The Wealth of Farmers raising Sika Deer in Chengde, Hebei Province

"the farm usually starts sawing velvet antler and collecting deer blood on May 20." On May 6, Zhao Hongjie, a villager from Chengde, Hebei Province, took us to the sika deer farm at the foot of the mountain. He pointed to more than a dozen strong sika deer and said happily that raising sika deer is quite profitable. Since 2014, the farm has only made a net profit of more than 40,000 yuan a year by selling velvet antler.

Zhao Hongjie, 46, is a farmer who likes aquaculture. Before raising sika deer, he raised pigs for more than 10 years. "if you lose money by raising pigs, you can also make money." Zhao Hongjie said that he raised 20 sows in 1996 and lost tens of thousands of yuan a year because of low pig prices. Encountered setbacks, but did not make him lose confidence in breeding. "the key to aquaculture is to grasp the laws of the market." In the next few years, he had to raise more than 300 pigs every year, and raising pigs made him a lot of money. However, in 1999, he lost a lot of money again, when the selling price of big pigs was only 5.8 yuan per kilogram, which made him suffer heavy losses. To his delight, with the rise in pig prices in 2007, a live pig made a net profit of 500 to 600 yuan. In this way, in the midst of ups and downs, Zhao Hongjie has been raising pigs.

"I didn't even see the shadow of the deer before I raised the sika deer." When it comes to why he raised sika deer, Zhao Hongjie was excited. Zhao Hongjie came up with the idea of raising sika deer to make money when he happened to see it on TV in 2013. Upon inquiry, there is a sika deer farm in Tongzhou, Beijing. Zhao Hongjie rushed to Tongzhou in Beijing to visit "learning from classics." "I am very lucky to be able to raise sika deer successfully, mainly because the sika deer farm in Jiulu deer industry is willing to accept me as an apprentice. It not only teaches me breeding skills, but also teaches me how to blow needles." After mastering some knowledge of sika deer's living habits and disease prevention, Zhao Hongjie built a sika deer farm at the foot of the mountain near the pig farm. In order to raise the sika deer well, he contracted more than 10 mu of mountain forest this year, so that he could cut leaves to feed the deer and raise them meticulously. that year, he cut more than 6000 grams of velvet antler.

Speaking of why he went to Jiulu deer industry to buy sika deer, Zhao Hongjie said that Beijing Jiulu deer industry, which has been reported by many media, such as CCTV's seven science and technology programs, people's Daily online, Xinhuanet, and so on, is a big brand company. Now that we have introduced a kind of deer, we have signed a purchase contract with Jiulu to regularly recover velvet antler and other products, thus ensuring the marketing problem of our deer raising; technically, the Jiulu industry has provided us with free breeding materials and CDs for our study, and in the later stage, Jiulu will also send technicians to guide us. Because of these guarantees, I took good care of my deer. Because the breed of deer delivered to me by Jiulu was good, the antler yield was high, and the disease resistance was strong, coupled with the fact that the technology was in place, our deer quickly made a profit, and in the later period I borrowed some money to increase the number of deer and popularize sika deer technology with the help of Jiulu industry.

"it's hard to raise sika deer, especially when the male deer are in estrus." Zhao Hongjie said that from September to October, the buck will often fight in order to "fight for supremacy." In 2015, two male deer fought each other and broke their ribs. After more than 20 days of treatment, they finally died. In this regard, Zhao Hongjie learned a lesson, and whenever he heard the sound of fighting, he got up many times in the night to "persuade the two sides to fight" away from the two sides, so as to reduce losses. "it's troublesome to inject sika deer against the epidemic. The sika deer is afraid of strangers, so the injection can only be far away from it, using a long blow needle. " Zhao Hongjie said that at first he could only blow 2 to 3 meters away with a blow needle, but after six or seven years of practice, he can now blow 5 to 6 meters away. With the passage of time, Zhao Hongjie gradually became famous for raising sika deer in Chengde, and more people bought velvet antler and deer blood wine. In 2015, he cut more than 10,000 grams of pilose antler with a gross income of 60,000 yuan. Last year, only selling velvet antler made a profit of more than 40,000 yuan. "now there are 10 male deer and 2 female deer in my farm, and the pilose antler and deer blood wine produced should be booked." Zhao Hongjie said that he sells about 50 kilograms of deer blood wine a year.