Delhi Tibetan Fragrant Pigs Lead the Masses Toward Their Dream of Prosperity
It has been a year since the Tibetan fragrant pigs arrived in Fuyuan Village, Gahai Town, Delhi City, Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. This is a grazing-type primitive pig breed that grows on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with particularly well-developed heart and lung function, strong disease resistance and cold resistance, and is a unique ancient livestock breed resource of the Tibetan region. A year ago, the Tibetan fragrant pigs came down from the Tibet Plateau, settled in a "new home" in Fuyuan Village, Gahai Town, Delhi City, adapted to the local climate and environment, and multiplied rapidly, growing from the initial 350 head to more than 1,600 head today.
Visit: Tibetan Fragrant Pigs "Settle Down" in Delhi
Fuyuan Village in Gahai Town, Delhi City, is far from the urban area and grows 10,000 mu of goji berries and crops. There are no industrial enterprises nearby, and the beautiful environment and fresh air provide unique natural conditions for raising Tibetan fragrant pigs.
After the car passed through a green belt stretching for several kilometers, rows of blue-roofed, white-walled plastic-steel houses immediately came into view. This is the Delhi Snow Region Tibetan Fragrant Pig Original Ecological Breeding Professional Cooperative. The breeding farm is surrounded by shady green trees, and the quiet "green ocean" makes people feel refreshed. Such an environment gives a feeling of a hidden paradise, and this is where the Tibetan fragrant pigs' "home" is built.
Led by the cooperative's keeper, and after two rounds of disinfection with ultraviolet light and disinfectant, the reporter saw the famous Tibetan fragrant pigs. Entering the breeding base, in the clean and tidy pig pens, the Tibetan fragrant pigs were either leisurely basking in the sun, eating, or chasing and playing.
The Tibetan fragrant pig sheds are different from traditional pig houses. According to Yang Yanlin, general manager of the cooperative, the pig houses introduce advanced technical equipment. Through the installation of a video monitoring system, the diet and growth conditions of the Tibetan fragrant pigs in each breeding area can be seen clearly at a glance through the electronic display screen hanging on the wall. The application of an automated feeding system has made heavy work such as feeding and watering the Tibetan fragrant pigs fully automated. It takes only 10 minutes to feed 500 Tibetan fragrant pigs. This not only saves a large amount of manpower, but also greatly improves the disease prevention capacity of the Tibetan fragrant pigs and the modernization level of facility breeding.
The 800-mu grazing area within the breeding farm is distributed across a large grassy flat, where clumps of wild plants grow. This place is jokingly called the Tibetan fragrant pigs' "sports field" by the keepers. The sunlight here is very good, wild grass grows everywhere, and hundreds of Tibetan fragrant pigs wag their tails and frolic in the "sports field", forming a unique grazing scene.
The keeper told the reporter that the Tibetan fragrant pig is a high-cold animal, suitable for grazing-type breeding, and has a certain wildness. Therefore, in order to ensure the quality of the pork, the pigs must be let out every day to move around and not be separated from the wild environment. This not only conforms to the nature of the Tibetan fragrant pig, but also ensures the meat quality of the Tibetan fragrant pig.
The keeper said: "In addition to free-range grazing, the Tibetan fragrant pigs are fed in the morning and evening with feed processed from highland barley, oats, bran, peas, corn and other ingredients to supplement the trace elements they need." Such grazing and original ecological diet have created the reputation of the Tibetan fragrant pig as the "treasure of the plateau." On the Qinghai Plateau, long known for cattle and sheep, the appearance of the Tibetan fragrant pig is undoubtedly a "dark horse" with market prospects.
Story: Encountering Tibetan Fragrant Pigs and Opening the Door to Prosperity
"Tibetan fragrant pigs grow on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. They are small in size, and adult pigs weigh less than 50 kg on average. They usually live mainly on pure natural wild edible plants and fruits. They have high nutritional value and delicious meat. They are called the 'treasure of the plateau' and also known as 'ginseng pigs.' They are truly a wonder of folk cuisine." Cooperative general manager Yang Yanlin described the "high quality" of Tibetan fragrant pigs. Speaking of how he became connected with Tibetan fragrant pigs, Yang Yanlin repeatedly said that "meeting by chance is better than a planned encounter." An casual trip to Tibet at the time closely tied him to Tibetan fragrant pigs, and also made this middle-aged man, who was laid off due to enterprise restructuring, burst out with the "ambition" to build a career on Tibetan fragrant pigs.
