College student from Taojiang, Hunan returns home to raise pigs, opens up online sales and finds the road to prosperity

Gao Jingbo rings a bell to call the piglets "home"

Taohuijiang's Huishangang has clear waters and green mountains, and is a place that produces outstanding people. The elegant and graceful Xuefeng Mountain has nurtured batch after batch of cultural celebrities; the winding and twisting Zhixi River has seen off one group after another of economic talents. The two academicians of Huishangang are widely known, and mobile phone expert Liu Lirong is known to everyone... But the story of college student village official Gao Jingbo raising pigs to pave a road to prosperity is a different kind of tale.

Quitting a high salary to return home and start a business

In 2013, Gao Jingbo, a graduate of Jiangxi Agricultural University, was hired by Nanjing Cargill Feed Company with an annual salary of 100,000 yuan, doing feed marketing work. For people of his age, Gao Jingbo's job was smooth sailing from the start. After working for two months, however, Gao Jingbo quit the job that others could only dream of and returned to the foot of Xuefeng Mountain in Huishangang Town, Taojiang County, his hometown. It turned out that he had studied veterinary medicine at school and had done a lot of research on animal feeding, especially his research on fragrant pigs, which had entered the key breakthrough stage. While working at Cargill, his research haunted him day and night, and the company's lack of a research base made him miserable. After careful consideration, Gao Jingbo joined the tide of returning home to start a business. In October 2013, after returning home, Gao Jingbo was hired as a village official. After persuading his parents, Gao Jingbo devoted himself to researching fragrant pigs while preparing a breeding base. In March 2014, based on Guangxi fragrant pigs and after improvement, Gao Jingbo developed Bama fragrant pigs and built his own breeding base.

Enduring loneliness while pursuing a dream in the high mountains

In April 2014, Gao Jingbo invested 1 million yuan and contracted 1,000 mu of mountain land in Xuefeng Mountain to establish the "Xuefeng Ecological Free-Range Fragrant Pig" farm. In order to run the farm well, Gao Jingbo left early and returned late, and declined visits from relatives and friends. Seeing the piglets slowly grow up, Gao Jingbo simply moved to the pig farm to share hardships with the piglets. During the day he turned the soil and planted forage grass, calling the piglets into the mountain forest; at night he patrolled the pig pens, watching the piglets' sleeping positions. The Bama fragrant pigs that Gao Jingbo researched grow extremely slowly, gaining only 60 jin per year, with a growth period of more than one year; they tolerate coarse feed and eat only forage grass, radishes, cabbage, tree roots, and weeds; and they have extremely strong disease resistance, with not a single case from last year to now. For these reasons, Gao Jingbo adopted a free-range method of raising them. At 9 a.m., Gao Jingbo punctually released the pigs into the 1,000 mu of mountain land, and he himself also stayed within the 1,000 mu of mountain land. Toward evening, Gao Jingbo rang the bell, and the piglets returned when they heard the sound. After a year of exploration, Gao Jingbo became familiar with the breeding business. In 2015 he invested another 1 million yuan to expand the breeding scale and hired 8 local farmers to help with the raising. According to Gao Jingbo, as of November 29, 2015, 348 finished pigs had been sent to market this year, 200 more could be sent to market, and the annual gross profit was more than 1 million yuan. In addition, 300 piglets, 90 sows, and three boars were still being raised in the pig pens.

Talking about the vision of prosperity for all

The shy Gao Jingbo becomes animated as soon as he talks about raising pigs. When asked about his future plans, Gao Jingbo spoke eloquently. In addition to expanding the breeding scale and developing new varieties, he wants to use the favorable local geographical environment to lead nearby villagers in developing the breeding industry and rural tourism, so that everyone can prosper together. Today, Gao Jingbo's Bama fragrant pork is selling briskly in major cities such as Shanghai and Shenzhen through online marketing, and has won over the market because the meat is delicious, the lean meat has a delicate texture, and the fat is rich but not greasy. Having mastered online sales, he is preparing to lead the villagers in vigorously developing green and organic industries and becoming rich through online sales.