Scientific goose raising for rural smallholders, guaranteed efficient farming

　　At present, in rural areasgoose raisingis small in scale, and most feeding methods rely mainly on grazing, eating whatever nature grows and however much it grows, with no supplemental feeding to speak of. Many farmers raise them blindly, with dilapidated pens, poor hygiene conditions, and even a lack of farming techniques and disease prevention knowledge. Therefore, adopting scientific and reasonable feeding and management techniques is the key to improvinggoose raisingeconomic returns.

Raising scale should be appropriate

Raising geese in large flocks makes grazing difficult, and if green feed is insufficient, more concentrated feed must be supplemented, making costs too high; raising only a small number still requires grazing and feeding, wasting manpower and resources, and is also unsuitable. Therefore, raisers should control the raising scale according to their own circumstances; generally, part-time raisers should keep 10-50 birds, and professional raisers should keep 300-1000 birds.

Planting grass to raise geese reduces costs

Planting grass to raise geese has low cost and good returns. China is rich in wild grass resources, which are the main source of green feed for geese and should be fully utilized. However, wild grass alone is not enough, especially for large-scale goose raising; artificial pasture for geese should be established, and attention should be paid to selecting varieties suitable for geese to eat, with good palatability and tolerance to trampling, such as alfalfa, perennial ryegrass, white clover, red clover, timothy and other perennial varieties. Seasonal pasture varieties such as Wintergrazer 70 rye and Sudan grass can also be selected.

Appropriate supplementation of concentrated feed

Geese are herbivorous waterfowl and should be raised mainly by grazing (or by confined feeding with grass), with appropriate supplementation of concentrated feed to increase weight gain speed and shorten the raising period. Tests have shown that geese supplemented with compound feed and paddy rice had an average daily weight gain 25 grams higher than those not supplemented, and the raising period was shortened by 15-20 days. Therefore, during raising, feed should be supplemented as appropriate according to pasture quality, intake and weight gain speed; generally, bran and wheat bran are the main components, mixed with sweet potato, blighted grain and soybean meal, and 8% fish meal, 1% shell powder, 0.14% salt and 0.15% various trace elements, etc., should also be added to meet their growth and development needs. For breeding geese during the laying period, even more attention should be paid to supplementing concentrated feed.

Market and pluck at the right time

Geese aged 20-60 days have the fastest absolute weight gain, and selling at around 60 days of age is most suitable. Goslings can generally begin to be plucked after being raised to 3 months, and thereafter plucked once every about 40 days; for laying geese, plucking can be done during the non-laying period, and surplus male geese can be plucked year-round. Geese raised for fatty liver production should switch from grazing to housed feeding after 10 weeks of age, and after 12 weeks of age be force-fed with corn for 4 weeks, increasing the live weight of the geese by 80-90% compared with before fattening, and then be slaughtered promptly to take the liver; if the fattening period is delayed, costs will be high.