Reducing the Proportion of Corn in Feed Helps Break Free from the Vicious Cycle of Selling Low and Buying High
“In the past, pig farming sometimes yielded zero profit; now things are better - using straw instead of corn as feed can increase income by 200 yuan per pig raised.” These words from Liu Bin, a farmer in Kalun Village, Xingyuan Township, Songyuan Economic and Technological Development Zone, capture the encouraging changes in the village's pig farming industry.
In earlier years, the pork market fluctuated greatly, and most pig farmers in Kalun Village could not keep pace with market changes. When pork prices fell sharply, they sold piglets at low prices; when they found pork prices rising sharply, they bought piglets at high prices; by the time the pigs were fattened and ready for market, pork prices had fallen again. This pattern of selling low and buying high severely affected pig farming profitability and farmers' enthusiasm for raising pigs.
Faced with this problem, Zheng Guibin, head of the Kalun Village Pig Farming Professional Cooperative, first tried using straw instead of corn as feed at his own pig farm. In the past, corn accounted for 80% of the feed; now corn has been reduced to 40%, with another 40% replaced by straw. Experimental results proved that feeding costs came down without affecting the pigs' growth and fattening. Under current market conditions, each pig sent to market brings in about 200 yuan more income; even calculated at the lowest pork prices of the past, it would not result in zero profit.
The cost-reducing feeding method was extended to every farming household in the Kalun Village Pig Farming Professional Cooperative, and it quickly reversed the village's unfavorable situation in pig farming. Farmers who had given up pig farming because of zero profit started raising pigs again. Not long ago, while receiving visitors from other places, Zheng Guibin said: “Now it's as if I'm feeding the pigs grass. After the straw is crushed and fermented with a biological fermentation agent, it replaces grain, turns into pork, and brings back cash.”