Quitting a job to raise wild boars: a farmer in Tongliang, Chongqing gives up a high income

Three years ago, An Luhai, a university graduate from Shiyu Town in Tongliang County, resigned from an electric power company and returned to his hometown to set up a wild boar farm. Chongqing Evening News learned yesterday that thanks to sound management, An Luhai's farm is enjoying 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 and comes from the tenth cooperative group of Yantian Village, Shiyu Town, Tongliang County. In July 2007, he graduated from university with a major 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 want to return to his hometown to raise wild boars?

An Luhai told Chongqing Evening News that after a 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 took root. "By chance, I saw an agricultural science and technology program on CCTV, which said that raising wild boars had great market prospects." After investigating from various sources, he concluded that this was indeed a very good entrepreneurial project. So as soon as the 2008 Spring Festival was over, he submitted his resignation to the company.

When he proposed resigning, he first ran into opposition from his family. "After so many years of schooling, is it just to raise pigs?" his parents asked him, puzzled. In the end, however, his parents supported him. In May 2008, with more than 100,000 yuan in start-up funds, An Luhai rented more than 50 mu of poor-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 brought in from elsewhere officially entered the pens.

The wild boars once escaped, but fortunately they came back. Asked why he chose to raise wild boars rather than ordinary pigs, An Luhai told Chongqing Evening News that wild boars are hardier, and generally after one vaccination in youth, they do not need any more injections or medicine throughout 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 rearing cost is lower. "Besides those two points, the market price of wild boar meat also fluctuates relatively little." An Luhai said this makes the returns relatively secure.

Although the technical requirements for raising them 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 that when he first started raising wild boars, due to poor management, he had an experience of a great wild boar escape that was first sad and then joyful.

An Luhai explained that wild boars have a large range of activity and must be raised in the open. His farm is in fact a large piece of mountain forest land enclosed with steel wire mesh, with pig pens built inside.

"Once, the workers left the farm and forgot to close the gate." 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 wild boars that had run away had actually come back on their own and were wandering leisurely at the gate of the farm. "It was probably because outside they did not eat or sleep as comfortably as inside the farm." An Luhai explained this with a smile.

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

Chongqing Evening News learned yesterday that his farming 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 achieved fairly good economic returns. And this year, the price of wild boar meat has risen to about 80 yuan per kg. This year, he will send a total of 200 wild boars to market during the rainy season. Calculated at 75 kg per head 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 deep-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 that he expects his net income this year to far exceed that of last year and the year before, reaching about 500,000 yuan.

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

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

Income: expected income this year is 1.2 million yuan.

Profit: 500,000 yuan a year.

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

"Wild boar meat is hard to sell because, in the final analysis, it is expensive and is a niche product." An Luhai said that without effective marketing, raising wild boars would undoubtedly mean the pigs would die of old age in his own hands. "I believe that 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 deep-process the wild boar meat and put it into gift boxes as gifts. In this way, not only was the market value of the wild boar meat reflected, but the range of sales targets also became broader, so sales would not be a problem.

Youth is wealth. An Luhai originally worked in the electric power system, which was a secure job where even a meter reader could earn an annual income of more than 100,000 yuan. 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 fluctuation in meat prices both became reasons for his choice, showing that he also has a good business eye.

In my view, being able to do all this benefits from being young. Perhaps it is precisely because he is young that he dares to take risks. And it is also precisely because he is young that his mind is flexible, allowing him to choose the right project and quickly find the value-added direction of deep processing. So, youth is wealth.