Luzhou, Sichuan: raising porcupine, selling pork and selling pig hair

What is the price of a porcupine covered with thorns? "the current market price is 150 yuan / kg, and supply exceeds demand. According to my breeding and sales methods, a porcupine plus spiny pig hair will earn 1500 yuan. " On June 25, looking at the porcupine in the ring, Guo Qiang, a villager and porcupine farmer in Tuanjie Village, Baijie Town, Naxi District, Luzhou City, said proudly.

When I walked into Guo Qiang's porcupine farm, I only heard the sound of "rustling" and "clicking". Guo Qiang said that "rustling" is the sound of porcupine eating vegetable leaves; "click" is the sound of the "little bell" on the porcupine tail. The author sees that these porcupines are black or dark brown, with a slender mane on the head and neck and a straight back-curving mane, and a three-lobed mouth like a hare. And porcupine back, buttocks, tail are thick and straight, black and white, spindle-shaped thorns, some thorns tip also has barbs, like an arrow.

Aim at the market guys to return to their hometown to raise porcupine. "I only saw porcupine on TV before. I didn't go back to my hometown to join the industry until I saw someone else raise porcupine in Chongqing a few years ago." Guo Qiang, 24, said while feeding cabbage leaves to the porcupine that after graduating from junior high school in 2008, he went out to work in an auto parts factory in Chongqing and was promoted to a senior mechanic five years later, with a monthly salary and bonus of 8500 yuan, making him the highest-paid repairman in the auto parts factory. By chance, he saw a young man in Jiangbei District of Chongqing who had an annual income of 600000 yuan for raising porcupine. He resolutely gave up his job as an auto mechanic and returned to his hometown in May 2013 with savings of more than 200,000 yuan. He built a porcupine farm and bought breeding pigs to start the road of raising porcupine, becoming the first person in Luzhou porcupine farming.

"I didn't give up raising porcupine with a high salary, but I made up my mind to do it after I found that porcupine farming in Luzhou market was still blank." Guo Qiang said that porcupines are omnivores, their immunity is much stronger than ordinary pigs, and he can bear the risk of breeding.

In Guo Qiang's farm, the spacious rooms are divided into small circles by brick walls, each with three or five porcupine of different sizes. "raising in a small room not only prevents fights between porcupine, but also facilitates the management of 'running water breeding' to ensure that more than 20 porcupine are sold every month." Guo Qiang said that a 20-kilogram porcupine takes eight months to grow. In order to have porcupine for sale every month, he divided the pigsty of the farm into a small room of 4 square meters and fed it regularly to keep abreast of the timing of the porcupine. On the other hand, a porcupine, which weighs 20 kilograms in eight months, makes a profit of at least 1400 yuan each, excluding the cost of raising and piglets.

Innovative sales of thorn pig hair all come for money. "when someone else raises a porcupine, one has a profit of 1400 yuan, but my porcupine has a profit of 1500 yuan, because the pig hair and thorns on each pig sell for more than 100 yuan." It turned out that after Guo Qiang fed the pigs in the pigsty, he would pick up the thorns from which the porcupine fell to the ground.

"not only does the porcupine have delicate meat and delicious taste, but its thorns and pig hair are treasures, which can be used as medicine and can be made into exquisite ornaments. In the past two years, the porcupine thorns here have been sold for up to 240 yuan / kg, and porcupine hair has been sold for 100 yuan / kg. And it has been ordered by a merchant for a long time." Guo Qiang said he was ready to sell porcupine thorns and pig hair together before raising porcupine.

In order to sell the thorns and hair of each porcupine for money, the shrewd Guo Qiang became a butcher, as long as the buyer did not want porcupine thorns and pig hair, he helped slaughter porcupine for free. "I have an extra income of more than 100 yuan, and the buyer also saves dozens of yuan in slaughter expenses, resulting in a win-win situation." He said with a smile.

Guo Qiang calculated an account for the author: the thorns of a porcupine have more than 6 taels, and the porcupine hair also has nearly 6 taels, which can be sold for 100-110 yuan at the current market price. He sells more than 200 porcupine every year, and spines and pig hair alone make an extra profit of nearly 30,000 yuan.