Summer Breeding Techniques and Precautions for Meat-Type Ducklings

At present, there are three forms of meat duck breeding in our country: large-scale intensive meat duck breeding enterprises, large-scale meat duck farms, and scattered rural breeding households. Among them, large-scale meat duck farms are the development direction of the future, as they not only reduce the capital investment of breeding households, but also greatly lower breeding risks. Under normal conditions, the meat duck rearing period is 40 days, consuming a total of 5 kg of feed per bird, with a feed-to-meat ratio of 1.95:1; at the time of marketing, the average body weight is 2.5 kg per bird, with a daily weight gain of about 62.5 g per bird; the labor allocation is set at 5,000 birds per person.

Summer is the golden period for breeding meat-type ducklings, but the high-temperature and high-humidity environment easily causes duck house manure to rot and ferment, breeding pathogenic microorganisms and triggering diseases, which is detrimental to duckling growth. To improve the survival rate of meat-type ducklings in summer, the following eight key points must be noted:

1. Reduce sunlight exposure. Build tall and spacious duck houses. During high-temperature periods, water can be sprinkled on the roof or sprayed as a fine mist, or the roof can be whitewashed with lime.

2. Supply fresh feed. Feed left for too long in a high-temperature and high-humidity environment, or stagnating too long in the trough, will ferment and spoil, so fresh feed must be guaranteed for the ducklings.

3. Keep the environment quiet. During hot periods, avoid sudden fright and noise disturbance to the duck flock, so as to minimize the ducks' activity level.

4. Carry out disinfection and epidemic prevention well. Do a good job of disinfection, prevent flies and mosquitoes from breeding, and protect the ducks from pest harassment.

5. Reduce stocking density. Prevent the duck flock from crowding, piling up, and accumulating heat in stuffy pens, and add extra water basins and feed troughs.

6. Adjust the feed formula. Ducklings at different growth stages have different feed formulas. The summer feed formula should, on the premise of meeting all essential amino acid requirements, keep the protein level as low as possible to reduce heat generated by feed digestion.

7. Change the rearing method. It is advisable to adopt cage rearing, which reduces contact between ducklings and manure, lowers the chance of disease transmission, reduces the incidence rate, and can also reduce the nutritional consumption and heat production of the duck flock.

8. Change the feeding time. Try to feed in the early morning and at night between 8 and 10 o'clock when the weather is cool.