Key Points of Dry-Raising Technology for Shelducks: Raising Shelducks Well on Dry Land

Recently some farmers wrote in to ask: they want to go into shelduck farming, but there is not much water near their homes, so they ask whether shelducks can be raised on dry land. The answer is yes. Shelducks can be raised on dry land.

Raising shelducks on dry land in cold weather keeps the ambient temperature relatively high; it eliminates the energy loss caused by ducks bathing in water; and it avoids the harm of internal parasites, thereby achieving a higher feed conversion rate. However, dry-raising shelducks requires a relatively larger investment in the duck house.

Dry-raised shelducks are generally divided into the brooding period (0-21 days) and the fattening period (from 22 days to market).

During the brooding period, multi-tier cage rearing can be used. The tiers are 60-70 cm apart, each tier is about 60 cm wide, and the length depends on the scale of raising, with 15-20 ducklings per sq m. Use wire mesh as the floor material, with load-bearing bamboo strips installed underneath, and a manure-catching layer installed below the bamboo strips (generally made by sewing old feed fiber bags). Place plastic feed troughs and drinkers on the wire mesh.

During the brooding period, floor rearing can also be used, but more straw is needed as litter. In addition, the area where the drinkers are placed must have a grid so that splashed water droplets can drain through and be directed outdoors, keeping the duck house dry.

Brooding in cold weather requires heating, using infrared lamps, biogas, or coal stoves, but for the latter two, pipes must be used to direct smoke and exhaust gas outdoors. During the brooding period, the temperature inside the house should be maintained as follows: 30°C at 1 day of age, then decrease by 1°C every 2 days, until heating is stopped at 21 days of age or when the average temperature reaches 25°C. In addition, during the first week after the shelducks are placed in the house, the ducklings like to huddle together, so they should be separated every 2 hours to prevent them from being crushed to death.

Compared with white meat ducks, shelducks are more active, so they must be “kept still by being kept full”, that is, ensure that feed and water are available in the feed troughs and drinkers 24 hours a day, so the ducks can eat and drink freely. There should be dim lighting at night.

The feed nutrition for shelducks during the brooding period can be slightly lower than that for white-feathered meat ducks: a crude protein content of 18%, a lysine content of 0.9%, and a methionine plus cystine content of 0.65% are sufficient. If only early-stage feed for white-feathered meat ducks is available on the market, the kind with a crude protein content of 19%-20%, it can be purchased and mixed with 10% broken rice or broken corn for feeding. For cage-reared ducklings, a small amount (about 0.3% of the feed amount) of sand grains the size of rice grains must be added to the feed trough so that the gizzard can grind the food.

The main infectious diseases of shelducks are viral hepatitis and infectious serositis, so at 1-2 days of age, ducklings should be given a subcutaneous injection in the neck of a bivalent attenuated vaccine to prevent these 2 diseases.

During the fattening period, dry-raised shelducks are generally raised on the floor, with 6 ducks per sq m. Because ducks in this stage produce a large amount of manure, straw needs to be spread twice a day, morning and evening, to ensure the ducks sleep on straw and not on manure. If there are woods or idle winter fields around the house, the ducks can be let out on sunny days, and the feed troughs and drinkers can also be moved outside, then shut back into the duck house at night.

During the fattening stage of shelducks, the feed requires a crude protein content of 14%-15%, a lysine content of 0.7%, and a methionine plus cystine content of 0.6%. If only late-stage feed for white-feathered meat ducks is available on the market, that is, the kind with a crude protein content of 16%, it can be purchased and mixed with 10% corn or rice and a small amount of rice milling bran (containing a small amount of broken rice and rice bran, with a crude protein content of about 3%, not the coarse bran), and feed and water are provided all day.

Shelducks are generally raised for 40-50 days, and when they reach a body weight of 1.8-2 kg and the wing feathers are basically fully grown, they should be sold. If they continue to be raised, feed consumption increases, daily weight gain decreases, and the feed conversion rate will decline.