Rural young man makes his fortune by farming rabbits and running an agritourism park
Hu Yong is a young man from the countryside. Since childhood he had always had a dream: to return to his hometown and build a career with what he had learned, so that he could be close to his parents and at the same time help the villagers get rich together. In June 2014, Hu Yong, 25, had been out of university for about 2 years. Since graduating he had been working as a salesman at a foreign company, and thanks to his drive and willingness to work hard, he had brought the company impressive results. Just then he was also presented with a promotion opportunity in his career. Standing at this crossroads, Hu Yong felt conflicted: should he go back to his hometown, or stay on at the company? The future felt very uncertain...
In May 2015, after just 11 months, Hu Yong had put down roots in his hometown, started a rabbit-farming business and even owned a 100-mu agricultural park. These days plenty of tourists come to visit.
1 Returning home to start a business: giving up a stable job to realize a dream
Hu Yong graduated from Hunan Agricultural University in 2012, majoring in animal science. The young man is handsome and full of sunny vitality, but his slightly boyish face makes it hard to believe he is the owner of a 100-mu agricultural park. "The agricultural park is already open, welcome everyone to come and have fun at my agricultural park, haha!" That is the optimistic Hu Yong; from his smiling face you cannot see the bittersweet struggles of starting a business.
His family conditions were average, and his parents were ordinary farmers. To earn money, ease his parents' burden and make his own life a bit more comfortable, in his freshman year Hu Yong and a friend opened a small shop in the dormitory. By his sophomore year he was selling barbecue outside the school, and later in his junior year he worked for several months as a promoter at a photo studio company. After graduation, he found a job at a foreign company with decent pay, doing sales work, earning more than 5,000 yuan a month, and with performance commissions his pay came close to 10,000 yuan. Although such a job gave Hu Yong financial satisfaction, he always had an idea: to return to the countryside and start a business. The rural development market was now very good, and his major was precisely agricultural animal science. "I might as well go home and start my own business; this has been my dream for many years," Hu Yong had long planned. He told this idea to Sun Hong, a fellow townsman from the same school and the same year, and the two hit it off immediately.
2 Farming rabbits: unwilling to be a white-collar worker, willing to be a livestock farmer
They had the idea of starting a business, but no project. As time passed day by day, the two were worried sick. Villagers said there was nothing good to do in the countryside now; take farming, for example. Many people raised pigs, cattle and sheep, so there was no highlight at all, and little money to be made. These words reminded Hu Yong. Indeed, ordinary farming projects did not have much market potential; only something distinctive and uncommon in the countryside would have a market. After a week of research and searching, Hu Yong made an amazing discovery: farming Sima rabbits. This is a type of small livestock specialty farming, and ordinary crops can be used as feed. At present, many people in consumer cities like to eat this kind of rabbit meat; it has high nutritional value and a tender texture, and is loved by consumers. The more Hu Yong thought about it, the happier he became. There was no such farming yet in their township, so he told Sun Hong about the business idea, and Sun Hong approved after hearing it. After many discussions, and considering that some land in the village lay waste, which made it even more suitable for developing farming, the two finally chose rabbit farming as their business project.
They acted as soon as they decided. After carefully investigating the potential market, farming techniques and rabbit breeds, Hu Yong and Sun Hong borrowed money from relatives and friends and took out loans, investing more than 100,000 yuan in total. They contracted 50 mu of land in the village and began building a breeding park to start their business. The investment was large and so was the pressure. Hu Yong said, "At the time I thought, what undertaking has no risk? If you want to succeed, you have to do it first and talk later."
Planning, clearing wasteland, building rabbit sheds and planting grass, he and Sun Hong soaked in the fields together with the workers, so exhausted every day that their backs and waists ached. "In rabbit farming you have to build infrastructure, put up fencing, turn the soil and plant grass in the fields, and all of it has to be done personally."
3 A bold positioning: not just farming rabbits, but also running agritourism
Hu Yong and Sun Hong's efforts were finally not in vain. In one month they had prepared the site. Although the construction could not be called luxurious, for the initial stage of farming it counted as a successful start. The two introduced the first 50 groups of Sima rabbits for breeding. In the breeding farm, the two were still busy beyond measure, bringing fresh vegetables and radishes from the fields for the rabbits, carrying baskets of sweet potatoes from the cellar, and filling the feed troughs to the brim. Watching the rabbits scrambling to eat this food in their pens, Hu Yong and Sun Hong both wore broad smiles...
The rabbits grew day by day. After 4 months the breeding rabbits began to reproduce one after another, and their numbers gradually increased. The problem they had worried about came again. "If things develop like this, in half a year the rabbits will grow to about 3,000, and after that they will multiply exponentially. Selling them will become a huge problem. How should we open up sales channels?" Hu Yong pondered. Thinking of this, he could not sleep for several days and could not eat well; the two were anxious. When Hu Yong's father and mother saw the situation, they were also very worried about the two men's health, so they discussed it and decided that the old couple would take care of the farming, while Hu Yong and Sun Hong would go out to expand sales channels. The next day, Sun Hong sorted out materials online and contacted some farmhouse restaurants and farms. Hu Yong drove the family's minivan, and the two loaded up some meat rabbits and set off...
Right from the start, they hit a wall. These restaurant owners were not very willing to accept such a product, fearing they would not be able to sell it. Helpless, since the rabbits had already been brought out and were not easy to transport back, they could only say to leave them at the shops first and settle payment after they were sold. Only then did the shop owners reluctantly agree. Hu Yong and Sun Hong went home listlessly...
A few days later, several shops called Hu Yong to ask whether there were still rabbits in stock. Hearing such news, the two jumped up with excitement. The market had finally opened up. In the end, several hotels were even willing to sign long-term supply contracts with them.
The story of Hu Yong and Sun Hong had already spread locally, and the villagers all wanted to join their farming operation. The two decided to provide breeding rabbits free of charge to the common people, letting everyone breed them, and then buying back the market-ready meat rabbits according to market prices. Soon this matter attracted the attention of the city TV station and newspaper media. Facing the reporters, Hu Yong and Sun Hong were very shy. Sun Hong smiled and said, "Our shared dream is to go back to the countryside and do something. We studied this major, and farming is our line of work. Doing this for the common people is nothing much." Then the reporter asked Hu Yong what plans and intentions he had for the future. Hu Yong told the reporter, "While doing farming, we are preparing our next plan: a rural tourism project, starting agritourism in our village and developing the breeding park into a village agritourism breeding park. That way it will be easier to drive the development of specialty farming in our village"...
Hu Yong and Sun Hong's second idea finally began. The two contracted another 50 mu of land in the village to develop facilities for the tourism project. The park has a barbecue area, an entertainment area, a rabbit meat restaurant, a fishing area, a planting garden and the second phase of the breeding park. Their hard work was not in vain. Although the basic conditions were not yet fully complete, the agritourism park still opened to the public early. Tourists came in an endless stream, and cars filled both sides of the road. In the breeding area, friends were teasing a group of Sima rabbits and playing; in the barbecue area, smoke rose from roasting whole rabbits; the picking area was full of people; and further in there were rows of farmhouses, a camping ground, leisure fishing and more. The agritourism park offered a rich variety of activities, and friends holding team activities in the park were playing with great enthusiasm...
Seeing this, we were moved and suddenly recalled a lyric: "Stay brave together, let memories become something to be proud of. The world is before your eyes, dreams are realized through sweat. As long as you have firm faith, the future can be seen." For people with entrepreneurial dreams, as long as they have firm faith and the courage to take on challenges, dreams will become reality. We also wish Hu Yong and Sun Hong's agricultural park business ever greater success!