To raise wild boars, he gave up a high income and quit his job

Three years ago, An Luhai, a university graduate from Shiyu Town, Tongliang County, resigned from an electric power company and returned to his hometown to set up a wild boar farm. Chongqing Evening News reporters learned yesterday that thanks to good management, An Luhai's farm has ushered in a bumper year this year, and his personal annual net income is expected to exceed 500,000 yuan.

His job was not bad at all, but he quit to start a business. An Luhai is 25 years old this year and a native of the tenth cooperative of Yantian Village, Shiyu Town, Tongliang County. In July 2007, he graduated in electrical engineering and automation and went to work as a technician at an electric power company in Sichuan Province, with a fairly good income. That being the case, why did he return to his hometown to raise wild boars?

An Luhai told Chongqing Evening News reporters that after one year of work, he gradually felt that the somewhat monotonous job did not suit his personality, and the idea of starting his own business quietly grew. "By chance, I saw an agricultural science and technology program on China Central Television, which said that raising wild boars had great market prospects." After investigating from many sides, he concluded that this was indeed a very good entrepreneurial project. So right after the 2008 Spring Festival, he submitted his resignation to the company.

When he proposed resigning, he first met with opposition from his family. "After studying for so many years, was it all for raising pigs?" his parents asked him, puzzled. However, his parents ultimately supported him. In May 2008, with more than 100,000 yuan in startup funds, An Luhai rented more than 50 mu of low-quality mountain forest land in Anjia Gully in the Bayue Mountains and opened up a wild boar farm. In June, more than 10 breeding pigs he had introduced from other places officially entered the pens.

The wild boars once escaped, but fortunately they came back. Talking about why he chose to raise wild boars rather than ordinary pigs, An Luhai told Chongqing Evening News reporters that wild boars are hardier, and generally after one vaccination in infancy, they do not need injections or medicine throughout the rest of the rearing process. In addition, domestic pigs generally need special feed, while wild boars eat melons, fruit, wild grass, wild vegetables and even small wild animals, so the breeding cost is lower. "Besides those two points, the market price fluctuations for wild boar meat are also relatively small." An Luhai said this makes the returns relatively secure.

Although the technical requirements for breeding are relatively low, because wild boars are wild by nature, the management requirements are much higher than for domestic pigs. An Luhai told Chongqing Evening News reporters that when he first started raising wild boars, due to poor management, he experienced a wild boar mass escape that was first sad and then happy.

An Luhai explained that wild boars have a large range of activity and must be raised in the open. His farm was in fact a large patch of mountain forest enclosed with steel wire netting, with pig sheds built inside.

"Once, a worker forgot to close the gate after leaving the farm." An Luhai recalled that that afternoon they urgently counted the wild boars and found that 4 were missing, which meant a loss of nearly 20,000 yuan. The surrounding area was all deep mountains and old forests, so how could they be found? An Luhai, who had just started his business, "at that time even felt like jumping off a building."

"But the next day, a miracle actually happened!" An Luhai said that the next morning, he found that the 4 lost wild boars had actually come back on their own and were leisurely wandering at the entrance of the farm. "Probably because outside they did not eat or sleep as comfortably as inside the farm." An Luhai explained with a smile.

Cooperation in deep processing brings high returns. More than three years have passed, and An Luhai's wild boar farm is now increasingly prosperous.

Chongqing Evening News reporters learned yesterday that his breeding scale has now expanded from 10 pigs back then to more than 400, and the farm area has also increased from more than 50 mu to more than 200 mu. In the year before last and last year, he obtained relatively good economic returns. And this year, the price of wild boar meat has risen to about 80 yuan per kg. This year, he will slaughter 200 wild boars in total during the rainy season. Calculated at 75 kg per boar and 80 yuan per kg, the expected income can exceed 1.2 million yuan.

In order to improve economic returns, this year An Luhai also cooperated with a food company in Tongliang to deeply process wild boar meat into products such as flavored cured meat and flavored sausages, with prices as high as about 200 yuan per kg.

He told Chongqing Evening News reporters that his net income this year is expected to far exceed that of last year and the year before, reaching about 500,000 yuan.

Labor: 8 breeding workers, about 150,000 yuan per year.

Miscellaneous expenses: including the pig farm, pig sheds, medicine, feed, management, etc., averaging 550,000 yuan per year.

Income: expected income of 1.2 million yuan this year.

Profit: 500,000 yuan a year.

Without marketing, everything is cost. Wild boars are easy to raise, but news of difficulty selling them after raising them often appears in the media. How did An Luhai resolve this problem?

"Wild boar meat is hard to sell, and in the final analysis it is because the price is high and it is a niche product." An Luhai said that without effective marketing, raising wild boars would undoubtedly mean letting the pigs die of old age in his own hands. "I think without marketing, everything is cost."

"If I only sold wild boar meat, my advantage would not be great." An Luhai said that therefore he tried to deeply process wild boar meat and put it into gift boxes as gifts, so that not only was the market value of wild boar meat reflected, but the range of sales targets also became broader, so sales would not become a problem.

Youth is wealth. An Luhai originally worked in the electric power system, where even a meter reader could earn an annual income of 100,000 yuan, a golden rice bowl. But the young man did not value what everyone envied, and instead chose the rather risky path of starting his own business. Such courage is admirable.

Just wanting to start a business is not enough; one must also choose the right option. In Xiao An's case, the ease of feeding wild boars and the small fluctuations in meat prices both became reasons for his choice, showing that he also has strong business judgment.

In my view, achieving all this benefits from being young. Perhaps precisely because he is young, he dared to take the plunge. And precisely because he is young, his mind was flexible enough to choose the right project and quickly find the value-added direction of deep processing. Therefore, youth is wealth.