Muskrat Farming Success Brings Joy to Farmers in Hejing County

"After three years of trial breeding, I have accumulated rich farming experience, and there is a relatively stable market for the muskrats. I will provide breeding muskrats and my personal farming experience free of charge to villagers who are willing to raise them, and I hope everyone can become prosperous," Chen Zhiming said on October 14 during an interview at the muskrat breeding base in Aril Village, Barun Halmodun Town, Hejing County.

Raising crabs and soft-shelled turtles is nothing new in Hejing County, but developing muskrats as a wealth-building industry and even establishing a muskrat breeding base made farmer Chen Zhiming of Barun Halmodun Town, Hejing County, the first to do so. In developing specialty breeding, farmer Chen Zhiming has explored a new path to prosperity for himself and his neighbors.

At Chen Zhiming's muskrat breeding base, in pens divided into individual compartments by cement boards, plump, furry muskrats looked charmingly naive. Some were happily gnawing on a stalk of green grass, their two large front teeth scraping quickly through the blades like scrapers, making a soft rustling sound.

Chen Zhiming explained: "Muskrats are omnivorous animals. They not only eat little, but are also very easy to raise and are not picky eaters. Corn, wheat, soybeans and so on can all serve as their staple food, and the side dishes are even simpler - two or three slices of carrot a day is enough. Young muskrats can grow to 2 kg after being raised for 4 to 5 months. A pair of adult muskrats can breed more than 20 young in a year. Breeding muskrats sell for 100 yuan each. Muskrat fur is known as soft gold, with a market price of around 80 to 120 yuan, and musk can also be extracted, but this technology is not yet mature."

Chen Zhiming is from Aril Village, Barun Halmodun Town, Hejing County. In 2012, he introduced muskrats from Sishilicheng in Yanqi County, built sheds that same year, and began raising muskrats. It has now been three years. At present, the muskrats he raises have reached 400. In 2013, Chen Zhiming's application for a muskrat breeding base was approved, making it the first muskrat breeding base in Hejing County. Last year alone, the muskrats raised by Chen Zhiming brought him nearly 300,000 yuan in income. Today, Chen Zhiming has become a well-known large-scale muskrat farmer in Hejing County.

Prosperity has not made him forget his neighbors. In 2013, fellow villager Liu Tongxi came to him hoping to learn muskrat breeding techniques. Chen Zhiming taught him the techniques without hesitation and provided 5 pairs of young muskrats to this farmer free of charge.

Striving to reach a stock of about 2,000 muskrats and ultimately establishing a muskrat breeding professional cooperative so that the surrounding people can all become prosperous was Chen Zhiming's original dream, and now Chen Zhiming is getting closer and closer to this dream.