Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

Besides these seven major changes, there was another relatively important thing that must be mentioned about Wang Anjia this year.

Although Wang Anjia's sika deer breeding business has not yet reached a large scale, it has already begun to generate considerable profits.

And this considerable profit comes from deer antlers and deer blood!

In June and August, Comrade Wang Dazhu harvested antlers from the heads of the large male sika deer and the three sub-adult male sika deer.

In June, during the first harvest of deer antlers, Wang Dazhu sawed off a full 2.2 jin of deer antlers from the head of a large male deer and collected more than half a jin of deer antler blood.

On the heads of the three sub-adult male deer, a little over 1 jin of antlers were cut off from each deer, and more than 1 liang of antler blood was collected.

In August, during the second harvest of deer antlers, more than 2.1 jin of deer antlers and nearly half a jin of deer blood were sawn off the head of a large male deer.

The three sub-adult male deer, still growing, had more antlers. More than 1.2 jin of antlers were sawed off from the heads of each deer, and more than 2 liang of antler blood was collected at the same time.

The reason why deer antler is now measured in "jin" instead of "gram" is because in those days, medicinal herb purchasing stations and supply and marketing cooperatives purchased deer antler by weighing it in "jin" and calculating the price, rather than by weighing it in "gram".

In terms of price, sika deer antlers are more expensive, ranging from 80 to 150 yuan per jin (500 grams), while red deer antlers are relatively cheaper, ranging from 50 to 100 yuan per jin (500 grams).

However, red deer antlers are larger and heavier, so when comparing individual antlers of the two types of deer, red deer antlers can actually fetch more money.

This is very similar to the difference between black bear bile and brown bear bile.

The reason why the price of deer antlers of the same species can vary so much is that deer antlers are divided into two-pronged deer antlers, three-pronged deer antlers, and strange-horned deer antlers. The larger and heavier the antler, the higher the unit price, while the smaller and lighter the antler, the lower the unit price.

This is very similar to the pricing standard for ginseng, which is that under the condition of perfect quality, the larger the weight, the higher the unit price.

For example, wild ginseng of grade four, which is between 50 and 80 years old, normally weighs less than 100 grams.

The heaviest of the four-grade leaves dug up by Wang An, Mu Xueli, and Wang Li was only 95 grams, most of them weighed only 70 or 80 grams, and there were quite a few that weighed only 50 or 60 grams.

According to the current purchase price of supply and marketing cooperatives and medicinal herb purchasing stations, grade 4 leaves are 20 yuan per gram, which means that for leaves weighing more than 50 grams, the minimum price is 1000 yuan per leaf.

But if it weighs more than 100 grams, then the price can be comparable to that of a grade 5 leaf, which means it can be sold at the price of a grade 5 leaf, 30 yuan per gram.

哪怕是99克重的四品叶野山参，都是20块钱1克，可只要达到100克了，直接就是30块钱1克。

The price difference is truly too great.

While the price difference for deer antlers wasn't as significant as that for ginseng in those days, it was still roughly the same.

Two-pronged deer antlers have only two branches, three-pronged deer antlers have three branches, and strange antlers are deer antlers with unusual shapes.

The most valuable type is the two-pronged deer antler, followed by the three-pronged deer antler, and finally the strange-horned deer antler. The best two-pronged deer antler can reach up to 150 yuan per kilogram, while the worst strange-horned deer antler is only 80 yuan per kilogram.

The antlers of Wang Anjia's male sika deer are three-pronged. Based on the weight of each antler exceeding 8 liang (approximately 400 grams), the purchase price should be around 130 yuan per jin (approximately 500 grams).

The first antlers of sub-adult male sika deer are basically two-striped antlers, distinguished by weight, that is, 6 liang (300 grams) per antler.

First-harvest second-grade deer antlers weighing less than 6 liang (approximately 300 grams) each should cost 100 yuan per jin (approximately 500 grams), while second-harvest second-grade deer antlers weighing more than 6 liang (approximately 300 grams) each should cost 120 yuan per jin. Relatively speaking, the grading standard for deer antlers is quite complex, with a total of four grades, and the accurate price is determined based on various factors such as appearance, weight, etc.

So Wang An only knew a rough price. The main thing was that the acquisition of this thing was decided by the staff, so even if he knew more about it, it wouldn't be of any use.

Regardless, this male sika deer produced a total of 4.3 jin of three-pronged antlers in that year, which would be worth about 560 yuan if sold to the supply and marketing cooperative.

The three half-grown sika deer produced 3.3 jin of two-strength deer antlers in the first batch, which were worth 100 yuan per jin, and 3.6 jin of two-strength deer antlers in the second batch, which were worth 120 yuan per jin.

If you sell it to the supply and marketing cooperative for cash, it will be 330 yuan plus 432 yuan, for a total of about 762 yuan.

If the cost is divided among each deer, it would average out to 254 yuan.

One adult male sika deer and three sub-adult male sika deer generated 1322 yuan in income from deer antlers alone in just one year, which shows how important this is.

Wang Anjia also has three male sika deer that are almost two years old and five male sika deer fawns that are less than six months old.

Those three nearly two-year-old male sika deer are expected to grow antlers next year, or at the latest the following year. In other words, these three sika deer will bring Wang Anjia another source of income.

However, Wang An would not sell deer antlers to the supply and marketing cooperative, because drying them and selling them to Anguo was the preferred option, mainly because the price difference was more than double.

In fact, all of these factors are the reasons why Wang An insisted on raising sika deer.

You should know that raising sika deer involves not only harvesting antlers and collecting antler blood from the male deer each year, but also drawing blood from all the deer three to four times a year.

Based on an average of 1.5 jin of fresh deer blood extracted from each sika deer each time, 31 deer can yield approximately 45 jin of fresh deer blood, which, when dried into deer blood powder, will amount to about 7.5 jin.

Currently, the purchase price of deer blood powder at supply and marketing cooperatives or medicinal herb purchasing stations is 30 yuan per jin (500 grams). 7.5 jin (3.75 grams) would be 225 yuan. Collecting blood 4 times a year would cost 900 yuan, which averages out to nearly 30 yuan per deer.

The total cost of deer blood, around 900 yuan a year, is quite a substantial income.

In addition to the increasing number of deer antlers each year, even if the number of sika deer in Wang An's family does not increase in two years, they can easily earn five or six thousand yuan a year just from these 31 sika deer.

Keep in mind that this was five or six thousand yuan in the 80s, which is equivalent to hundreds of thousands of yuan in later years.

Of course, it is absolutely impossible for the number of sika deer not to increase.

Even if a deer dies, there are still deer hides, deer meat, deer bones, deer tails, deer tendons, and other things that can be sold for money. If it's a male deer, a deer penis can sell for a hundred or two hundred yuan.

That's right. At that time, a single deer penis cost around 170 or 180 yuan, depending on its length and weight, with a maximum of around 200 yuan. Private transactions might be more expensive, but it would definitely not exceed 300 yuan.

In short, deer farming is just as Feng Chengmin said—it's an incredibly profitable business!

Of course, this further strengthened Wang An's determination to go to the mountains to catch sika deer and raise them whenever he had the chance.

The main problem is that if we start raising these animals now, we can keep raising them indefinitely. But if it comes to the time when hunting is prohibited to protect the ecosystem, even getting a permit to raise sika deer will be extremely difficult.

(End of this chapter)