How are meat donkeys raised and fattened? A detailed guide to practical farming techniques

Raising donkeys is a traditional activity in China. In the past, donkeys were mainly raised for draft purposes. In recent years, with reform and opening up and the deepening development of the market economy, raising donkeys for meat and for both meat and draft purposes has become the main content of the donkey-raising industry. Raising meat donkeys is a new household farming project for farmers in recent years. Due to the lack of improved meat donkey breeds, in the past the returns from raising donkeys...

Raising donkeys is a traditional activity in China. In the past, donkeys were mainly raised for draft purposes. In recent years, with reform and opening up and the deepening development of the market economy, raising donkeys for meat and for both meat and draft purposes has become the main content of the donkey-raising industry.

Raising meat donkeys is a new household farming project for farmers in recent years. Due to the lack of improved meat donkey breeds, in the past the returns from raising donkeys were less than ideal. To improve the economic returns of meat donkey farming, selecting excellent donkey breeds or using improved donkeys crossed with local breeds for fattening is an important measure. Two larger-sized improved meat donkey breeds are briefly introduced below:

1. Guanzhong donkey: This breed is produced in the Wei River valley of the Guanzhong Plain in Shaanxi Province. The central production areas are Xianyang, Pingguan, Qianxian, Wugong, Liquan and other places. This donkey has a large body size, with a height of about 130 cm or more and a body weight of about 250 kg-290 kg. It has a robust constitution, small but firm hooves, strong disease resistance, good heredity and strong endurance. The coat color is mainly black, but the eye rims, nose, mouth and lower abdomen are mostly white or grayish white. It is known as having a "pink nose, bright eyes and white belly," which is an important characteristic of this breed and an essential quality for breeding donkeys. The Guanzhong donkey is a representative of China's breeding donkeys and is also one of the world's improved donkey breeds.

2. Dezhou donkey: Dezhou, Huimin and the coastal areas of the Bohai Sea in Shandong Province are the central production areas of the Dezhou donkey, also known as the Bohai donkey. The Dezhou donkey has a tall body and compact structure, with a height of over 130 cm and a body weight of about 260 kg. The coat color is mainly black (black-headed donkey) and pinkish black. Its draft performance is also good.

General feeding principles for meat donkeys:

For stabled meat donkeys, first of all, a sufficient supply of nutrients must be ensured, movement limited, and environmental sanitation maintained. They should be fed in separate troughs with fixed trough positions, fed on a fixed schedule and in fixed amounts, fed small amounts frequently, with coarse feed finely prepared, given night grazing, coarse feed before concentrate, and provided with sufficient drinking water.

That is, they should be divided by age, body condition, sex and strength and tethered in separate troughs with fixed trough positions, and fed four times a day in the morning, noon, evening and night (for dual meat and draft use). In spring and summer when the days are long, they can be fed one extra time, and in autumn and winter when the days are short, one feeding can be reduced. Coarse feed should be chopped short and fine, achieving "three cuts for every cun of grass"; concentrate should be flattened or ground, or soaked, fermented, roasted, boiled with salt, etc., to improve digestibility and palatability. Because the donkey's stomach is small, feed small amounts frequently, and use the night time when rest is not affected to supplement feed so as to ensure nutritional needs. At the same time, donkeys need a large amount of digestive fluid, so a sufficient supply of clean drinking water and an appropriate amount of salt should be ensured. Brush the skin every day.

Feeding of young donkeys:

In addition to normal feeding and management, newborn foals generally begin to be trained to eat concentrate at 15 days of age. Corn, barley, millet, oats, etc. can be ground into flour, boiled into a thin porridge and mixed with a little sugar to entice them to eat. At first, 10 g-20 g per day; after several days, feed 80 g-100 g; after one month, supplement with 100 g-200 g; after two months, supplement with 500 g-1000 g, and then gradually increase day by day. After 9 months, feed 3.5 kg of concentrate, and about 500 kg of concentrate is used in the whole fattening period.

The following various methods can be adopted for the specific fattening of donkeys:

(1) 500 g each of soybeans and rice (or millet), add water and grind them into a paste, put in 250 g of rice bran, mix well with an appropriate amount of salt, and feed to the foal after it eats grass, continuously for 7 days-10 days.

(2) Dissolve 100 g of white sugar, or 150 g of brown sugar, in warm water and let the donkey drink it freely every day; after 10 days-20 days of free drinking, body condition can be restored.

(3) 250 g of lard, 1 kg of fresh chives and 10 g of salt, stir-fried and then fed to the donkey, once a day, continuously for 7 days-10 days.

(4) Fry cottonseed until yellow and ripe, or cook it in a pot until it swells and cracks, which can remove 90% of the gossypol, and it is fragrant and tasty; 1 kg per donkey per day, continuously for 15 days.

(5) Orally administer 10 mg of diethylstilbestrol to the foal every day, which can increase daily weight gain by 12%. Implanting 24 mg of diethylstilbestrol under the ear of the foal 100 days before slaughter can increase the daily weight gain of grazing donkeys by 15%. In addition, adding trace elements such as cobalt, iodine, copper and selenium can increase daily weight gain and feed utilization. Adding an appropriate amount of zinc during fattening can prevent hair loss and skin diseases in donkeys.

Fattening method for adult donkeys:

For newly purchased adult donkeys, some easily digestible green grass, wheat bran, etc. can be fed first, and feeding must also be done in small amounts frequently, with only seventy percent fullness. After several days of observation and normal condition, the introduction-to-feeding period can begin. At this time, the coarse part of the mixed feed is mainly cottonseed hulls (or corn stalk powder), and the mixed concentrate is mainly 50% cottonseed kernel cake, 30% corn flour and 20% wheat bran. Donkeys newly purchased from other places generally do not like to eat or simply do not eat cottonseed hulls or cottonseed kernel cake, so the method of first acclimating them to the feed can be adopted, and after one week they will eat it on their own. Feed twice a day (only coarse feed may be given at night), and after about 2 months the donkey can be fed to eighty percent fullness. Local conditions can also be adapted by using soybean cake, peanut cake, tofu residue, and millet straw, corn stalk powder, bean pod hulls, etc. to replace the above concentrate and coarse feed. Materials should be sourced locally and feeding costs should be considered. At the same time, a sufficient supply of clean drinking water should be provided, movement limited, the skin brushed, and environmental sanitation maintained to facilitate fattening.