Duck Commander Wang Liangsheng Builds a Road to Wealth Through Duck Farming with Sheer Stubbornness

Free-ranging in a babbling brook, eating homegrown rice, vegetable leaves and grass by the stream, taking half a year before they can be sold... Modern people would call this "silly farming." Yet Wang Liangsheng, the "Duck Commander" of Group 3, Shuangfeng Village, Guiling Town, Babu District, Hezhou City, insisted on the "silly farming" method of "self-produced feed, free-range in living water," and ran a duck farm remarkably well.

Building a Duck Farm by the Brook

"Quack, quack, quack..." In late autumn, the cheerful calls of more than 3,000 ducks made Wang Liangsheng's duck farm in Group 3, Shuangfeng Village, Guiling Town, exceptionally lively. In the brook on the farm, the ducks splashed and played, as if staging a "harvest celebration play."

In 2013, Wang Liangsheng was still working in Dongguan, Guangdong. One day, at a friend's invitation, he attended a small gathering. A dish was ordered at the table, called "Hezhou White-cut Duck." After eating it, Wang Liangsheng kept commenting: "Not authentic, not the real thing." Thinking of the clear brook beside his house and his own homegrown rice, which were ideal conditions for raising ducks, Wang Liangsheng conceived the idea of returning home to raise ducks and get rich.

No sooner said than done. In February of this year, Wang Liangsheng returned home. He dug a pond of nearly 100 sq m behind his house, built a duck shed and a shade awning on the pond with wooden boards, and stocked the pond with carp and catfish. The duck shed was used to house more than 3,000 ducks, and the shade awning provided rest for the ducks. The water flowing in and out of the pond came from the stream beside the house, and the fish in the pond fed on the duck manure washed down from the duck shed. This farming method was Wang Liangsheng's own idea. He said that raising ducks costs a lot and yields little, and that only by making full use of everything can one gain the greatest benefit.

Traditional Yet Scientific Duck Farming

Walking into Wang Liangsheng's duck farm, there was almost no odor. The duck shed was built with pine boards, ventilated and cool. Spray equipment was installed in the duck shed to give the ducks a "bath" and also to wash the duck manure, and the manure flushed into the pond provided feed for the fish, killing two birds with one stone.

"Tradition plus science, that's my secret to raising ducks," Wang Liangsheng told this writer with a chuckle. Beside Wang Liangsheng's duck farm was a stream about 3 m wide, and the banks of the stream were covered with lush green grass. Wang Liangsheng said that after playing in the water, the ducks would occasionally eat some grass by the stream, which also saved some feed.

"More than 3,000 sold in half a year, 130 yuan each, all sold to Hezhou city proper and the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong." The ducks Wang Liangsheng raised had tender skin and fragrant meat and were much favored by consumers. With his income now substantial, he wanted to continue expanding the scale of breeding. Wang Liangsheng said that in the past, raising ducks had no epidemic prevention measures or modern equipment, and he worried a lot about problems arising; now newly hatched ducklings could be vaccinated, the duck shed could be cleaned with ease, the ducks got sick less and grew fast, which relieved him of many worries.

Now Wang Liangsheng has a new idea. He is considering how to give his ducks a catchy name. And after naming them, he even wants to go register it as a trademark!