A pig-farming woman of ability fulfills her brand dream, leading her rural neighbors to wealth together
On March 23, when the reporter arrived at the pig farm of Wang Guihua, a pig-farming woman of ability in Tunpan Township, Jingxi City, she was busy cleaning the pig pens. Although she had hired two workers for the farm, she still did many things herself - cleaning the pens, feeding the pigs, and even giving injections to sick pigs - nothing like a delicate woman.
Returning home to start a business and embarking on the path of pig farming
After the Spring Festival in 2012, Wang Guihua, who had worked in Guangdong for many years, decided to stay in her hometown and start her own business. In the second half of 2012, pork prices rose, and Wang Guihua, who was optimistic about the pork market, had the idea of getting rich by raising pigs. Why choose pig farming? Wang Guihua's reason was simple: having grown up in the countryside, her family raised a few piglets every year, and in her words, she had been immersed in pig farming since childhood. After surveying the market, she found that there were relatively few large-scale pig farms in Jingxi. And so, Wang Guihua renovated the old house in her hometown, used 50,000 yuan of savings from years of work to buy 100 piglets, and began her path to wealth through pig farming. Raising 100 piglets right at the start of her business, Wang Guihua's decision was not initially accepted by her family. After all, with pig farming on such a large scale, how to raise them, how to manage them, and how to prevent and treat pig diseases? Wang Guihua was a "layman" in these respects.
"Actually, for pig farmers, you can roughly understand how much profit one pig brings. If you don't raise more, what you can earn is actually very little," Wang Guihua said. In her view, since she had chosen to return home to start a business, she had to take the plunge. Wang Guihua's decisiveness earned her the first pot of gold - a net income of more than 100,000 yuan.
In 2013, after seeing the returns, Wang Guihua decided to expand the scale. She rented more than 4 mu of land near Tunpan Township and bought reserve young sows to raise and breed. A breeding base plus a farming base - this was Wang Guihua's original plan. "When there are no finished pigs ready for market, there can be piglets to sell, so there can be income every month," Wang Guihua said.
But Wang Guihua's entrepreneurial path in pig farming was not all smooth sailing. Just as she had expanded the scale of her pig farm, pork prices began to fall all the way down. In 2014, the pig price once fell to 4 yuan/jin. That year her pig farm lost nearly 300,000 yuan, and many small-scale farmers in Jingxi City were also eliminated in this market fluctuation.
Having just started her business and suffering such a heavy blow, Wang Guihua felt somewhat discouraged, but she never thought of giving up. "When pig prices fall, it means the next peak in pig prices is coming soon," Wang Guihua said. "The lower pig prices fall, the greater the room for a rebound." Sure enough, starting at the end of 2015, pig prices began to rise, and by 2016 they had risen to 10 yuan/jin. That year Wang Guihua made a fortune. Amid her joy, however, she had a new confusion. The "pig cycle" has a huge impact on farmers, and if this pattern cannot be grasped, the risk of profit and loss is too great. Live pigs, like other commodities, will certainly see prices rise when supply falls short of demand. "There is also a small price peak within a year," Wang Guihua said of her small "pig cycle." "A pig needs to be raised for 5 to 6 months. If you replenish the herd about 6 months before this price peak, they will be just right for market during the price peak, and naturally they will sell at a good price."
Today, Wang Guihua's pig farm has already reached a small scale, with more than 500 finished pigs on hand and 80 sows. In 2016, her pig farm had a net income of nearly 400,000 yuan.
Leading rural neighbors to wealth together
After seeing the returns from her own pig farming, Wang Guihua also encouraged the surrounding villagers to join the ranks of pig farming and embark on the road to common prosperity.
Sister Li of Tunpan Street was the first farmer Wang Guihua encouraged to raise pigs. Because they were from the same hometown, Sister Li often went to Wang Guihua's pig farm to chat with her. In their chats, Wang Guihua always talked about her own trade, speaking of her recipe for getting rich by raising pigs. And so, Sister Li, who originally had little interest in pig farming, was influenced by her words and example and also developed the idea of raising pigs.
"Pig prices soar and plunge. What if I lose money? What then?" At first, the hesitant Sister Li voiced her concern. Wang Guihua immediately promised Sister Li that she could first take piglets from her pig farm, and when the finished pigs were ready for market, she would sell them uniformly, and Sister Li could pay back the money for the piglets after she had income. Only then did Sister Li feel reassured. She took 10 piglets and began her path of pig farming, and her first batch of pigs brought 20,000 yuan in income when sold. Today, Sister Li's small pig farm has 20 pigs on hand, and whenever the finished pigs are about to be marketed, pig traders come to her door to buy them, so sales are no longer a problem.
Driven by Wang Guihua, 20 poor households in Tunpan Township have now joined the ranks of pig farming. "These farmers all get piglets from me on credit first, and pay me back after the pigs are sold or when they have spare money on hand," Wang Guihua said.
Seeing more and more villagers join the ranks of pig farming, Wang Guihua had a new idea - to establish a cooperative, develop together as a group, operate jointly, and take the path of brand-based development. "The materials for applying to establish the cooperative have already been submitted and are still under review," Wang Guihua said. After approval, she hopes to bring together farmers from the whole township, unify the pig breed, unify the feed, unify the raising methods, and unify the brand.
"If you want to build a brand, the pork quality must be good," Wang Guihua told the reporter. When she was little, the piglets raised at home were fed sweet potato vines and corn, with no feed additives, and the meat quality was indeed very good, so she hopes to return to the original way of farming to ensure the pork quality.