What are the things to note when raising ducks in spring, and are the costs high?

Are duck-raising costs high? Is duck raising profitable in 2017? Data provided by the Information Center of the Ministry of Agriculture shows that the annual output value of duck products in our country has already approached 30 billion yuan, with products exported to the European Union, Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea and other countries and regions, and the duck-raising industry has already become one of the pillar industries for increasing economic income in our country's rural areas.

Our country also has many laying duck breeds, such as Putian duck, Shaoxing duck and Jinding duck, with egg production at 500 days of age reaching 250-280 eggs, each egg weighing 62-70 grams, and a survival rate of over 93% for ducklings at 100 days of age. Among similar ducks worldwide, their production potential is at a leading level. It can be said that the duck-raising industry has enormous potential.

Things to note when raising ducks in spring

Duck brooding is divided by season into three types: first-water ducks, summer-water ducks and autumn-water ducks. Generally speaking, raising first-water ducks is preferable, summer-water ducks come second, and autumn-water ducks are poorer.

“Raising ducks in spring makes money, raising ducks in summer only recovers the capital.” Spring ducklings are relatively difficult to raise; the main problems in brooding are unstable temperatures, frequent cold waves and excessive rain. However, as long as the ducklings hatched in spring are kept warm and protected from dampness and given strengthened feeding management, the problems will not be too great.

First-water ducks are generally brooded between Qingming and Guyu. After the ducklings hatch and are kept indoors for 7 or 8 days, they are driven into newly plowed fertile fields, rapeseed fields, broad bean fields and green manure seed fields, letting them eat the small fish, small shrimp, loach, earthworms, rice-field eels and insects and other natural animal feed in the fields.

By the time the early rice is harvested, egg-type female ducks will begin laying, and at this time male ducks can be sold on the market. For dual-purpose duck breeds used for both eggs and meat, the great opportunity of fallen grain and abundant insects in the fields at harvest time can be used to fatten them and sell them off.

When raising ducks in spring, special attention must be paid to supplementing vitamin A; generally, young ducklings under 50 days of age and first-laying ducks in spring are more prone to deficiency. Ducks lacking vitamin A show clearly stunted growth and development, with weight gain slow or even stopped. Common signs include listlessness, weakness, emaciation, ruffled feathers, thick sticky fluid flowing from the nostrils, difficulty breathing, weak movement, unsteady walking, and then flaccid paralysis and fading of the yellow color of the beak.

In severely ill ducks, one or both eyes tear up, with cheese-like discharge under the eyelids, and the cornea becomes cloudy and softened, leading to corneal perforation and outflow of aqueous humor from the anterior chamber; in severe cases the eyeball sinks, blindness occurs, and even death. Laying performance of affected breeding ducks drops markedly, yolk color becomes pale, hatchability is low, and the rate of dead embryos increases.

The main causes of vitamin A deficiency in ducklings are mainly a single feed for spring-raised ducklings with insufficient green feed; improper feed processing and storage causing oxidation and rancidity that reduce vitamin A content; stress factors in the breeding environment that increase ducklings' requirement for vitamin A; and lack of vitamin A in the diet of breeding female ducks, leading to vitamin A deficiency in ducklings around 10 days of age.

When raising ducks in spring, feed more feed containing vitamin A, such as spinach, pumpkin, carrots and cod liver oil. Do a good job of transporting, storing and preserving the feed.

Sick ducks can be treated with cod liver oil, 3 times per day per duck, 0.2-0.5 ml each time by oral drench. Or add vitamin A to the feed at a ratio of 1000-1500 international units per kilogram. For individual sick ducklings, 0.5 ml of cod liver oil can be injected intramuscularly. For breeding female ducks, 1 ml-1.5 ml of cod liver oil per day divided into 3 feedings has a fairly significant curative effect.

Are duck-raising costs high?

Assume building 5 sheds, each raising about 2000 ducks:

1. Cost calculation

1 mu of land = 667 sq m; using an actual usable breeding area of 570 sq m, with a suitable breeding density of 7 ducks/sq m, each mu can raise 570 sq m × 7 ducks/sq m = 3990 ducks, and land rent per mu is 200 yuan. 5 sheds require 2.5 mu of land, totaling 500 yuan.

Considering road construction and environmental cleaning construction carried out beyond that of ordinary breeders, the construction cost per shed is calculated at 40000 yuan. 5 sheds × 40000 yuan = 200,000.

Because low-light illumination is needed, 10W × 24 hours × 18 lamps/shed × 5 sheds × 10 months breeding period × 0.8 yuan/kWh ÷ 1000 (1 kWh = 1000W hours) = 5184 yuan.

Ducklings 10,000 × 3 yuan/duck = 30,000.

Feed generally accounts for 60% of duck-raising costs, 235,500 ÷ 40 × 60 = 353,250.

Total cost is about 588,934 yuan.

2. Duck-raising profit:

Labor: considering the use of 3 workers, 1000 yuan × 3 × 10 months = 30,000 yuan, and 2 management and technical personnel, 2 people × 2000 yuan × 12 months = 48,000 yuan.

Risk: duck raising is relatively simple in terms of disease prevention, and the survival rate is also relatively high. In the absence of a major epidemic, the main risk comes from market price fluctuations, and in this respect the market needs to be deeply explored and market sales channels opened up.

Income analysis: generally, the income from duck eggs for pen-raising breeders basically covers feed and disease-prevention expenses, so it is estimated at about 710,000. Live ducks sell for 17 yuan-25 yuan/duck; calculating at an average of 20 yuan, 10,000 × 20 yuan/duck = 200,000.

Profit analysis: under current conditions, apart from a slight loss in the first year: [350,000 (egg income) + 200,000 (live duck income) — 350,000 (feed expenses) — 200,000 (shed construction expenses) — 5,500 (land rent and utilities) — 78,000 wages = —83,500], in the second year the shed construction expense is saved, so the conservative profit is 116,500. In addition, when purchasing for shed construction and when purchasing feed, considering centralized bulk purchasing, there are profit points to be explored. When the workload is relatively small, personnel can be allocated flexibly, which can also increase worker utilization and reduce wage expenses.

Prices are only for reference; labor and site prices differ from place to place, so the above analysis and calculation of duck-raising costs and profits can be calculated according to local market conditions for duck breeds, feed, greenhouse construction, etc., to obtain more accurate data and also to make entrepreneurs' breeding goals clearer.