Raising children to eat wild vegetables, drink water, sell meat for 400,000 VND/kg

After nearly 6 years of pursuing the model of raising spotted deer for antlers and breeding, Mr. Hoang Dinh Hien has now recovered his investment capital and accumulated a decent profit. Being aware of the times in doing business and having the mindset to evaluate market trends, in 2017, Mr. Hien switched to raising deer for meat. Mr. Hien's deer meat is always in high demand, moreover, deer meat does not have to compete in the livestock meat market, the product is easy to consume but the price is high, reaching 400,000 VND/kg of meat.

Mr. Hien said that in addition to the main food of wild vegetables, deer also love to eat sweet and astringent vegetables and fruits, such as bananas, papaya, dragon fruit and water spinach.

As a person with personality, for many years Mr. Hien has always been looking for ways to get rich, but he believes that his way of getting rich must always be unique, different from others, and he is ready to accept the rule of "all or nothing".

Mr. Hien said: “I do not accept the fragmented and trendy business model, because it is easy to fall into the situation of “good harvest, low price…”, not very effective. When I started raising sika deer, I thoroughly researched the market in Dien Bien province”. Mr. Hien analyzed that raising sika deer for meat is a new business direction and very effective.

In recent years, Dien Bien market has only been able to supply antlers and deer breeding products, while deer meat still has to be imported from other places. After several years of raising and gaining experience, Mr. Hien has now focused on raising deer meat mainly.

Mr. Hien's deer pens are designed very simply, each pen is about 100 square meters wide, and Mr. Hien keeps 10-13 deer in it. Due to the nature of deer being timid, the males often fight, so Mr. Hien built a 1 meter high half wall, and surrounded the rest with B40 mesh to create an open space.

Every day, a deer eats about 5-7kg of green vegetables and leaves. These vegetables and leaves are easy to find in the forest, and even in winter they are not as scarce as food for buffalo and cows.

Mr. Hien shared: “The technique of raising deer and taking care of deer is very simple, because their food is mainly vegetables and forest leaves, they drink water and rarely get sick. In addition, if the breeder has the conditions, they can feed the deer with fruits such as bananas, dragon fruit, papaya or water spinach, which are their favorite foods and provide very good nutrition for deer.”

According to Mr. Hien, raising deer does not worry about the scarcity of fresh food in winter like raising buffalo or cows. Because deer can eat nearly 30 types of wild vegetables, and it is not difficult to get those vegetables around Mr. Hien's house.

Through a survey of the Dien Bien market, Mr. Hien assessed that deer meat products are not yet widely available and popular for sale in markets but are mainly consumed in large restaurants. A deer of meat age needs to be raised for at least 1 year and reach a weight of about 20kg for sale. Mr. Hien has never sold the price below 250,000 VND/kg of live weight and 400,000 VND/kg of hooked meat and is always in a state of "out of stock".

Mr. Hien's experience in raising deer for meat is to choose female deer for breeding, which grow quickly, are easy to care for and rarely fight.

“When raising deer for meat, you should choose female deer. They grow quickly, are easy to care for, and rarely fight. If they fight, it will only create a small wound that is difficult to heal and can become infected and cause death,” Mr. Hien revealed.

According to Mr. Hien's calculation, raising deer is quite profitable, all investment costs each year only cost about 30%, the remaining 70% is considered profit for the breeder. Therefore, in a good year, Mr. Hien earns more than 350 million VND.

“Because the method of raising deer for meat is simple and brings high economic profits, according to the 2019 plan, I will invest in expanding the scale of the barn to 5,000m²and develop the herd of deer for meat to 100. I have now finished planning the breeding area and am preparing to go to Huong Son district (Ha Tinh) to import the breed to ensure quality," said Mr. Hien.