A farmer in the highlands of Nghe An raises short-necked ducks but cannot sell enough.

Going up to Chau Thon commune, Que Phong district, we heard the locals praise the party member Hoang Van Minh - the head of Na Ty hamlet for his economic skills. In particular, he is a breeder of short-necked ducks for sale, bringing in high income and attracting many people to learn from him.

The road from the commune center to Mr. Minh's duck farm is not far, winding along the slope, paved with flat concrete. The farm is planned next to the terraced rice fields, including the pen area, pond and open land for raising ducks.

Mr. Minh said that his family currently raises two breeds of ducks, which are short-necked ducks and long-necked ducks (short-necked ducks have round bodies and shorter necks than regular duck breeds). Of which, short-necked ducks account for 70% of the total flock, more than 500 laying ducks. The reason Mr. Minh chose to raise short-necked ducks is because this is a duck breed with delicious meat quality, moderate weight, easy to raise, but people raise it in small quantities, not as a commodity, so he thought of raising this breed of duck to both preserve the gene source and produce products for the market.

Initially, Mr. Minh went to many households in the commune to buy ducks to raise for breeding. As the flock of ducks gradually increased, the number of eggs increased, so he created the breed of short-necked ducks right on the spot, by letting the hens incubate the eggs.

“The origin of the short-necked duck breed is raised in a number of localities, but the most is Chau Thon commune. The characteristics of this duck breed are that it is easy to raise, has a long growth period, and weighs 2.2 kg/bird, smaller than the long-necked duck breed, but the meat quality is better, so the market favors it. With a farm scale of 400 egg-laying ducks, selling nearly 1,000 commercial ducks each year, it is not enough to meet market demand. Customers mainly buy restaurants and hotels, most in Vinh city, Thai Hoa town, Nghia Dan district... and customers buy as gifts,” said Mr. Nguyen Van Minh.

When asked about the technique of raising the short-necked duck breed, Mr. Minh said: There is no sophisticated technique, but mainly experience and the living environment of the ducks. The water in the pond must be changed continuously through pipes from the source of the stream so the water is always clean and hygienic.

The ducks are fed industrial feed for the first 20 days, then mainly banana stems, chopped elephant grass, mixed with rice bran and corn for daily feeding. All types of roughage are home-made and locally available, so input costs are reduced while the quality of duck meat is guaranteed.

Born in 1980, he is a farmer, raising and growing crops at home, but the way Mr. Minh does business makes many people admire and learn. Currently, all of his family's ducks and breeding ducks are produced from duck eggs laid by the family's duck flock. The ducks only stay in the pond area, not grazed in the fields or streams. The duck cage is built to be airy and clean. For him, disease prevention is a key factor, so for more than 4 years now, when developing his family's duck flock to nearly 1,000 ducks/crop, he has never had an epidemic.

With a selling price of 250,000 VND/bird (120,000 VND/kg), much higher than that of common duck breeds, each year Mr. Minh sells about 2 tons of short-necked ducks, earning over 200 million VND.

Mr. Hoang Trung Cuong - Chairman of Chau Thon Commune People's Committee said: Mr. Hoang Van Minh is a farmer, party member, active hamlet chief, knows how to do business, creates an outstanding model in the locality, and many people in the commune come to learn from his experience. In the future, the locality will support Mr. Minh's family with capital to expand the scale of the model, creating an address specializing in supplying Quy short-necked ducks to the market. In addition to raising specialty ducks, Mr. Minh also raises buffaloes, cows, does farming, combines production and business, so his family has a stable source of income./.