No pesticides needed for weeding and pest control in the orchard: ducks and geese take the field, each with its own job
In Linyi County, Shanxi Province, there is a village called Zhanqiantun. This is a small rural village of just over 100 households. In recent years, the farmers of this small village have mainly relied on the fruit industry to get rich, with apples, fresh jujubes, peaches, pears and so on. But over the past 1 year, the village's orchards have become the domain of ducks and geese. If you want to know why, please listen to the editor explain in detail. The protagonist of the story is this middle-aged man in the picture.
His name is Lu Yongqiang, 50 years old this year. His children already work away from home. He and his wife now grow 10 mu of jujube trees, 3 mu of cherry trees and 2 mu of fruit trees at home. Because jujube trees are managed in the first half of the year and apple trees are managed all year round, the workload is very heavy. Lu Yongqiang happened to hear someone say that ducks can help eat the weeds in the orchard, so he ordered 600 Cherry Valley ducks online from Sichuan and had them sent back by plane. Last year he began a trial of free-range raising in his family's orchard.
Because this breed of duck has a large appetite, eats a mixed diet and is easy to raise, the weeds in the 4 mu of jujube orchard used for the experiment were quickly eaten clean by the duck army. Ducks not only eat weeds, they have another skill: they especially like to eat snails and all kinds of insects. The problem of snails, an orchard pest that had long given fruit growers a huge headache, was thus easily solved. The picture shows Lu Yongqiang using a whistle to gather the ducks for release.
As time went on, the weeds in his family's 15 mu orchard were always eaten clean, exposing the ground. Neighbors and villagers also began to learn his ecological circular breeding and planting technique. Villagers who did not raise ducks began inviting Lu Yongqiang's duck flock to clear weeds and pests. In the picture, Lu Yongqiang is leading his duck flock at noon to weed and clear pests for a villager's orchard.
Large white geese are highly alert and fierce-tempered among poultry, and can effectively guard against the ducks' natural enemies, weasels and eagles, so he mixed 20 large white geese into the duck flock. In this way, the safety of the duck flock is guaranteed.
Under Lu Yongqiang's leadership, about 20 of the 100 farming households in Zhanqiantun currently raise ducks in their orchards. This has basically met the whole village's orchard weeding and pest elimination needs. For the farmers, it has both reduced labor intensity and cut spending on chemical fertilizers. The whole orchard has formed a virtuous ecological breeding and planting cycle in which ducks and geese eat insects and weeds, farmyard manure nourishes the fruit trees, and the fruit becomes green.
This is a jujube orchard with no ducks or geese released. The ground is overgrown with weeds, harmful insects live among the grass, and the normal growth of the jujube trees has been affected.
This jujube orchard is where Lu Yongqiang released ducks and geese today. It is obvious that the actions of the ducks and geese have already produced results. Lu Yongqiang also sells the ducks and geese he breeds to farmers in neighboring villages to help them raise them in their orchards. At present he still has more than 100 ducks and more than 20 geese, and can still collect about 60 duck eggs a day. Selling ducks, geese and duck eggs is now also a considerable income.
Lu Yongqiang invested 4,000 yuan in the jujube orchard to enclose the surroundings with fencing to keep the ducks from wandering off, and he also keeps a large wolfdog under the jujube trees to watch the orchard. In winter, when there is no green grass, he buys feed and continues to free-range the ducks and geese in the orchard.
Because orchards where ducks and geese are free-ranged use organic fertilizer, almost no chemical fertilizer or pesticide for insects and weeds is applied in the orchard each year. The peaches, fruits, pears and jujubes produced have high sugar content and good taste. Out-of-town merchants all like the fruit from Zhanqiantun, and e-commerce and WeChat sellers also frequently send out shipments. The ducks and geese in the small village weed and eliminate pests, and the ecological orchard has already influenced surrounding farmers to follow suit. To see more stories of ordinary people, please click the follow button in the upper right corner. Signed with Rights Knight; plagiarism will be prosecuted.