Scientific feeding of meat donkeys has high value, and farmers are worth learning about
Donkeys are herbivorous animals, and China is the country with the most donkeys in the world. Donkey meat has effects such as enriching the blood, supplementing qi and tonifying deficiency, its bones are used to make bone meal, and its hide is used to extract ejiao, giving it high edible and medicinal value. This issue introduces a set of donkey-raising techniques, hoping to help farmers become wealthy.
Breeding
Carefully select groups: second-generation genetics are good
When farmers select breeding donkeys, they easily fall into the mistaken idea that taller is better. Taking the Shandong Dezhou donkey stud as an example, a donkey with a height of 141 cm (plus or minus 2 cm), a well-proportioned and full body, a rounded chest circumference, broad shoulders, a straight back and loins, a wide muzzle, and even teeth with no misalignment (or misalignment not exceeding 1/3) is a good meat donkey breed. Some stud donkeys reach 150 cm or even taller, but if the back and loins are not straight and form a "mountain ridge" shape, then meat production performance is relatively poor. Such donkeys are often crossbred offspring of Dezhou donkeys. Although they make good use of hybrid vigor, they cannot pass on the excellent meat production performance of the Dezhou donkey. In folk terms, this is "only growing taller, not growing meat." When selecting female donkeys, also note that a height of about 130 cm is sufficient; do not choose ones that are too tall, as being too tall can easily cause difficult birth. Female donkeys over 1 year old can be as short as about 120 cm.
In addition to the above points for selecting breeding stock, special attention should also be paid to age when forming groups. For female donkeys, it is recommended to choose young females aged 2 to 3 years, generally not yet mated, with few reproductive system diseases. For stud donkeys, it is recommended to choose those aged 3 to 6 years. When purchasing breeding donkeys, be sure to have someone knowledgeable confirm the age, and never go by what the donkey trader says. In addition, it is recommended to purchase from large farms, reputable companies, and the original production areas of donkeys. Generally, one male donkey can naturally mate 50 female donkeys, and if there are artificial insemination technicians, one stud donkey can breed 200. At the start, the breeding scale is recommended not to be too large, and should be comprehensively considered in light of funds, forage, technicians, and other factors. After gaining some breeding experience, gradually expanding the scale is more prudent.
Do a good job in mating, and young donkeys will be strong
Due to the special physiological structure of donkeys, such as the tendency of semen to flow back in the reproductive tract of female donkeys, follicular development being greatly affected by weather and leading to uncertain ovulation time, and easy miscarriage, donkey mating and conception are relatively difficult, and in folk practice it is generally "one foal every three years." Large farms, due to factors such as single nutrition, lack of exercise, and improper management, generally cannot exceed the mating level of single-animal raising by farming households.
Mating methods are generally artificial insemination and natural mating. Whichever method is used, disinfection and hygiene work must be done well to prevent the spread of disease caused by improper mating. During natural mating, the penis of the stud donkey should also be cleaned with warm water; during artificial insemination, disposable long plastic sleeves should be worn to prevent bacterial infection through the vagina of the female donkey and resulting in uterine inflammation, and during artificial semen collection, the penis of the stud donkey should also be cleaned well.
When mating, it is recommended to follow the principle of assortative mating, such as mating a male donkey with good meat production performance with a female donkey with good meat production performance; mating a male donkey whose offspring have good milk production performance with a female donkey with good milk production performance; and mating male and female donkeys of the same color.
At present, Shandong Dong'e Ejiao Company has established a "Dong'e Black Donkey" breeding base, systematically carrying out breeding work using Dezhou donkeys as sires and dams, and has cooperated with the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences to research and develop "frozen semen," filling gaps in the market and technology.
In addition, after the female donkey gives birth, attention should be paid to observing whether the lochia is completely discharged, whether the foal promptly receives colostrum, and keeping it warm.
Guard against illness and prevent and treat it early
Donkeys have relatively few epidemic diseases and are the simplest animals to raise and manage, but epidemic diseases will increase in large-scale donkey raising. When a donkey gets sick, daily weight gain declines or even becomes negative, and breeding benefits drop sharply. Therefore, diseases should be discovered early and treated early. A healthy donkey always has both ears erect, moves freely, holds its head and neck high, and is full of energy. When eating forage, it stands still, chews powerfully, and makes clicking sounds. A healthy donkey's mouth color is pale red and glossy, its nose and ears are warm, neither hot nor cold, and its dung balls are moderate in hardness. Its exterior is moist and shiny, yellow like grass at first, turning brown over time. As the saying goes, "A donkey makes a purring sound, an ox makes a grinding sound; even if sick, it is not much." The amount of water drunk is of great significance for judging whether a donkey is sick. If a donkey eats little grass but drinks no small amount of water, it is not sick; if its forage intake does not decrease but its water intake decreases several times in a row or it stops drinking, then one can know that the donkey will soon become ill. Although a donkey may not eat all night and stand away from the trough, as long as its nose and ears are warm and its body temperature is normal, it can be regarded as not sick, and generally it can eat again the next day. In folk terms this is called "staring at the trough." If abnormal conditions are found, promptly seek veterinary treatment.
Feeding
Forage should be localized and diversified
Donkeys are herbivorous livestock and should not be fed large amounts of concentrate. If large amounts of concentrate are fed, short-term fattening not exceeding 2 months is still acceptable, but over a long time it will cause intestinal dysfunction and decreased immunity in donkeys. In particular, breeding female donkeys should not be fed large amounts of concentrate; after becoming too fat, they are prone to difficult birth and fewer estrus cycles, and it also leads to higher breeding costs.
When storing forage, one must follow the principle of adapting to local conditions, and the more varied the better. The more varied the stored forage, the easier it is to collect and store, and because there are many varieties, besides increasing the donkey's appetite, it can prevent the deficiency of nutritional elements caused by feeding a single forage. In northern regions such as Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia, corn stalks, millet stalks, soybean stalks, peanut vines, sweet potato vines, and wheat bran are all good forages. It is generally recommended to feed 3 or more kinds of mixed forage, and whichever is cheaper can be fed more.
Feeding methods should be scientific
Some farmers copy cattle-raising experience and feed donkeys only corn silage stalks. Because donkeys are monogastric animals, unlike cattle, which can ruminate and tolerate acid, feeding large amounts of corn silage stalks easily causes gastrointestinal and bodily function disorders, with phenomena such as hair loss. It is generally recommended that the feeding amount of corn silage not exceed 30% of the total forage (calculated on a dry matter basis; generally 3 to 4 jin of corn silage equals 1 jin of hay), that is, when feeding 10 jin of forage, 7 jin of hay can be fed, and the other 3 jin of hay is replaced with corn silage (equivalent to about 9 to 12 jin of wet forage).
Management
After entering the facility, pay attention to rehydration and deworming
The feeding and management of donkeys depend entirely on the careful care of the keeper. With the same concentrate and forage, breeding results can differ greatly, so how to motivate the keeper's enthusiasm is a issue that farmers must consider with priority. The author suggests that the keeper's wages should be closely linked to daily weight gain (fattening) and reproduction rate (breeding), so that the capable do more work and earn more. When bringing in donkeys in batches, the following matters should be noted.