Liu Anbing Gets Rich by Raising Ostriches

    Liu Anbing of Shuiqing Town, Jiang'an County, began slaughtering ostriches in March this year. To date, he has slaughtered 13, earning more than 60,000 yuan. Seeing Liu Anbing's success, surrounding farmers have also joined the ranks of ostrich breeding. "Since I started slaughtering ostriches in March this year, I have slaughtered 13 to date, earning 65,000 yuan, and each ostrich can guarantee an income of 5,000 yuan." Recently, Liu Anbing, owner of an ostrich ecological park in Shuiqing Town, Jiang'an County, told reporters about his "ostrich story," unable to hide his delight. 

Liu Anbing counted on his fingers and did the math for reporters: "An adult ostrich generally weighs 180 jin to 200 jin, and after slaughtering yields 70 jin of clean meat. The market price is 50 yuan per jin, which alone brings in 3,500 yuan." He took a sip of tea and continued: "There is also the ostrich skin, ostrich feathers, ostrich bones, and ostrich internal organs, all of which are worth money. Each ostrich can guarantee an income of 5,000 yuan. After deducting 1,000 yuan in costs, the net income per ostrich is 4,000 yuan." 

On July 8 last year, Liu Anbing introduced his first batch of 47 young ostriches from elsewhere and raised them in a yard of less than 200 sq m at his home, establishing the province's first ostrich breeding base. In March this year, he opened an ostrich ecological park farm restaurant, and business was surprisingly good. Many people from Luzhou, Yibin, Nanxi and other places made special trips to taste ostrich meat. The original pens could no longer accommodate the "housing" needs of 32 ostriches, so Liu Anbing expanded the pen area by 4 mu and will select 4 groups from the 32 ostriches as breeding birds (each group has 1 male and 3 females), and slaughter all the rest. Liu Anbing said: "I have already ordered 100 young ostriches, and they will be delivered soon." Liu Anbing told reporters: "The 12 female ostriches selected for breeding each lay 60 eggs per year. The 4 breeding groups can produce 720 eggs per year. Calculated at a 70% fertilization rate, about 500 young ostriches can be produced each year." 

After Liu Anbing achieved great success in ostrich breeding, many nearby farmers hoped to join the ranks of ostrich breeding. At present, more than 10 farmers have expressed breeding intentions, and more than 10 people from other places also want to learn ostrich breeding techniques. Liu Anbing said he will adopt a "company + farmer" approach for breeding: young ostriches will be given to farmers to raise on behalf of the company, then uniformly bought back. Adult ostriches can be bought back in 10 months, and the contract-raising fee is 1,200 yuan per bird. An adult ostrich eats 7 to 8 kg of green grass per day. An ordinary farmer can raise 5 ostriches and easily earn 6,000 yuan a year without any problem. Liu Anbing said he will focus on supporting particularly poor rural households to raise ostriches on behalf of the company, to help them escape their difficult circumstances.