Raising deer to boost income, he bred a herd of money-making deer

On June 1, Zhao Weifeng was feeding the deer.

Zhao Weifeng, who lives in Linxian County, Luliang City, Shanxi Province, goes every day to see the deer farm 40 km away from the county seat, and this has become a habit of his. From a migrant worker at a coal enterprise to a front-runner returning home to start a business, Zhao Weifeng's success is inseparable from his "money-making deer."

In 2003, after being demobilized from the army, Zhao Weifeng began his working life, serving as a security guard, running a restaurant, selling computers... and finally earned his first pot of gold in the coal sector. In 2012, he changed careers and founded his own company in Chegan Township, Linxian County, his hometown, becoming the first person in Linxian County's deer farming industry.

Deer fear heat but not cold, have relatively weak immunity, and are easily startled, so they are very difficult to raise. Zhao Weifeng hired deer-raising experts from Northeast China at high salaries and had local keepers learn from scratch. At present, his deer farm has more than 100 deer, with velvet antler as its flagship product, mainly sold to medicinal materials companies in the south. Each deer can generate nearly 6,000 yuan in net profit each year from the sale of velvet antler.

Zhao Weifeng hopes the company will in the future build an ecological park integrating agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry, release all the deer to roam freely, and leverage the local landscape advantages to develop sightseeing tourism.