It was a back-to-our roots trip for Ryan George and Brad Lillie of MacFarlane Pheasant Farms when they visited China in May. Ringnecks were imported into the U.S. from Asia near the end of the 1800s and they aren’t hunted for sport in China, but there is interest there in raising pheasants as a meat bird.
Brad and Ryan represented the farm with a booth at the China Animal Husbandry Expo. The three-day expo was in Chongquing, one of China’s five national cities. Located in Southwestern China, it is one of the biggest inland cities and poised for massive growth.
During their travels around the city and the outlying areas, Brad said there was construction everywhere – but a drive of only about an hour can take a person into rugged mountain terrain. As you can see from the slideshow, the area is a study in contrasts, a fast-growing urban area, but any inch of extra space is used to grow vegetables or raise animals. Brad said there were even gardens planted on apartment terraces.
Chinese purchase their dinner pheasants at live markets so they can examine the bird and make sure it’s healthy. But they learned at the expo there is a huge push for modern equipment such as hatchers and incubators because there is an interest in producing birds on a large-scale basis as a commercial meat product. Brad said they noted a lot of modern equipment, but not a lot of people available to teach people how to use it.
Along with equipment at the expo, there were also animals and poultry for sale. It was a huge expo; there were eight exhibition halls and nearly 1,000 exhibitors. It didn’t cost anything to get into the expo so there were wall-to-wall spectators the first day, but by the third day, Brad said the spectator crowds had thinned way down and some of the exhibitors even started leaving early in the day.
They had time for sightseeing and didn’t encounter any problems being Americans in that area of the world. Brad said not a lot of people spoke English, but moms and dads would approach them with their children who had been learning English in school.
Traffic congestion meant lots of walking, and they learned a lot about the area. The visit was worth it because we believe eventually areas of China will begin to transition from the little roadside vegetable stands and open air markets to urban grocery stores. We are hoping there will be a place for pheasant meat in their stores.
Selling pheasant in China would take us full circle. What an interesting prospect that is. If we attend another expo, it would likely be in the Shanghai area which may experience that transition a little faster.
http://www.slideshare.net/pheasantfarm/2015-macfarlane-pheasant-trip-to-china
MacFarlane Pheasants Trip to China