Meat Goose Farming Techniques, Feed Formulas and Precautions

In the early stage of farming meat geese, you can choose confined rearing; when they have grown a bit larger, you can choose free-range rearing, letting them go to places with good water sources and abundant forage. During confined rearing, keep the confined area large enough so the flock can spread out. In addition, you must ensure adequate food and water, prevent the flock from becoming crowded, and properly ventilate the confined area.

Meat Goose Farming Techniques and Precautions

I. Farming Techniques

1. Select good breeding geese. From the goslings hatched in spring, select the large-bodied, robust ones as breeding geese to raise.

2. Careful feeding during the laying period. In summer, mainly feed corn, wheat and bran, giving each goose about 100 grams per day in 3 separate feedings, plus a supplement of 300-500 grams of green feed.

3. Forced molting during the non-laying period. Female geese lay eggs until early summer each year, when egg production begins to decline; most female geese have dry, withered feathers and thus enter the non-laying period.

4. Nutritional requirements and compound feed. Because breeding geese continuously lay eggs and reproduce, they need to consume more nutrients, especially energy, protein, calcium and phosphorus.

5. Under predominantly housed feeding conditions, the recommended dietary nutritional level for laying female geese is: metabolizable energy 10.88 kJ-12.3 kJ/kg, crude protein 14%-16%, crude fiber 5%-8% (not higher than 10%), lysine 0.8%, methionine 0.35%, cystine 0.27%, calcium 2.25%, available phosphorus 0.3%, salt 0.5%. According to trials, feeding female geese a compound feed made in the proportion of corn 40%, soybean cake 12%, rice bran 25%, rapeseed cake 5%, bone meal 1% and shell meal 7% increased average egg production, fertilized eggs and breeding-egg fertility rate by 3.1%, 3.5% and 2% respectively compared with feeding only paddy rice.

6. Feed more green feed. Domestic and international goose-farming practice and trials have both proven that feeding female geese green, succulent feed has a good effect on improving their reproductive performance. Therefore, where conditions permit, feed more green feed during the breeding period.

7. Suitable environmental temperature. When managing laying geese, pay attention to the environmental temperature, especially doing a good job of heat prevention and cooling in summer.

8. Suitable light duration. The length and intensity of light have a relatively large effect on the reproductive capacity of female geese.

9. Reasonable ventilation. To keep the air in the goose house fresh, besides controlling stocking density (1.3-1.6 geese per sq m under housed feeding, 2 geese per sq m under grazing conditions) and promptly removing droppings and litter, frequently open doors and windows for ventilation.

II. Precautions

Many female geese are mostly raised in open-style goose houses with natural lighting systems, and insufficient light duration has a certain effect on egg laying. Therefore, to increase the laying rate, light should be supplemented, preferably starting 1 month before the start of laying, increasing from less to more until the suitable light duration is reached. The added artificial lighting time should be arranged in the morning and evening respectively. Different breeds require different lighting in different seasons, so a lighting plan should be made according to season, region, breed, natural light and laying age in weeks, and implemented according to plan without arbitrary adjustment.

Feed Formulas for Meat Geese

1. Energy feed: corn, sorghum, barley, etc.

2. Protein feed: various oilseed cakes.

3. Mineral feed: bone meal, limestone powder, shell powder and trace elements, salt.

4. Animal feed: fish meal, blood meal, meat-and-bone meal; also bran, grass meal; vitamins.

How to Raise Female Geese in Winter and Spring

1. Cold prevention and warmth: Although adult geese have increased cold resistance, when winter temperatures are too low, the reproductive performance of female geese is still affected to a certain degree, so cold-prevention and warmth measures must be well implemented, and stocking density increased, raising 3-4 laying geese per sq m. The female goose house should be dry and warm, sheltered from wind and facing the sun, free from drafts and frost and snow damage; the laying nests should be soft and warm, and thick litter should be spread inside the house, keeping the indoor temperature above 5°C. Where conditions permit, a plastic greenhouse can be built to use solar energy to raise the room temperature, which can increase the laying rate of female geese by more than 15%.

