What are the eighteen taboos of meat duck farming? With key farming techniques

Duck meat and duck eggs are tender in texture, rich in nutrients and delicious in taste, and are foods people love. Duck feathers can be made into clothing, bedding, textiles and so on, and their farming prospects are unanimously viewed favorably. But if you want to raise high-quality meat ducks, there is quite a lot to pay attention to. So, do you know what the eighteen taboos of meat duck farming are? Plus key farming techniques!

1. What are the eighteen taboos of meat duck farming?

First taboo: raising low-yield ducks; second taboo: feeding a single feed;

Third taboo: feeding at irregular times; fourth taboo: uneven hunger and fullness;

Fifth taboo: the duck house being too damp; sixth taboo: no disease prevention all year round;

Seventh taboo: no deworming all year round; eighth taboo: strong light shining on the ducks;

Ninth taboo: water pollution in the duck pond; tenth taboo: constantly changing the feed;

Eleventh taboo: outsiders entering the duck house; twelfth taboo: livestock and rats startling the flock;

Thirteenth taboo: suddenly turning off the lights in the night house; fourteenth taboo: suddenly changing the routine;

Fifteenth taboo: high density in summer; sixteenth taboo: the duck house being cold in winter;

Seventeenth taboo: mixing large and small ducks in one flock; eighteenth taboo: shouting beside the ducks.

2. Key techniques for meat duck farming

1. Breed selection

You should choose breeds with strong stress resistance that are suitable both for penned raising and for free-range raising in low mountain and hilly areas, with a wide feeding habit, large feed intake, a well-developed muscular stomach and strong digestive capacity, full feathers, a moderate head size, bright black eyes, red-tinged duck feet and relatively strong disease resistance.

2. Duck house construction

For building the duck house, it is best to choose a place far from the village, with high and dry terrain, sufficient water sources, a quiet environment, good ventilation and lighting, and convenient transportation. Duck houses can be divided into permanent duck houses and temporary duck houses. Permanent duck houses are built with bricks, stone, cement and so on and can be used for a long time. Temporary duck houses are covered with double-layer plastic film using plastic greenhouses; for insulation and heat protection, crop straw and so on are placed between the two layers of plastic film. They can be used for 2-3 years. The interior floor is paved with cement concrete and kept at a certain slope, with drainage ditches around it to facilitate washing and cleaning of duck manure. The building area of the duck house is determined by the size of the raising volume. For example, for a scale of 1000 ducks per batch, the brooding room area is 80 sq m, with a brooding density of about 15 ducks per sq m; the area of the growing-finishing duck house is 240 sq m, with a raising density of 5 ducks per sq m.

3. Fattening feed

The main thing is to supplement protein and fat, energy and calories, so mainly feed bran and chaff, together with grain, flour, cornmeal and sorghum meal, then protein feeds such as beans and soybean cake, and also add trace-element feeds such as bone meal and fish meal, which can promote nutrient absorption. After feeding this way for two weeks, you can reduce bran, wheat bran and bean feeds, and mainly feed wheat flour, rice flour, bone meal and a small amount of salt not exceeding 0.4% as a supplement.

To supplement the shortage of feed during the free-range period, free-range ducks should be given supplementary feeding at the right time. Free-range raising of ducklings starts from 4 weeks of age; the early stage is the brooding period, and they can be raised in pens or cages. Ducklings are given supplementary feeding once each in the morning and evening to supplement the shortage of energy. Determine the supplementary feeding amount according to the principle of half-full in the morning and full feeding in the evening, and gradually reduce the number and amount of feedings to encourage the ducks to eat freely.

4. Strengthen supervision

Strictly guard against harm from wild beasts such as lynx and weasels. The beasts that harm ducks are all afraid of mesh tools, so using nylon netting to enclose the farming site is an effective defensive measure, especially when free-range raising young ducks, when preventing rat damage is even more important.

5. Epidemic prevention and disease control

Adhere to the policy of ”prevention first, with prevention more important than treatment”, follow routine defense procedures, carry out vaccination regularly, and do a good job in epidemic prevention and disease control.

At present, the relatively common and excellent meat duck breeds on the market include Beijing duck, Cherry Valley duck, Tianfu meat duck and Digao duck. It is recommended that farmers buy ducklings through formal channels.