Integrated fish-and-goose farming model boosts farmers' income by 30 percent

Mixed farming of fish and geese is, for fishermen, a scientific farming model with "ten benefits and not a single drawback." This model makes full use of water surface and land resources, and under the same conditions increases economic returns by up to 30% compared with raising fish or geese alone, making it an effective new path to prosperity for fishermen.

Advantages of integrated fish-and-goose farming

Geese are fully automatic, energy-saving and highly efficient aerators for fish ponds. When fish and geese are raised together, farmers need not worry about oxygen depletion in the water caused by weather changes, because in low-pressure weather geese will rush to jump into the water, bathe and chase each other, churning up the water, with a particularly good oxygenation effect on the fish pond. Using flocks of geese splashing in the water for aeration means there is no need to worry about aeration being interrupted by a power outage, nor about accidental losses caused by electrical leakage; geese can truly be called fully automatic, energy-saving and highly efficient aerators.

Geese provide high-quality feed for farmed fish. Integrated fish-and-goose farming makes effective use of the water space. Algae, aquatic plants and other aquatic organisms in the pond can be eaten by geese. Geese are herbivorous poultry, and their droppings retain many nutrients; they are feed for omnivorous fish and also a high-quality fertilizer for pond plankton. One goose produces 120-150 kg of droppings per year, which can be converted into 5 kg of fish.

Fish ponds provide a clean environment for @#@232@#@. Geese are waterfowl, and liking water is their natural instinct; the success rate of breeding geese mating in water is also noticeably higher than mating on land. Keeping geese on the water surface in summer can lower their body temperature and keep them in good spirits and appetite. In a sense, fish ponds provide a clean environment for raising geese and also play a health-preserving role.

Models of integrated fish-and-goose farming

Raising geese outside the pond. Build a goose house near the fish pond, with an activity area and a wastewater pool outside the house. Every day, sweep goose droppings and feed splashed by the geese into the activity pool, then let the fertilized water flow into the fish pond through the gate of the wastewater pool. Raising geese outside the pond is easy to manage, but it cannot fully exploit the mutually beneficial relationship between fish and geese.

Combined fish-and-goose farming. Build a goose house on the embankment of the fish pond, use part of the embankment surface and pond slope as the geese's activity area, and enclose a certain area of the fish pond with netting on one side as a swimming area for the geese. The arched net in the water does not reach all the way to the bottom, so fish can swim in through the bottom of the net to feed. The advantage of this method is that it disturbs the fish less and is also easy to manage. Generally, the upper net is 40-50 cm above the water surface, and the lower part is 40 cm from the bottom. In combined fish-and-goose farming, the number of geese to raise alongside the fish depends mainly on the amount of droppings the geese produce. Generally, one goose produces 120-150 kg of droppings per year, so 50-60 geese can be raised per 667 sq m.

Precautions for integrated fish-and-goose farming

Integrated fish-and-goose farming is adopted to gain the cyclical benefit of using goose droppings to fertilize the water and feed the fish. However, in the actual process of integrated farming, especially when raising them together in the same water body, particular attention should be paid to solving the following two problems:

Choose running water. Because geese spend too long active in the water, the pond water will be turbid for a long time, which can easily cause disease in adult fish in the pond and even lead to death. Therefore, running water should be chosen for mixed farming. Of course, if the fish pond is not running water but is relatively large, so that the water will not remain turbid for a long time after the geese enter the pond, then fish-and-goose mixed farming can also be carried out to achieve the goal of fertilizing the water for @#@233@#@.

Feed reasonably. When feeding the fish, geese should be kept out of the water; this prevents geese from eating the fish feed and also prevents geese from spending long periods playing in the pond and disrupting the fish's normal feeding. Especially in summer, feed spoils easily, and if the fish cannot finish it immediately after feeding, fish disease is likely to occur. In addition, when feeding, not only should the principles of fixed quantity, fixed quality and timely feeding be followed, but the feeding amount should also be constantly adjusted according to changes in water temperature, fish growth and feeding conditions, so as to promote a double harvest of fish and geese.