2. Quantitative feeding: In winter, geese consume more themselves, because the feed they eat must expend part of its heat energy to resist the cold. Therefore, the feed nutrition standard for laying female geese should be raised, and the combination of concentrate and roughage should be reasonable, so as to balance the goose body's consumption and enhance its cold resistance. Generally, energy feed such as paddy rice and corn should be appropriately increased, and high-quality green and rough feed supplemented. The daily ration composition is (%): corn 60, bran 20, oilseed cakes 18, growth hormone and eggshell powder 2. Feed each goose 150-200 grams of compound feed per day, in 3 feedings, one of which is best given at night, which is even more beneficial for increasing the laying rate.

3. Never cut off green feed: As the farming proverb says, "There is no trick to raising geese, just vegetable leaves and green grass." Laying female geese certainly cannot go without green feed. Practice has proven that if breeding geese are not fed green feed during the laying period, the laying rate drops by 50%; if the daily ration never lacks green feed, they lay an egg every other day, and the eggs laid are large and heavy. Laying female geese need no less than 500 grams of green feed per day.

4. Increase lighting: Winter has short daylight hours; to promote egg cell maturation and increase egg production, artificial light supplementation can be used. In the early laying period, increase lighting by 30-60 minutes per day and night to promote ovarian development in female geese; by the peak laying period, extend lighting to 16-18 hours and keep it there without reduction, otherwise egg laying will be affected.

5. Increase exercise: In winter, female geese have reduced activity; to prevent the goose body from becoming too fat, exercise should be strengthened. On clear days, drive the geese to a suitable activity area and let them bask in the sun more, to strengthen their physique, benefit their growth and development, and increase egg laying.

6. Reasonable water release: In winter, reduce the number of times geese enter the water and shorten the water release time, and release them late in the morning and bring them in early in the evening. Water release is best done once each in the morning and afternoon on clear days when sunlight is abundant; generally, driving geese into the water at around 10 a.m. and around 2 p.m. is best, with each water release lasting 10-15 minutes. Do not let them enter the water on rainy or snowy days.

7. Give warm drinking water: Female geese consume a lot of heat in winter, so they should not be given overly cold ice-and-snow water; warm water should be given both day and night to reduce physical energy consumption.

8. Prevent cold-related disease: When female geese get sick during the laying period, egg production drops rapidly, and they pass protein or yolk in their droppings, or lay soft-shelled eggs. Prevention should be done well.

How to Supplement Feed for Meat Geese

1. Supplement feed according to body condition

If a female goose is too fat, large amounts of fat are deposited around the ovaries and oviducts, affecting the formation and movement of egg cells and reducing egg production. If a female goose is too thin, it lacks nutrition and egg production is naturally not high. For an overly fat female goose, simply reduce production appropriately or stop feeding concentrate; for housed female geese, appropriately increase exercise or grazing. For an overly thin female goose, promptly increase concentrate feeding, pay attention to increasing the protein content of the daily ration, and feed concentrate 1-2 times at night.

2. Supplement feed according to droppings

If the droppings a goose passes are thick, large, soft, strip-shaped and glossy on the surface, and break into several segments when gently prodded, this indicates suitable nutrition and normal digestion. If the droppings passed are small, fine and firm, dark in color, and show a granular cross-section when gently prodded, this indicates too much concentrate feed and too little green and rough feed, so the amount of concentrate feed should be reduced and green and rough feed increased. If the droppings are light in color and unformed, this indicates insufficient concentrate feed and too much green feed, with too low a nutritional level in the feed, so concentrate feed should be added.

3. Supplement feed according to egg shape

Laying geese have twice the demand for protein, carbohydrates and fat as non-laying geese, and an even greater demand for minerals and vitamins. Generally speaking, a laying goose needs a total daily ration of 150-300 grams per day and night. If a laying goose takes in insufficient nutrition, the eggshell becomes thinner, and the egg shape changes and becomes smaller. When this occurs, feeds rich in protein such as soybean cake, peanut cake and fish meal must be added, raising the protein content of the laying goose's daily ration to 22%, increasing the daily feeding amount to 300 grams, and at the same time appropriately adding mineral feed.

Before farming meat geese, you must be fully prepared, understand in detail the habits and farming techniques of meat geese, handle the daily hygiene of the goose house well, do a good job of preventing, controlling and treating infectious diseases, take careful care, reasonably arrange meat goose farming batches, ensure a certain rest period for each period, and do a good job of cleaning and disinfection.