Black pigs raised deep in the mountains, pork sold to the capital

Returning home to raise pigs

Song Yongtang is a native of Jinzhai, Anhui, 35 years old this year. After failing the college entrance examination in 1997, he went out to work and came to the capital, Beijing. Through self-study he obtained a college diploma in computer science, and went from being a migrant worker to a sales director at an electrical appliance company. Later he set up his own computer training school in Beijing, earning nearly a million yuan a year. Song Yongtang said that one year when he returned home to visit relatives, he discovered an interesting phenomenon: even in Jinzhai County, deep in the Dabie Mountains, it was very hard for people to eat authentic black-haired pig pork in restaurants. He then conducted some market research and found that most young and middle-aged people had gone out to work, and the elderly at home generally raised only one black-haired pig a year, just enough for the family to eat during the New Year. Even the usual pork consumption in mountain townships was supplied with pork shipped in from elsewhere.

Song Yongtang, who grew up in the mountains since childhood, felt that the black-haired pig unique to the mountainous area of western Anhui has a long finishing cycle and tastes delicious because it is not fed commercial feed. If it could be raised in batches, there would surely be no worry about finding a market. So in 2007, he gave up his high salary in the capital and returned to his hometown of Gubei Town, Jinzhai County, to become a "pig man." "If I don't raise them, fine, but if I do, I have to be different. I want to raise ecological black-haired pigs," Song Yongtang said.

Black-haired pigs drink spring water and sleep on a "warm bed"

In 2008, Song Yongtang raised 2 million yuan in funds and built an ecological pig farm covering more than 20 mu in Sima Village, Gubei Town, Jinzhai County, including four standardized pig houses with more than 100 pens. Walking into the pig houses, basically no unusual smell could be detected, the ground underfoot was soft, and no pig manure could be seen either, which was quite surprising.

Song Yongtang said with a smile that this was his ecological pig-raising method: using bran, sawdust and the like with added beneficial bacteria as raw material, filling the pig house floor to a thickness of about 1.5 m to form a special "warm bed." After the pigs urinate and defecate, out of their natural instinct they keep rooting with their snouts, turning the manure into the warm bed where it naturally ferments and decomposes. The pigs sleep very comfortably on the soft, cozy "bed" and rarely get sick. For a period after the piglets are born, apart from a small amount of grain mixed in, they basically eat wild vegetables gathered from the mountains and drink mountain spring water.

What is even more remarkable comes later: after the piglets are raised indoors to 40 kg, they are all released to the mountains. In the mountains several dozen kilometers from Gubei Town, these free-range black pigs can be seen from afar in twos and threes, playing, foraging, and enjoying themselves at ease. Toward evening, Song Yongtang and the keepers stand at the foot of the mountain and blow a few whistles. Then the pig heads on the mountain throng together, and in an instant the herd comes rushing out from the edges of the grassland and the woods, following the sound of the whistles all the way down the mountain, a truly spectacular scene.

Twenty directly operated stores to be opened in the capital

"Good pork should also fetch a good price. We are going to open 20 directly operated stores in Beijing." Because the free-range black-haired pigs have excellent taste and quality, Beijing Shounong Group has long cooperated with Song Yongtang, selling more than 6,000 black-haired pigs a year. As the number of finished black-haired pigs increases, Song Yongtang is also exploring new sales models. On May 1, 2015, Song Yongtang opened his first black-haired pork directly operated store near the Huilongguan residential community in Changping District, Beijing, with more than 100 sq m. "I didn't expect the business to be so booming. Every day three or four black-haired pigs can be sold, at an average price of 186 yuan per kg."

To ensure that Beijing residents can eat fresh pork, Song Yongtang cooperates with the Beijing No. 5 Meat Processing Plant, shipping live pigs from Jinzhai to Beijing for slaughter every week, slaughtered and sold the same day, which has won high praise from residents. Then, in Beijing's Dongcheng District, Xicheng District, Haidian District, Chaoyang District and other places, Song Yongtang opened five directly operated stores. He told this writer that he expects to open 20 directly operated stores this year. "Now I make about 4,000 yuan from each finished black-haired pig, and the cost is 1,500 yuan."

To help fellow villagers develop, Song Yongtang established the Jinzhai County Xinnong Pig Raising Professional Cooperative. Up to now, 378 farming households have joined the cooperative, each increasing their income by at least 7,000 to 8,000 yuan, and at most 50,000 to 60,000 yuan.