Pig prices down, free range chicken farming still brings high profits

(Baonghean.vn) - While many pig farmers are struggling because of low pig prices, many families raising free-range chickens in Anh Son are still earning a profit of 30-35 thousand VND/chicken.

The family of Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan in Cam Thang village is one of the large-scale chicken farmers in Cam Son commune, Anh Son district. Visiting Mr. Tuan's chicken farm at this time, the chickens in the coop have been almost sold out, leaving only a few hundred chickens left.

By raising free-range chickens, Mr. Nguyen Van Tuan in Cam Thang village, Cam Son commune, earns 30-35 thousand VND/chicken after deducting expenses. Photo: Huyen Trang

Mr. Tuan said: Although the price of live pigs has dropped, the price of chicken is still stable, especially free-range clean chicken is still purchased at a high price. According to Mr. Tuan, raising free-range chicken takes longer than raising industrial chicken because the chicken grows more slowly, about 4 months before being sold, while raising industrial chicken only takes 3 months. The main food is rice, corn and beer dregs, especially the chicken is free-range so the meat is tough and delicious, when the chicken reaches a weight of 1.7-2kg each, it starts to be sold. He sold over 1,000 chickens this batch and traders bought them at the spot for 85-90 thousand VND/kg, after deducting all costs, he earned a profit of 30-35 thousand VND/chicken.

Free range chickens have firm, delicious meat. Photo: Huyen Trang

In Thach Son commune, Mr. Bui Quang Huynh's family in village 1 always maintains a total flock of over 4,000 chickens each year, including meat chickens and egg-laying chickens. For Mr. Huynh, to have a stable output of meat chickens, it is required to raise chickens in a bio-safe manner, ensuring delicious meat quality. Therefore, in addition to the main foods of rice, corn and mixed bran, chickens are let loose in the garden to find other foods such as insects...

However, this method of raising also requires strictness in selecting breeds and caring for chickens through each stage of growth and development. Along with that, cleaning the barn must be done regularly once a week. Thanks to proper care, techniques and compliance with cleaning, handling the barn as well as disease prevention, each batch of chickens in Mr. Huynh's family grows quickly and rarely gets sick. In addition, Mr. Huynh also invested in an incubator to proactively source breeds and sell chicks. Raising and trading meat chickens and breeding chickens also brings Mr. Huynh an income of over 300 million VND/year.

Currently, Anh Son district has hundreds of households raising free-range chickens. Photo: Huyen Trang

Identifying that clean chicken farming is a direction that brings high economic value, currently in Anh Son district, there are hundreds of households raising free-range chickens on a medium and large scale. The chicken breeds raised are mainly free-range chickens, crossbred chickens, fighting chickens... with delicious meat quality and are favored by the market. With stable chicken prices as at present, it is creating conditions for farmers to feel secure in raising and maintaining the total herd. However, the locality also recommends that people need to calculate the output, not to increase the herd massively to avoid the situation of price drops like pig farming in the recent past./.

Huyen Trang