Dry-farming of ducks and geese delivers high profits and is eco-friendly: how do you choose the right breeding breeds?

China is the world's largest producer of waterfowl, with the rearing volume of meat ducks, laying ducks and geese accounting for about 70% of the world total. As technology improves, waterfowl farming methods are also transforming and upgrading from “extensive to environmentally friendly.” What are the current economic benefits of waterfowl farming? And how should dry farming go about selecting suitable waterfowl breeds?

Over the past 20 to 30 years, China's waterfowl industry has made tremendous progress, achieving a series of enormous advances in breeds, farming technology and feed, as well as in food processing.

The waterfowl industry provides three different types of products: meat, eggs and down, all of which have extremely high economic value. In 2018, our meat duck slaughter volume was about 3.5 billion birds, duck meat output was around 7 million tons, and goose meat output was 1.5 million tons. Combined, duck and goose meat accounted for about 10% of China's total meat output.

“Dry farming of waterfowl” can raise the survival rate of ducks and geese

Dry farming of waterfowl is mainly used to replace the water-based farming of the past. This out-of-water dry farming model mainly keeps ducks and geese indoors in fully enclosed housing, and includes two types: on-floor (wire-mesh) rearing and deep-litter rearing.

On-floor rearing means placing ducks or geese on wire mesh, where their living, feeding, drinking and activity all take place on the mesh. Their droppings fall through the mesh onto the ground and are cleared away at any time, so the environment inside the waterfowl house can be very effectively controlled. This fully enclosed indoor rearing method achieves a high degree of automation, and the indoor environmental indicators can meet the needs of waterfowl.

Another aspect is deep-litter rearing. We now use large amounts of rice husks as litter inside waterfowl houses. This litter has very good water absorbency and can provide ducks and geese with a good, comfortable environment. At the same time, the excrement can be turned and fermented into organic fertilizer.

If water sources are used on a large scale, it will cause extensive pollution of the water surface. On one hand, waterfowl pollute the water source; on the other hand, polluted water sources also have a huge impact on the health of waterfowl. These two aspects interact with each other. Therefore, through our now very mature dry farming technology, the health level of ducks has been greatly improved. For example, under dry farming conditions, the survival rate of ducks and geese can reach 98% or even over 99%, so judging by this indicator, their health level is very high.

Free-range rearing of waterfowl under trees is unscientific

In fact, this farming method is unscientific. Why? Because its inputs are uncontrollable. What exactly do the ducks or geese eat outdoors? We don't know. What kind of water do they drink? We don't know either. Only under artificial control, when we give them clean drinking water and highly nutritious feed, will the meat quality be better.

Some farmers believe that feeding waterfowl compound feed is not good. Is that actually the case?

Actually, it is not. Compound feed uses the principles of nutrition science; for example, it combines various feed resources such as corn, soybean meal, cottonseed meal and rapeseed meal, according to scientific calculations, into a feed that can meet the nutritional needs of waterfowl. So compound feed is in fact a type of feed with relatively high feed conversion efficiency and good nutritional quality that can ensure the health of waterfowl. Through the continuous improvement of waterfowl feed quality, we have effectively improved the growth rate of ducks while also improving the quality of meat and eggs.

Compared with other farmed species, what are the economic benefits of waterfowl farming?

Nowadays, wherever you go, you will find a series of duck meat products such as “Juewei Duck Neck” and “Zhou Hei Ya.” What does this show? It shows that in recent years, whether from south to north or from east to west, the processing industry for our duck meat foods has developed especially newly and especially rapidly.

From the perspective of producing high-quality protein, waterfowl are much more efficient than pigs, cattle and sheep. For example, every 100 grams of feed protein used to produce poultry protein can produce about 24 grams, but if used to produce pig protein, it is about 18 grams, so the efficiency differs greatly. In terms of feed conversion efficiency, compared with the 3:1 feed conversion efficiency of pigs and 7:1 of cattle and sheep, the 2:1 conversion efficiency of poultry is the highest.

Although the conversion efficiency of chickens is similar to that of ducks, ducks have higher value because ducks have down. For a duck raised for 40 days, the price of its down is currently about five yuan, so its value is very high.

As a farmer, how should you choose suitable breeds to raise?

Different food types require different breeds as support. For example, Beijing roast duck requires breeds with relatively thick skin, relatively high meat quality, and relatively high intramuscular fat content in the muscle as support; Nanjing salted duck requires breeds with relatively thin skin, relatively low subcutaneous fat content, and relatively well-developed breast muscle as support; Guangdong roast goose requires the local Magang goose as support. Therefore, in the future we will provide different breeds according to the characteristics of food demand, to promote the development of the entire food industry.

The suggestion is that if the rural areas or farmers of a certain region want to develop aquaculture, it is best to cooperate with local national-level leading enterprises or provincial-level leading enterprises. For example, the New Hope Liuhe Group is the enterprise with the largest meat duck slaughter volume in China, with an annual processing volume reaching a scale of 450 million birds. It has organized more than 10,000 farming households to engage in meat duck farming year-round.