By chance, a friend in Tibet treated Yang Yanlin to a meal of Tibetan fragrant pork, and at that time he had the idea of introducing Tibetan fragrant pigs to Delhi for breeding. Through extensive investigation and comprehensive understanding of the Tibetan fragrant pig breeding industry and market supply and demand in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan, coastal large and medium-sized cities, and first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, Yang Yanlin found that because Tibetan fragrant pork is delicious and has very high nutritional value, as an ingredient with very high cost performance, it is deeply loved by people, market demand is especially large, and economic returns are high with good market prospects. The soil, water and climate conditions of Gahai Town are very suitable for Tibetan fragrant pig breeding, so Yang Yanlin and three partners jointly invested 1 million yuan, transferred 1,200 mu of land, and built this project together. At the beginning of the cooperative's establishment, he brought back 300 Tibetan fragrant sows and 50 boars from Tibet, and from then on began the Tibetan fragrant pig breeding industry.
After more than a year of rolling development, the cooperative has now built an office area including a testing room, disinfection room, veterinary room, and staff dormitory; 6 breeding sheds consisting of Tibetan fragrant pig boar sheds, pregnant sow sheds, mating sheds, farrowing pig sheds, isolation and observation sheds for sick pigs, and piglet nursery sheds; and basic supporting facilities such as a feed processing workshop and concentrate feed warehouse, covering an area of 7,000 sq m. The stock of Tibetan fragrant pigs has exceeded 1,600 head, with 1,200 young Tibetan fragrant pigs raised, and currently more than 60 Tibetan fragrant pigs are "with piglets." Now Tibetan fragrant pig breeding no longer requires introducing breeding stock from outside, and self-breeding and self-raising have been realized. By the end of the year, more than 200 more Tibetan fragrant pigs can be sent to market.
Ordinary pigs generally can be sent to market after 4 months of raising, while Tibetan fragrant pigs generally need 10 months of raising before they can be sent to market. Therefore, Tibetan fragrant pigs have high nutritional value and delicious meat. It is precisely because of the good quality and reputation of Tibetan fragrant pigs that they are now widely welcomed in the market. Tibetan fragrant pork sells for 118 yuan per jin in the Xining market, and can sell for 180 yuan per jin in inland and coastal cities. One Tibetan fragrant pig is worth nearly 8,000 yuan, and its "value" is 4 to 5 times that of ordinary pork.
Prospects: The Internet Boosts the Industry Chain, Tibetan Fragrant Pigs Become a "Money Tree"
Although Tibetan fragrant pork is of excellent quality, it belongs to high-end consumption. Will consumers buy it?
Hearing this question, Yang Yanlin was not surprised. He pulled out a contract and said: "This is a sales contract we signed with a company in Shenzhen. We conduct online sales through the business information platform of the prefecture agriculture and animal husbandry bureau, so sales are not a problem. The market space for high-quality Tibetan fragrant pork is even larger than we imagined." In Yang Yanlin's view, with the help of the Internet, his Tibetan fragrant pigs are "good meat does not fear a deep alley."
According to staff at the Gahai Town agriculture and animal husbandry station, the industrialized development of Tibetan fragrant pigs is a "clever move" in adjusting the agricultural industrial structure of Gahai Town and promoting increases in farmers' income. At present, the Snow Region Tibetan Fragrant Pig Original Ecological Breeding Professional Cooperative has focused on developing characteristic Tibetan fragrant pig breeding and has formed a scale, becoming the largest Tibetan fragrant pig breeding operation in Delhi.
Yang Yanlin said that in order to promote the expansion and upgrading of Tibetan fragrant pig breeding, the cooperative has formulated a development plan for the next 3 years, preparing to invest another 20 million yuan, build 10 new modern sheds and one breeding farm, continue to expand the forage planting area, and build other supporting ancillary facilities, ensuring that the annual market supply of Tibetan fragrant pigs reaches 10,000 head. At the same time, it plans to establish an online sales platform, set up regional agents in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong, and build its own specialty stores to expand sales volume, achieving the goal of integrating production and sales of Tibetan fragrant pig breeding.
In order to cultivate a healthier industry chain, drive more farmers to develop special breeding industries and embark on the road to prosperity, the cooperative, while taking Tibetan fragrant pigs as a key project for priority development, is also continuously strengthening cooperation with farmers. As the scale of Tibetan fragrant pig breeding gradually expands, the cooperative will absorb more and more villagers to develop and operate this industry together. At the same time, it adopts the business model of "cooperative + company + farmers," encourages villagers to raise Tibetan fragrant pigs, and purchases them uniformly by the company through orders, driving more villagers to increase income and become prosperous.