What are the advantages of raising mink, foxes and raccoon dogs together?

Advantages of farming

2008-1-31 14:55:00 Source: rosenchung

Raoyang County in Hengshui, Hebei, is a major county for fur animal farming, with different breeds such as mink, fox and raccoon dog, but the most @#@3@#@ are the fox and the raccoon dog, because at the same price, they can always make 100 yuan more profit per pelt than others. More and more villagers in Hengshui are also farming foxes. Raoyang County is a major mink-farming county in the Hengshui area of Hebei, yet now besides mink, more and more foxes have been farmed in recent years, and the fox pelts that were originally low-priced now sell on the market for more than mink pelts. Farmer: "Mink pelt, this silver-gray one is priced a bit higher; a while ago they offered 280 yuan and I didn't sell." Reporter: "Why not sell?" Farmer: "I feel the price is still a bit low; I'm ready to sell it to him for 300 yuan, and that fox pelt sold for 600 yuan last time." One fox pelt sells for 600 yuan; after deducting farming costs, an ordinary farmer can make a net profit of more than 300 yuan per pelt, yet for the farmers of Raoyang County, they make more than 100 yuan more than other farmers. So at the same price, why do the farmers here make more than 100 yuan more? Special animal farming in Raoyang County has not been going on long. Zhang Tiemin of Wugong Village was the first in Raoyang to farm mink; more than ten years ago he started raising mink in his own backyard. Zhang Tiemin: "I used to raise this thing in the yard; at that time I raised few." Reporter: "How many did you raise in the yard at that time?" Zhang Tiemin: "In that yard, at the very beginning only about ten or so." Because few people farmed them, at that time mink pelts sold on the market for 400 to 500 yuan each. When Zhang Tiemin saw that mink farming was so profitable, he discussed it with his family and prepared to go big, yet after some calculating, Zhang Tiemin discovered that the small yard that had brought him hope had now also brought him disappointment. Zhang Tiemin: "Because the family yard is small, there's no place to raise them; stacked two or three layers, I couldn't raise many, just over 100." Watching a profitable business but unable to expand it, Zhang Tiemin had an unspeakable bitterness in his heart. Not only that, at the time many villagers who saw Zhang Tiemin making money from mink farming were eager to try, yet all had to give up because of space limitations. Zhang Tiemin: "At that time mink were relatively valuable; I wanted to raise more but couldn't, the family yard was small." So how could the farming scale be expanded, and how could all the villagers who wanted to farm mink get rich through farming? In 2003, Wugong Village decided to use the village's idle land to build farming communities. The establishment of the farming communities made it possible for farmers to realize their idea of expanding farming scale. Farmer: "There are more farmers in the village, and the scale has expanded, bigger than before. Before, if you wanted to raise them, you'd raise a few dozen, eighty or a hundred; now we raise several thousand, so the scale has expanded." Reporter: "Now the number of households farming has also increased, right?" Villagers' farming sheds. Farmer: "It has increased. Before, our village had a few dozen households; now we have about 300 households, much more than before, several times more." The experience of Wugong Village in establishing farming communities was promoted throughout Raoyang County. Now more than ten farming communities have been established in the county. Gao Dao's farm is in Xiaodi Village of Dongliman Township. At first he only raised more than 1,000 mink, and as the farming scale grew larger and larger, now the farm raises more than 10,000 mink every year. These idle mink live every day enjoying good food and drink. Gao Dao: "I feed duck racks, chicken racks, eggs, chicken eggs, the leftover eggs from hatching, that kind of thing." Farmer: "When it reaches the birthing period it even has to drink milk; its feed is quite precious, sometimes better than what people eat." Not only do they eat better than people, but mink also only eat fresh food, and they throw away the food they leave uneaten and cannot eat it for a second meal. Reporter: "Why can't it eat what it leaves?" Gao Dao: "What it leaves generally becomes moldy and spoiled, so it can't be fed anymore. Mink are quite delicate; they have poor disease resistance." Gao Dao used to raise few, so he didn't pay much attention to the feed the mink left over, but as the farming scale kept expanding, after a year Gao Dao discovered that the wasted feed was no small sum. Villager Gao Dao: "These more than 10,000 mink need 1 million yuan in feed costs. In summer, at this time, once it spoils it can't be fed, and the wasted feed amounts to 60,000 to 80,000 yuan." Seeing the large amount of mink feed wasted, Gao Dao felt an indescribable ache, yet because the market price of mink pelts had always been good and his annual profit was generally above 1 million yuan, Gao Dao could still bear it. However, what made Gao Dao somewhat unable to cope was that in 2005 the market price of mink pelts began to decline, and his profit decreased a lot accordingly. In the second half of 2005, Gao Dao