Stone Sheep Agricultural Science and Technology Group: Technical Director Meets High School Patent Inventor "Crash"

This article is authorized by "China Commercial"

Author: Fang Bin

Edit: Jiang Xi-yun

Shaanxi Stone Sheep Agricultural Science and Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Stone Sheep) is a comprehensive agricultural chain company that integrates feed production, breeding, feeding, and meat products sales. Its main business includes research and development, production, and sale of feed, breeding and sale of pigs, and sales of pork fresh products.

In 2020, Stone Sheep applied for a deep-level listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, but withdrew two years later. In 2024, Stone Sheep filed an application with the Northbound Interchange, which is currently undergoing review.

The company's internal control management needs to be improved

Upon opening Stone Sheep's official website, the homepage displays two prominent slogans: "Stone Sheep Anxiang Meat" and "Only Selling Pigs We Raise Ourselves". Except for the website, this slogan is also printed on Stone Sheep's product packaging, special transportation vehicles, and other materials, shaping a reliable image from farm to table.

(Pictures taken from Stone Sheep's official website)

Stone Sheep believes that compared to the single self-raising model, the mixed model reduces asset burdens. Under this mode, the company and cooperating breeding households are in a processing relationship. Stone Sheep provides piglets, feed, vaccines, and veterinary medicines to cooperative breeding households and settles accounts according to their production results.

During the reporting period, Stone Sheep settled fees with 73-174 cooperative breeding households, including some company employees and relatives who are also cooperative breeding households. The settlement amounts were RMB 5,601.92 million, 10,760.37 million, 16,651.92 million, and 7,587.66 million.

Apart from this, Stone Sheep's labor disputes with employees have also raised concerns about the company's internal governance situation.

The controller of Stone Sheep is Wei Chun-cheng. According to the prospectus, Wei Chun-cheng directly holds 30.64% of the company's shares and controls 15.72% of the voting rights through Shaanxi Stone Sheep Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Stone Sheep Group), and through a consistent action person holding 11.77% of the shares.

In 2020, the Judgment Online website published a labor dispute judgment involving Stone Sheep's wholly-owned subsidiary, Shaanxi Jinghe Stone Sheep Feed Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jinghe Stone Sheep). The plaintiff was Yang et al., who claimed that they were employed by four related companies from 2001 to 2018 and then dismissed without compensation during their leave of absence.

(Pictures taken from Xi'an Agricultural University's website)

Notably, Shaanxi Stone Sheep has two ongoing effective patent applications (one on a feed formula for pigs without adding external micronutrients, CN201911342506.X, and the other on PiT-1 single-chain antibody, CN201910853617.0) invented by Yang Xiaojun, Zhang Wenxue, and others.

These two patents were applied for in September and December 2019, respectively, coinciding with Yang Xiaojun's tenure at Stone Sheep, when Zhang Wenxue served as the company's technical director and supervisor. The patent contents all involve optimizing feed formula, promoting animal intestinal absorption of nutrients, which is consistent with Stone Sheep's official website describing its animal nutrition research center.