Raising Pigs in the Forest to Get Rich Together: A Short Account of Song Tingpin's Return Home to Start a Business
Song Tingpin inspects the growth of the pigs at the farm.
Tengdao Village in Houchang Town is a remote mountain village under the jurisdiction of Ziyun Autonomous County. In a small mountain hollow in the village, there is a forest-based pig farm. The farm was jointly built by 9 farming households. In the course of returning home to start a business, Song Tingpin found the most solid foothold for his development and became the leader in developing forest-based pig farming in the village.
Returning Home to Start a Business Meets with Setbacks
Song Tingpin was born into a poor family. To ease the family burden, he went out to work before finishing junior high school. After many years of hard work, he earned some money and the family's economic situation improved somewhat. Because of his low level of education, Song Tingpin mostly did manual labor jobs while working away from home, and at the age of 30 he developed gout. Unable to do heavy physical work, he had no choice but to return home to find another way out and make new plans.
After returning home, Song Tingpin tried every means of making a living he could think of. He once focused his energy on growing bamboo fungus. However, bamboo fungus is "delicate": it will not grow if conditions are too wet or too dry, and a harvest requires favorable weather throughout the year. "Two years of loss and two years of profit. After deducting costs such as hired labor and land transfer fees, the losses and gains offset each other. Not losing money is already something to be thankful for," Song Tingpin said.
Unwilling to accept failure, Song Tingpin began to examine his entrepreneurial path. In recent years, the village's economic conditions had been improving day by day, ushering in a wave of house-building to improve living environments, and Song Tingpin thought opening a sand and gravel plant would be profitable. In 2008, Song Tingpin invited 5 fellow villagers who had once worked away from home with him to jointly open a sand and gravel yard within Houchang Town. After two years of operation, due to many reasons, they lost more than 800,000 yuan in total. The more than 100,000 yuan each business partner had invested was all lost, and the attempt to run the sand and gravel plant ended in failure.
Pig Farming Helps Escape Poverty
Seeing that the money earned from working away from home was running out, with two children in middle school and himself unable to do heavy work, the heavy family burden fell on his wife's shoulders. Unable to withstand more setbacks, Song Tingpin found after investigating many options that Tengdao Village has many mountains and much grass, making it suitable for developing livestock farming.
In 2010, Song Tingpin bought more than 20 black goats. Herding goats involves no carrying, lifting, or shoulder-pole work. Every morning, with his gout making walking inconvenient, he drove the goats up the mountain, and in the evening when his wife came back she helped drive the goats home. Over 6 years, at the peak he raised more than 100 goats.
"Raising goats was the first pot of gold I earned while starting a business after falling ill. Raising goats brought in 20,000 to 30,000 yuan a year," Song Tingpin said. Although raising goats gave him a stable income, it damaged the forest, and the number he could raise was also limited.
The Tengdao Village area has many trees and a large forest coverage area, making it suitable for free-range pig farming. Free-range pigs have good meat quality and a market price. In view of this, Song Tingpin began planning to open a large forest-based farm and establish a forest farming farmers' professional cooperative.
In June 2015, Song Tingpin invited 8 villagers to develop forest farming. They chose a small mountain hollow surrounded by forest on all sides. The 9 people invested a total of 150,000 yuan and spent 3 months building pig sheds.
In September of the same year, Song Tingpin and his partners bought 70 piglets, and the 9 people took turns feeding them in pairs. As long as it did not rain, after feeding the pigs full in the morning they drove them to the forest on the mountain to range freely. Gradually, the scale of the pig sheds began to expand.
"In October this year, we sold all the remaining 105 pigs. Although free-range pigs are not fat, the selling price was higher than that of pen-raised pigs, and we earned more than 260,000 yuan in total," Song Tingpin said.
Expanding the Scale to Get Rich Together
"After the piglets run into the forest, they can not only find food but also clear weeds and protect the forest." Feeling the huge potential of pig farming, Song Tingpin decided to increase the number of piglets, and afterward everyone bought another 76 piglets.
"At first we did not pay attention to epidemic prevention for the pigs, and with insufficient farming experience, the pigs we raised fell ill and 40 died," Song Tingpin said. Fortunately, the problem was discovered early, and he used medicine in time to stop the spread of the disease. Later he invited livestock and veterinary technicians to inspect on site, and only then did they learn that the pig sheds were drafty and the ground inside was icy cold, causing the illness through wind-cold.
The bricks and sand piled at the farm are used to build pig pens. The pig sheds built in the past were drafty on all sides, and after the pigs that ranged freely during the day returned to the pens at night, they were very likely to catch wind-cold. Song Tingpin plans to rebuild all the original pig sheds into pig pens, pay attention to scientific farming, and continuously improve farming efficiency.
Song Tingpin said they will gradually expand the farming scale and have already applied to establish a forest farming professional cooperative.
"Tengdao Village's geographical environment is suitable for developing forest farming. Pigs raised under the forest have good meat quality and a market advantage."
Luo Ganghua, mayor of Houchang Town, said that Houchang will strongly support and encourage villagers to develop crop farming and livestock farming, and will pay attention to giving play to the leading role of Song Tingpin and others, setting a good example for poor villagers and advancing together toward moderate prosperity in step with the rest of the country.