22-year-old rural young man makes 800,000 yuan a year raising porcupines

A 22-year-old young man went far away to Zhejiang to work 6 years ago. After several years of hard work, he opened a hair salon and became a boss. Last year, he resolutely returned to his hometown and started a porcupine breeding business, becoming a "celebrity" praised by the local villagers.

　　

On January 5, the author went to Zhongdu Town, Pingshan County to interview Li Hengsong, and listened to him tell the story of his growth from a migrant worker to a hair salon owner, as well as his "porcupine dream" for the new year.

　　

Going out to open a hair salon, then pursuing the "porcupine dream"

　　

Li Hengsong is a villager of Group 5, Xinping Village, Zhongdu Town, Pingshan County. In 2002, at the age of 16, he went to Zhejiang to work with people from his village, then learned barbering skills and opened a hair salon. By 2006, this small barber shop had developed into a fashionable hair salon of a certain scale, "with more than 10 workers and a net profit of 40,000 to 50,000 yuan a year," he said.

　　

The hair salon business was booming, but Li Hengsong was not satisfied. By chance, he saw a money-making tip online: a farmer in Taoyuan County, Hunan Province, earned a net profit of 2 million yuan a year by developing porcupine breeding! Later, he also saw a feature program on CCTV about getting rich by raising porcupines. "Others can earn 2 million yuan a year, why can I only earn 40,000 to 50,000?" A bold idea flashed in Li Hengsong's mind - return to his hometown to raise porcupines.

　　

In April 2008, Li Hengsong and his girlfriend closed the hair salon and made a special trip to a porcupine breeding base in Taoyuan County, Hunan Province to inspect and learn. Seeing groups of porcupines with arrow-like black-and-white quills darting back and forth, and buyers from all over the country driving high-end cars to place orders, Li Hengsong became even more determined to return to his hometown to raise porcupines.

　　

Returning to his hometown, the pig pens were built bigger than his house

　　

Li Hengsong used his savings from working and borrowed tens of thousands of yuan from various sources, investing a total of more than 170,000 yuan to build pig pens, and introduced 12 breeding porcupines from Taoyuan County, Hunan Province, starting porcupine breeding. But at the beginning, Li Hengsong did not develop smoothly. To ease financial pressure, he and his girlfriend opened a hair salon on the street in Zhongdu Town, earning money to subsidize the breeding farm.

　　

In Xinping Village, many villagers used their savings from working elsewhere to build beautiful buildings. But the author saw at Li Hengsong's home that his family still lived in a low house made of rammed earth walls. To the right of the house, a porcupine breeding base covering more than 120 sq m had begun to take shape. In 3 neat rows of pens, each pen held 2 to 4 porcupines. "Through careful breeding, the 12 breeding porcupines I bought back from Hunan have now grown to 44," Li Hengsong said.

　　

Looking to the future, making 800,000 yuan a year is no problem

　　

Although Li Hengsong is not yet profitable, he is full of confidence in the future: "Porcupine quills, stomach, liver, and gallbladder are all treasures. Among them, the quills can be used as medicine and can also be processed into handicrafts, each selling for 0.8 to 1.2 yuan; after extraction, the stomach can be made into a good medicine for treating stomach ailments. On the market, the price of porcupine stomach is 100 yuan each; the current market price of commercial porcupines is about 160 yuan per kg, and each porcupine can grow to about 30 to 50 jin. A conservative estimate puts the price of one porcupine at around 2,500 yuan."

　　

At present, the first batch of porcupines raised by Li Hengsong can already be sold as commercial pigs, and he receives several calls every day for orders and inquiries. However, he does not plan to sell commercial porcupines now. Instead, he plans to keep a large number of breeding porcupines. "It is expected that in 5 years, my farm will have about 300 breeding porcupines and can produce more than 700 commercial pigs each year," Li Hengsong told the author. "As long as I find one hotel or restaurant in Chengdu or Chongqing and supply one porcupine a day, 360 a year, my income will be considerable." According to his budget, by then the annual profit can conservatively reach more than 800,000 yuan.

　　

Extended reading

　　

According to Li Hengsong, the feeding cost of porcupines is not high. Porcupines have strong disease resistance. During the feeding process, as long as the feed is properly controlled, they generally do not get sick. The main food of porcupines is grain. Corn, pumpkin, carrots, grass roots, and tree bark are all foods porcupines like. In summer, one porcupine only needs to consume about 5 liang of grain per day, and in winter it consumes at most about 7 liang per day.