Like most millennials, rearing animals isn’t what this young lady had in mind for her career, but it turned out to be her best decision ever!
In 2013, Nie Ling Li’s brother was successfully recruited to work in the government sector and someone had to take over her brother’s pig farming business. After giving it a long hard thought, Nie agreed to balik kampung in Wuhan, China to succeed her brother’s business.
Being born in the ’90s, Nie was a total stranger to pig farming and she had a rough start.
Source: CJN
Her pigs were brought in from Guangxi, China and some of them unfortunately died before they could even give birth. There were also those who died right after giving birth to the piglets. Nie believes that the cold temperature might be one of the causes of their death and so she travelled to different places to learn from other more experienced farmers.
After coming back, she put her knowledge to good use and improved the facilities so that the pigs could stay warm during winter.
Since her pigs are allowed to run freely on the mountains, Nie built a house on the high ground in order to provide better care for them.
Source: CN Hubei
Source: CN Hubei
Although taking care of the pigs was tiring, the business did allow her to understand the animals at a more in-depth level and she now has a different perspective towards pigs.
“Pigs are normally deemed lazy but they are actually very active. It’s impossible for us to catch them when they’re on the run. In fact, they can run faster than you on your treadmill!” Nie said.
Thanks to her can-do attitude, her business was finally back on track and the money started rolling in. It was reported that she sold over 2,000 pigs last year and roasted pigs were supplied to hotels at 700Yuan (approx. RM430) per head.
Customers from all over China are also flocking to her farm because her pigs are said to be juicer and tastier. Her orders kept coming in one after another.
Thanks to this, she now roughly earns 1,004,870 Yuan (approx. RM620,000) per year. In a good year, she can earn even more than that!
Nie’s incredible journey has proven to us that you don’t need experience to be successful at something, all you need is determination and persistence. We wish her all the best for her business!
Also read: This M’sian Fisherman Was Once Labelled ‘Crazy’ For Farming Fish, Now He’s a Millionaire
