The model of raising super-egg ducks helps the family of Mr. Vu Thanh Binh, from Huong Thuong commune earn billions of dong (Vietnamese Dollars or VND) per year, creating jobs for many local workers.

Starting a business in the late afternoon

When out and about Go Che village, Huong Thuong commune, Thai Nguyen city, in Thai Nguyen province, no one is unaware of old farmer Vu Thanh Binh (65 years old) and his successful start-up story with duck farming.

Mr. Binh successfully built his family’s economic development model when he was 58 years old, the age at which people usually settle down in life. His story has inspired young people about the enterprising spirit, dynamism, determination and aspiration to get rich.

Previously, Mr. Binh worked as an iron miner in Quang Binh province. After his working age, he returned to his hometown of tea. At this time, when nearly 60 years old, at the age of retirement, instead of choosing to live comfortably with his children and grandchildren, enjoying old age like many people, Mr. Binh cherished the plan to start a business. His criterion was taking agriculture as the basis for his future economic development.

Mr. Binh recounted: “After returning to my hometown, I felt that I was still healthy, so I had to think of something to do to relieve sadness and earn more income. More than a year and a half later I went from North to South, through many provinces and cities. Wherever someone says there is an agricultural model, I come to see and learn from the models of litchi growing in Bac Giang, growing black bamboo shoots in the Central Highlands, livestock, e.t.c.  However, during that time, I did not find a suitable model for myself.”

Until mid-2016, in a conversation with a friend, Mr. Binh was introduced to the super egg duck breeding model. It was the chance that helped him know and stick with the profession of raising this waterfowl. After that, he searched for information in the newspaper, looked at breeding models on the social networks and decided to choose this type of animal to develop the economy for his family.

“At that time, my friend introduced me and took me to a livestock company located in Thai Nguyen city to visit the model. I was very impressed with the production form, scale and breeding techniques here. After that day, I woke up every morning at 5 am to go to the company to talk to the staff here to learn the techniques to raise this duck.When I decided to do this model, my family was afraid and opposed because at that time my age was advanced, my health was no longer as flexible as before, but I was determined to do it”, Mr. Binh said.

So Mr. Binh has mobilized all resources, from money accumulated for many years, and borrowed nearly 1 billion VND to realize his dream of starting a business. The first is to invest in building a barn with an area of more than 1,200m2 and decide to import more than 1,000 super-egg ducks.

In the early days of starting his business, Mr. Binh faced many difficulties due to limited husbandry techniques and lack of experience in disease detection and prevention. This makes ducks grow slowly, have low productivity and sometimes the number of ducks that die is in the hundreds.

Undeterred, he worked while learning from experience and asked for more technical help from the breeder supplier. Therefore, success came to Mr. Binh’s family right from the first generation, despite the initial problems mentioned above and this also brought significant revenue.

After more than 6 years of starting a business, now the super-egg duck farm of the family of old farmer Vu Thanh Binh is considered to be successful and more developed than initially expected. The farm has expanded from 1 to 4 barns, with a total area of more than 5,000m2, with the number of ducks up to nearly 10,000.

The most important factor is the economic efficiency as the duck farming model has brought in many times more revenue, from the initial figure of just over 100 million in 2016.  Now it is more than 2 billion starting 2022 from the sale of eggs and duck meat.

Success through adherence to technical process

According to Mr. Binh, many farmers are still hesitant to raise ducks due to fear of diseases, affecting production efficiency, leading to losses. But in fact, raising super-egg ducks is not too difficult if applied, by strictly following technical procedures.

Right from the beginning, starting with the selection of breeding stock, the breeder must look to reliable seed suppliers with clear origin. When choosing, the male ducks will be chosen more rigorously. When pairing the female, the ratio is 1:5 (i.e. 1 cock to 5 hens).

Livestock barns must have linings on the floor of the cage, which must be clean and dry while the temperature inside the barn must be maintained at a threshold of 24-28 degrees Celsius and be always in a sterile state. The ideal stocking density is 5-6 animals/m2 of the barn floor.

Nutrient source for ducks is also focused on: the feed used is pellets. On average, each duck will consume about 1.5 ounces/day (equivalent to 2,000 food coins).

For laying ducks, it will be more difficult to calculate the amount of food to maintain for the duck weight ranging from 3 to 3.6 kg/head to ensure the quality and shape of the eggs when harvested.

In addition, the lighting in the barn must also be strictly adhered to: with ducks preparing to lay, the farmer will normally have to turn off the light from 9pm and turn it on again at 2am the next morning. The reason is because this is the right time for ducks to lay eggs and the light will stimulate this and ensure the best egg quality.

“Eggs when harvested must be large and round, with firm eggshell, large yolk. Eggs weighing 80 grams will be classified as 1, weight from 75 grams will be classified as 2. Every day my farm collects more than 7,000 eggs, the average price from 2,500 – 3,000 VND/piece. All of these eggs are collected after sorting. Deducting all expenses, my family earns hundreds of millions of dong every month,” Binh said.

According to Mr. Binh, farmers also have to periodically vaccinate against poultry diseases, regularly pay attention to early detection and have a treatment plan for diseases that ducks are susceptible to such as chickenpox. reduced laying, schizophrenia e.t.c. Recognizing diseases through signs and symptoms such as: distorted, deformed eggs, anorexia ducks, green excrement…e.t.c.

The successful application of the super egg duck breeding model not only brings high economic efficiency to Mr. Vu Thanh Binh’s family, but also creates jobs for local workers. This is also an example of prominent rural household economic development in Thai Nguyen province.

Source: Nongnghiep.vn