Ecological chicken farming helps Zhuo Dingru onto the road to prosperity
"In the farm, the free-range chickens chase each other endlessly, fluttering up and down, with a chorus of 'cluck cluck' sounds..." On December 4, the reporter saw such a free-range chicken farm scene at Zhangjiawan, Zimuxi Village, Liyuan Town, Sangzhi County.
"Nowadays city people have grown wealthier, and they are particular about eating natural and green food. The 'original-ecology forest-villa free-range chickens' I raise are genuine, so I hardly worry about sales. I want to further expand the farming scale and make the business bigger and stronger." The farm owner Zhuo Dingru, who is over sixty years old, told the reporter happily while mixing feed for the chickens.
Why did he take up free-range chicken farming? Zhuo Dingru explained that after moving in 1997 from Liuyangxi Village, Zhuyeping Township to Zimuxi Village, Liyuan Town to join relatives and friends, one day he went with his wife to buy groceries. Observant and good at discovering things, he noticed that some so-called free-range chickens on the market were all raised on a large scale and simply could not compare with the authentic free-range chickens in rural areas. This made him feel that raising original-ecology free-range chickens would certainly have good prospects, so he decided to escape poverty and become wealthy by raising free-range chickens.
He acted as soon as he decided. Zhuo Dingru and his wife took out their savings from many years of working away from home, installed protective netting to prevent the chickens from escaping, bought 300 chicks, and built one ingenious "free-range chicken villa" after another in the mountain forest, beginning their original-ecology "forest villa chicken" farming.
To succeed in raising the chickens, Zhuo Dingru worked from dawn to dusk, devoting himself entirely to the farm. With no technical knowledge, he consulted books to learn; with no experience, he figured things out while doing the work, constantly seeking advice from professional technicians. Inside the netted shed, he carefully observed the chickens' spirits, food intake, drinking water and droppings every day, listened carefully to their calls, and closely observed their growth conditions, and he quickly mastered chicken-raising techniques.
"Besides feeding them corn and green vegetables, the chicks forage for food themselves in the mountains. They are absolutely pure natural free-range chickens." Zhuo Dingru explained that the free-range chickens he raises are not fed any feed or additives, only traditional feed such as corn, rice and vegetable leaves, sometimes with added Chinese herbal medicines such as honeysuckle and coptis. They are not only 'green and ecological' but also highly disease-resistant, and the meat is tasty as well. To save costs, he controls the scale and also rents land to grow corn and vegetables. Last year, he raised 600 chickens and, after deducting costs, earned a net income of more than 20,000 yuan.
"The chickens here enjoy 'star-level treatment'," Zhuo Dingru explained. Every morning at dawn, he opens the coop door on time and lets the flock forage freely in the deep forest. When hungry, they eat the green grass leaves and insects in the mountain forest; when thirsty, they drink the clear spring water in the mountains; at night they return to the villas to rest and live. The ecological environment is environmentally friendly and completely pollution-free.
"Next, I plan to expand the farming scale and establish a chicken-farming professional cooperative or family farm, so that other ordinary people can also take part in free-range chicken farming, driving the neighbors in the village to raise chickens together, so that everyone can prosper together and successfully transform into a 'chicken commander'." Speaking of his future plans, Zhuo Dingru was full of confidence.