Wild Boars Run Wild, Leading Villagers onto the Road to Prosperity

"Usually, I let the wild boars out onto the mountain to 'run wild' at first light. You've come too late to see it now." On May 13, on Taiping Mountain in Hutu Hamlet, Mahao Village, Guzhang Town, Xilin County, Su Xiang said this while feeding his wild boars.

Su Xiang's breeding site sits halfway up the mountain. No village is visible from here, only layer upon layer of rolling mountain ridges. The mountain is lush with trees, mist and clouds coil through the valleys, the air is fresh, and below the mountain gullies crisscross with murmuring streams, forming a beautiful ecological scene like an ink-wash painting.

Su Xiang scattered corn kernels on the ground, and his wife immediately opened the pigpen gate. More than 100 wild boars frolicked while scrambling for the corn. The wild boars are fierce and look somewhat frightening. Su Xiang said: "The mountain is their real paradise. After eating some corn, the wild boars run up the mountain to find food. Wild grasses, wild fruits and tuber plants are all their delicacies." Before long, having finished the corn, the wild boars vanished into the deep mountain forest without any need for their owner to drive them.

When it comes to raising wild boars, Su Xiang and his wife are full of pride.

Su Xiang was originally a forest ranger at the Taiping Mountain forest protection station in Mahao Village. During that time, he and his wife raised sows and meat pigs freely at the station. Later, because the meat pig market was sluggish, he once thought about giving up.

"Once, a sow gave birth to a litter of piglets, some with gray-black and reddish-brown coats. I thought there might be something promising here." Su Xiang explained that these were certainly the offspring of domesticated sows and wild boars, so he tried raising second-generation wild boars to look for a money-making opportunity.

Starting in 2000, Su Xiang drove all his sows into the mountain forest to breed with wild boars. At the same time, he also selected and bred second-generation wild sows, gradually expanding his breeding scale. Today, he can send more than 100 wild boars to market each year. "The second-generation wild boars are all free-range. They only grow to just over 70 kg in a year, and they are highly favored by customers. They are also unaffected by market fluctuations. Live pigs can sell for 60 yuan per kg." Su Xiang explained that besides customers in his own county, customers from Longlin, Baise, Nanning and other places have been calling to place orders.

"I now have more than 30 sows. This year's wild boar piglets will all be kept for my own breeding, and I expect to expand to 300-500 head." Su Xiang's wife, who was cleaning up pig manure, chimed in, her face full of excitement and pride.

Imitating wild conditions to raise wild boars let Su Xiang taste the sweetness of "living off the mountain," while raising goats deep in the mountains made his life even more flavorful.

Su Xiang's goat farm was built by the Lengshui Gully at the foot of Taiping Mountain. Although it and the pig farm echo each other from afar and can see each other, walking down there requires a detour of more than 1 km.

After the wild boars went up the mountain, Su Xiang and his wife rode motorcycles to the goat farm. As soon as he blew a whistle, flocks of goats came crowding over with a rush, scrambling for the salt the owner scattered. After the goats drank the salt water, Su Xiang cracked his whip and drove them up the mountain. He explained that with the help of the local government, his farm currently has more than 600 goats on hand.

After his business developed, Su Xiang also thought of his neighbors. In 2015, he registered "Xilin County Xiangyun Goat Breeding Farmers' Professional Cooperative" with 1.2 million yuan, creating a foster-raising model for people in difficulty and opening a path to prosperity for his fellow villagers. Under his leadership, the number of poor farming households in the village cooperating with him in raising wild boars and goats has reached 11, and each household's annual income is now basically enough to achieve the goal of shaking off poverty.