Chuanli 程传理
Printing Process:	Photogravure
Printing House:	Beijing Postage Stamp Printing Works