discovered that fox pelt prices began to climb all the way, so Gao Dao decided to also introduce foxes for farming, so as to spread the risk brought by a single farming breed and the falling mink pelt prices. Reporter: "At the peak, how many foxes did you feed?" Gao Dao: "I think over 100, maybe over 200, in this one farm." Because foxes do not have very high feed requirements, and are larger in size with strong resistance, Gao Dao began trying to use the food left by the mink to feed the foxes. Gao Dao: "The leftovers, give them a warm-up, a disinfection, a sterilization, and then start feeding them." In addition to heating and disinfecting the feed left by the mink, after several months of experiments, Gao Dao mastered a whole set of methods for using the feed left by mink to farm foxes. Gao Dao: "The leftovers from feeding the mink, we don't let them go to waste; add some cornmeal and the like, some fishmeal and the like, mix it together and feed it to the foxes." Pelts. Because there is no need to buy the concentrated feed for raising foxes, Gao Dao's fox farming cost, compared with other farmers, saves more than 100 yuan per animal, and this is the key reason the local farmers make more than 100 yuan more than others. Now fox pelts sell on the market for more than mink, and Gao Dao not only effectively avoided the market risk brought by a single farming breed, but also recovered the 70,000 to 80,000 yuan that had previously been wasted for nothing. Gao Dao: "Done this way there's no waste; the things thrown away have been picked back up again." Reporter: "Do all the farmers now mix it this way?" Gao Dao: "Almost, more or less." Gao Dao's farming method has been recognized by many farmers. Zhang Shuguang also used Gao Dao's farming method to raise mink and foxes, yet the careful Zhang Shuguang discovered that foxes also leave food uneaten. Although each fox leaves little, if the farming volume is large, the waste is also considerable. Gao Dao: "I feed duck racks, chicken racks, eggs, chicken eggs, the leftover eggs from hatching, that kind of thing." Farmer: "When it reaches the birthing period it even has to drink milk; its feed is quite precious, sometimes better than what people eat." Not only do they eat better than people, but mink also only eat fresh food, and they throw away the food they leave uneaten and cannot eat it for a second meal. Reporter: "Why can't it eat what it leaves?" Gao Dao: "What it leaves generally becomes moldy and spoiled, so it can't be fed anymore. Mink are quite delicate; they have poor disease resistance." Gao Dao used to raise few, so he didn't pay much attention to the feed the mink left over, but as the farming scale kept expanding, after a year Gao Dao discovered that the wasted feed was no small sum. Villager Gao Dao: "These more than 10,000 mink need 1 million yuan in feed costs. In summer, at this time, once it spoils it can't be fed, and the wasted feed amounts to 60,000 to 80,000 yuan." Seeing the large amount of mink feed wasted, Gao Dao felt an indescribable ache, yet because the market price of mink pelts had always been good and his annual profit was generally above 1 million yuan, Gao Dao could still bear it. However, what made Gao Dao somewhat unable to cope was that in 2005 the market price of mink pelts began to decline, and his profit decreased a lot accordingly. In the second half of 2005, Gao Dao discovered that fox pelt prices began to climb all the way, so Gao Dao decided to also introduce foxes for farming, so as to spread the risk brought by a single farming breed and the falling mink pelt prices. Reporter: "At the peak, how many foxes did you feed?" Gao Dao: "I think over 100, maybe over 200, in this one farm." Because foxes do not have very high feed requirements, and are larger in size with strong resistance, Gao Dao began trying to use the food left by the mink to feed the foxes. Gao Dao: "The leftovers, give them a warm-up, a disinfection, a sterilization, and then start feeding them." In addition to heating and disinfecting the feed left by the mink, after several months of experiments, Gao Dao mastered a whole set of methods for using the feed left by mink to farm foxes. Gao Dao: "The leftovers from feeding the mink, we don't let them go to waste; add some cornmeal and the like, some fishmeal and the like, mix it together and feed it to the foxes." Pelts. Because there is no need to buy the concentrated feed for raising foxes, Gao Dao's fox farming cost, compared with other farmers, saves more than 100 yuan per animal, and this is the key reason the local farmers make more than 100 yuan more than others. Now fox pelts sell on the market for more than mink, and Gao Dao not only effectively avoided the market risk brought by a single farming breed, but also recovered the 70,000 to 80,000 yuan that had previously been wasted for nothing. Gao Dao: "Done this way there's no waste; the things thrown away have been picked back up again." Reporter: "Do all the farmers now mix it this way?" Gao Dao: "Almost, more or less." Gao Dao's farming method has been recognized by many farmers. Zhang Shuguang also used Gao Dao's farming method to raise mink and foxes, yet the careful Zhang Shuguang discovered that foxes also leave food uneaten. Although each fox leaves little, if the farming volume is large, the waste is also considerable.