American ring-necked pheasant farming brings in over 200,000 yuan a year
On October 21, a reporter saw the "foreign guests" from across the ocean, American ring-necked pheasants, at the Hengshun Special Breeding Farm in Tuyi Village, Guidui Township, Huaibin County. "This year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day were especially busy; so many cars came to buy our American ring-necked pheasants that they blocked the road," said Ren Anming, head of the Hengshun Special Breeding Farm, excitedly. During the "double festivals" alone, his farm sold more than 1,000 pheasants.
"I had been working in Xiaoshan before. Once, while eating at a restaurant in Xiaoshan, a pot of pheasant cost more than 400 yuan, and I thought the chance for a 'grassroots startup' had come."
For this reason, Ren Anming went online to learn about information on raising ring-necked pheasants, and also traveled far to places such as Guangxi and Zhengzhou to learn from others on the ground, finally deciding to introduce American ring-necked pheasants to his hometown. In March 2015, Ren Anming invested 100,000 yuan to build in his hometown the "adult residence" for the pheasants, as well as more than ten rain-sheltering sheds and an "aerial corridor" for the pheasants to play in. When everything was ready, the first batch of more than 1,000 chicks officially "moved into" the chick "greenhouse" that had already been built. Through trial and error and summarising his experience, he quickly grasped the living habits of wild pheasants, and the breeding survival rate reached 90%.
"We usually feed the pheasants corn and vegetables grown specially in our own fields. The products are mainly sold to nearby Gushi, Huangchuan and other places. A live pheasant can sell for 100 yuan, and the price of pheasant eggs is 3 times that of ordinary free-range eggs."
At present, Ren Anming's farm covers more than 300 sq m, with two acclimatisation houses and one large outdoor breeding-pheasant enclosure. This year, he has raised 2,500 pheasants, with annual income reaching more than 200,000 yuan.
Ren Anming said that in the future he plans to install automatic incubation equipment, breed and raise them himself, and expand the scale. He also plans to establish a ring-necked pheasant breeding professional cooperative, continuously develop new breeders, carry out contract farming, and realise farmers' colourful dream of becoming rich.