Earthworm farming pays off well, even manure can be turned into gold

When it comes to earthworms, most people are quite familiar with them. Aren't they just soft-bodied creatures crawling in the soil? Nothing could be more ordinary. But Darwin called earthworms the most valuable animals in the world. Why on earth is that? Recently, a reporter found the answer while interviewing in Yangping Village, Jiangjun Township, Hongya County.

On the back hill of the Yangping dairy cattle breeding base, several tractors kept tipping cow manure onto the land, while workers in the field shoveled the manure onto the ridges. What exactly was being grown there that required so much cow manure? The reporter asked an old farmer who was busy at work, full of puzzlement. The old farmer casually scooped up a handful of manure from a ridge, and out crawled bright red, soft earthworms, and quite a lot of them too. In just that small shovelful of manure there were dozens of earthworms. It turned out that what was being grown in these manure piles was neither grain nor vegetables, but earthworms. Nearly 200 mu of manure field is this earthworm farming base, using cow manure specifically to feed earthworms.

Seeing so many earthworms crawling among the cow manure for the first time, one feels somewhat uneasy. Keeper Wang Dagui said: "Don't turn your nose up at these earthworms. Plain as they look, they're worth money!"

Local villager Hou Chunlin is the production supervisor of the earthworm farming base. He explained that the earthworm, also known as dilong, can be used as medicine, is a naturally excellent fishing bait, and can even be served at the dinner table. The varieties being raised are the "Taiping No. 1" and "Taiping No. 2" large red earthworms, with a yield of about 2000 kg per mu. The earthworm products mainly target the fishing bait market, and prices follow the market, with the lowest price at 10 yuan per kg and the highest selling for 60 yuan per kg. There is never any worry about sales, as customers come to them on their own, and the earthworms are in short supply.

Cow manure can be used to raise high-priced earthworms, which is truly unexpected, and what is even more unexpected is that even the excrement produced by the earthworms is worth money too. "Earthworm castings are gold, not soil." Hou Chunlin told the reporter that the excrement produced by earthworms has a very high organic matter content and is an excellent organic fertilizer for nurseries, vegetables, fish ponds and household bonsai. The current market price of this fertilizer is 300 yuan per ton, and the base's nearly 200 mu of earthworm farming field can produce 3000 tons of such fertilizer a year.

Using cow manure to farm earthworms not only solves the headache of environmental pollution, but also produces high-quality organic fertilizer while earning profits from selling the earthworms, achieving multiple benefits in one stroke.