Sika deer farming puts Hebei Chengde farmers on the road to prosperity

"The farm usually starts sawing off deer antlers and collecting deer blood on May 20." On May 6, villager Zhao Hongjie from Chengde, Hebei, took us to a sika deer farm at the foot of a mountain. Pointing to a dozen sturdy sika deer, he said happily that raising sika deer is quite profitable; since 2014, the farm has earned a net profit of more than 40,000 yuan a year from selling deer antlers alone.

Zhao Hongjie, 46, is a farmer who loves raising livestock. Before raising sika deer, he had raised live pigs for more than 10 years. "I lost money raising pigs, and I also made money," Zhao Hongjie said. In 1996 he raised 20 sows, and because pig prices were sluggish, he lost tens of thousands of yuan in a year. The setback did not make him lose confidence in farming. "The key to farming is grasping market patterns." In the following years, he sent more than 300 live pigs to market each year, and pig farming earned him a lot of money. But by 1999 he suffered another big loss, when the selling price of adult pigs was only 5.8 yuan per kg, causing him heavy losses. What delighted him was that pig prices rose in 2007, and one live pig earned a net profit of five or six hundred yuan. And so, amid the ups and downs, Zhao Hongjie has kept raising pigs to this day.

"Before I raised sika deer, I had never even seen the shadow of a deer." When talking about why he went into raising sika deer, Zhao Hongjie became animated. In 2013, Zhao Hongjie happened to see on TV that raising sika deer was quite profitable, and at that time he had the idea of raising sika deer to make money. After asking around, he learned that there was a Jiulu Deer Industry sika deer farm in Tongzhou, Beijing. Zhao Hongjie hurried to Tongzhou, Beijing, to visit and "learn from experience." "I was quite lucky to be able to raise sika deer successfully; the main reason was that the Jiulu Deer Industry sika deer farm was willing to take me as an apprentice, not only teaching me farming techniques but also helping me learn how to use a blowpipe needle." After mastering some knowledge of sika deer living habits and disease prevention, Zhao Hongjie built an enclosure for a sika deer farm at the foot of the mountain near the pig farm. In order to raise the sika deer well, that year he also contracted more than 10 mu of mountain forest, so that he could cut leaves to feed the deer and raise them carefully. That year he sawed off more than 6,000 grams of deer antlers.

Speaking of why he went to Jiulu Deer Industry to buy sika deer, Zhao Hongjie said that Beijing Jiulu Deer Industry, which has been reported on by many media outlets including CCTV Channel 7's Science and Technology Garden program, People's Daily Online, and Xinhua Net, is a big-brand company. Now that breeding deer have been introduced, we signed a purchase contract with Jiulu, which regularly buys back products such as deer antlers, thus guaranteeing the sales channel for my deer farming; technically, Jiulu Deer Industry provides us with free farming materials and discs for us to study, and later Jiulu also sends technicians to guide us. With these guarantees, I just focus on raising my deer well. Because the breeding deer Jiulu supplied to me are good in breed, high in antler yield, and strong in disease resistance, and with the techniques in place, the deer we raised soon became profitable. Later I took out some loans, increased the number of deer, and with the help of Jiulu Deer Industry promoted sika deer techniques.

"Raising sika deer is still quite hard, especially during the rutting season of male deer, when you have to be even more careful." Zhao Hongjie said that from September to October, male deer in rut often fight to "compete for dominance." In 2015, two male deer fought each other to "compete for dominance," and both had their ribs broken; after more than 20 days of treatment, they eventually died. Learning from this lesson, whenever Zhao Hongjie hears fighting, he gets up several times even at night to "break up the fight" and drive the two sides apart to reduce losses. "Giving sika deer vaccinations is quite troublesome. Sika deer are afraid of strangers, so when injecting them you can only stay far away, using a long blowpipe needle." Zhao Hongjie said that at first he could only blow the needle 2 to 3 m, but after six or seven years of practice, he can now blow it 5 to 6 m. As time went on, Zhao Hongjie gradually became famous in Chengde for raising sika deer, and more people came to buy deer antlers and deer blood wine. In 2015, he sawed off more than 10,000 grams of deer antlers, with gross income of 60,000 yuan. Last year, the profit from selling deer antlers alone was more than 40,000 yuan. "Now my farm has 10 male deer and 2 female deer, and the deer antlers and deer blood wine produced must be ordered in advance." Zhao Hongjie said that he also sells about 50 kg of deer blood wine a year.