Eco-friendly free-range chicken farming brings in over 20 million yuan in annual sales, and a young man from Hunan has a clever trick

In 2010, a car accident involving his father made him grow up overnight and take on the burden of the family. Facing adversity, he relied on one trick to make a comeback, with annual sales reaching over 3 million yuan. See how Yu Peng from Yueyang, Hunan, went from an inexperienced youth to a local leader in becoming prosperous?

Liugui Village, Gangkou Town, Yueyang County, Hunan Province, May 12, 2016, 9:30 a.m.

Yu Peng: Grab your own color, grab your own color.

Yu Peng: It hasn't started yet, everyone warm up first, warm up first.

This young man is Yu Peng. To raise the profile of his chicken farm and let more people know about the Luonei free-range chickens he raises, today he specially organized a chicken-catching contest.

Yu Peng: Two people per team, you need to catch the chicken that matches the same color. The corresponding color. If a chicken flies out from here, whoever outside catches it gets to keep it.

Yu Peng: Okay, get ready, start. Give them some applause.

To make catching the chickens easier, Yu Peng enclosed the area with plastic sheeting on site, but the Luonei free-range chickens he raises are all free-range and full of wildness. These chickens are naturally fast runners, and when chased too hard they can even fly, making them very hard to catch.

Everyone participating in today's chicken-catching contest signed up online. You have to catch a chicken matching the color of the ribbon in your hand to win. One contestant even lost his shoes but kept chasing chickens, and the scene was extraordinarily lively.

In less than an hour, the 100 Luonei free-range chickens Yu Peng had prepared were all caught by the people participating in the on-site chicken-catching contest.

Tourist: Participating in this activity is a good experience, it's really fun. And I think catching this kind of chicken with my own hands for the first time feels great.

Reporter Li Yang: Have you caught chickens before?

Tourist: I've caught them before, but those chickens before didn't move much. This kind of chicken is a bit harder to catch.

Yu Peng: Through small activities like this, they can understand our Luonei free-range chickens more intuitively. Then they can also buy our Luonei free-range chickens on e-commerce platforms.

In 2007, Yu Peng had just stepped out of school. In 2010, a sudden change in his family abruptly altered the course of his life; in just five years, he built a free-range chicken farm with annual sales of over 6 million yuan. So how did Yu Peng use free-range chickens to realize his wealth dream?

This is Yu Peng's hometown. His parents ran a jade slab business and raised chickens at home. Yu Peng grew up in a well-off family. He had always loved computers, and in 2007 he went to Guangzhou to learn computer repair. Through his own efforts, Yu Peng could earn more than 10,000 yuan a month in business commissions. In Guangzhou, Yu Peng was planning his future in the computer industry.

However, one day in October 2010, Yu Peng received a phone call from his father, and that phone call changed the course of Yu Peng's life from then on.

Yu Peng: I had always lived under my father's protection. Now my father suddenly had an accident, and it felt like a bolt from the blue. The entire burden of the family, including mixing feed and hauling feed, all of it needed me to do it.

On the afternoon of October 2, 2010, Yu Peng's father was driving out to deliver goods. On the way home, he collided with a sedan and had a car accident. At the time, the accident happened on this bridge.

Yu Peng's father, Yu Yunlai: Fortunately I survived. There are still many things at home to do, and we raise a lot of chickens. In the hospital, you don't need to worry about anything. Anyway, just take care of things at home.

Yu Peng: Suddenly I felt the burden of the family pressing on me.

His father's sudden car accident left Yu Peng no choice but to take his father's place in caring for the family chicken farm. Feeding the chickens twice a day, looking after the chicks at night, cleaning the chicken coop. A bag of corn weighed 120 jin, and Yu Peng had to carry at least 20-some bags every day. A full month of chicken-farming life made Yu Peng understand his father's hardships. At this time, Yu Peng's thinking also changed. He wanted to stay home and raise chickens.

Yu Peng: What I thought about most was how I should share some of the family's burdens and how to do what I do well.

He took over his father's chicken farm, but a month later, Yu Peng found that the laying hen market was fiercely competitive and simply not profitable, and raising laying hens meant dirty and tiring work every day. He wanted to raise a kind of chicken that was easier to care for and could still make money: the local Luonei free-range chicken. Yu Peng wanted to catch a Luonei free-range chicken for the reporter to see, but these free-range Luonei chickens are full of wildness and are not easy to catch.

Reporter Li Yang: What characteristics does this Luonei free-range chicken have?

Yu Peng: Our combs are red, their skin is golden yellow, and the bones are yellow too.

Reporter Li Yang: For a chicken like this, how much do you sell it for?

Yu Peng: For a chicken like this, it's 100 yuan each.

Reporter Li Yang: 100 yuan each, that's too expensive.

Yu Peng: Our chickens are just like this, 100 yuan each. Whichever one you say to catch, we catch that one. They're all uniform in size, 2-3 jin.

Reporter Li Yang: For the same kind of chicken, why can your chickens sell for 100 yuan each?

Yu Peng: First of all, my chickens are raised ecologically. Each of our farming households keeps no more than 300 per batch. We use corn to lure them out, then use corn to lure them back. They mainly eat wild food outside, so they are still very energetic.

This is Buxian Township, Yueyang County, Hunan Province. This local dual-purpose meat-and-egg chicken breed is named the Luonei free-range chicken. Luonei free-range chickens are mainly black, with tight feathers, upright combs, small heads and thin necks, and a body weight of around 3 jin. Luonei free-range chickens not only have delicious meat but are also rich in nutrients. In Yu Peng's hometown, every household raises them, but all are small-scale, at most a dozen or so, and no one raises them on a large scale.

Wan Zhaohui, animal husbandry and veterinary physician at the Hunan Province Yueyang County Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Bureau: The mortality rate is high, and there is no technology. Farming households all hatch chicks themselves, and it's all one hen leading a dozen or so chicks. For large-scale raising into the hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands, there is no technology. The second problem is disease prevention. Without vaccines, chickens die very easily, and it is very difficult to raise them on a large scale.