Nam Cuong got rich from fattening cows

(Baonghean) -Taking advantage of the land advantage of the Lam River alluvial area, in recent years, the fattening cattle farming industry in Nam Cuong commune (Nam Dan district, Nghe An) has been increasingly expanded and developed in both scale and herd size, bringing great economic benefits to the locality.

Mr. Le Trung Sinh, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Nam Cuong Commune (Nam Dan) said: Since the early 80s of the last century, Nam Cuong people have known how to fatten cows by adding dried peanuts and salt to their food to help them digest and gain weight quickly. Currently, the commune has 1,235 households, of which only a few dozen do not raise cows, with a total of 2,200 cows. At first, only 6 hamlets outside the beach area had the conditions to raise them, when market demand increased, the movement quickly developed to 11/11 hamlets, every house raised 2-4 cows, selling 3-4 times each year; the number of cows circulating in the commune annually is about 9,000 cows. To create more food sources for livestock, people often sow corn thickly, when the corn grows green and well, they gradually prune it, some are kept as concentrated feed. And in fact, fattening cows is a profession that brings stable income to the people here.

After 3 months of fattening, the cows of Mr. Nguyen Duc Thang's household (Hamlet 5 - Nam Cuong) cost 24 million VND/cow.

As a veteran in fattening cattle, Mr. Tran Huu Duc in Hamlet 5, Nam Cuong said: "We started fattening cattle in 1995. At first, we borrowed money from the bank to raise one cow, but now our family's capacity allows us to raise four cows at a time. If we raise cows in the traditional way, it takes a long time to have cows to sell. A cow takes 9 months to give birth to a calf, and it takes another 6 months to have a calf for sale. At this time, a cow over 6 months old costs about 8-10 million VND/cow (depending on the male or female), excluding the cost of food and care, the income is not much. While fattening, each month the cow gains about 20kg of meat/cow, and when grass is available (from July to September), it can gain 25-30kg/cow and only needs to be raised for 2-3 months to have a fat cow for sale. With a market price of about With the current 100,000 VND/kg of standing cows, after deducting costs and labor, we can still make a profit of over 1 million VND/cow/month. In particular, Mr. Nguyen An Toan, a household in the same neighborhood, sold a male cow for 27.2 million VND in mid-August. After 3.5 months of raising it, Mr. Toan earned a profit of 12.2 million VND."

Nam Cuong people have found their own "secret" in raising and fattening cows quickly. When asked how to turn a "skin and bones" cow into a fat, muscular cow in just a few months, Mr. Nguyen Duc Thang, an official of Nam Cuong commune, happily said: "At first, the fattening results were not as good as now because we did not have experience in choosing cows as well as preventing diseases and choosing a diet for them. Then, through vocational training, over time we have also gained a lot of experience. To fatten effectively, we must first mention the breed selection. The fastest growing cows are crossbred cows, no matter how "skinny" they are, if they have a beautiful frame (broad shoulders, long neck, large rump and back), they will quickly become fat and full of meat... Don't touch the "fragile" cows (narrow skeletons) that "go down the drain" like a game. Choosing such a cow is basic, but if you choose a "poor eater" cow, you will not be successful, because the decisive factor for success or failure in the profession is choosing the right cow. "thick-eating"; if you look at a cow with a large and wide mouth, you should choose to raise it... This type of cow is often found in mountainous areas. Because it is raised in large numbers and lacks food, it is often very thin and is discarded. When it is brought back to the barn, you only need to fatten it for about 2 weeks to gain visible weight. At the same time, you must determine the weight of the cow before raising it to use the appropriate amount of antiparasitic medicine and determine the appropriate amount of food... Normally, fattening cows is mainly male, because they get fat faster than female cows. But recently, male cows are rarer, so many households choose to raise female cows and even old cows with reduced fertility.

Skinny cows were bought by Nam Cuong (Nam Dan) people to fatten.

Sudden changes in living environment will greatly affect the development of cows, so farmers must have careful preparations. In the first week, cows must be kept separately, invited by veterinarians to vaccinate against blood diseases, deworm, vaccinate against foot and mouth disease and give supplements to help them quickly recover their health and accept their fattening regime. Depending on the conditions, farmers add concentrated feed to the feed ingredients. If you want cows to fatten quickly and shorten the time of raising, give them 4 - 5 kg of concentrated feed per day plus grass, corn, straw, feed regularly 4 times per day... and must diligently bathe the cows (on hot days, you can bathe them twice).

Another condition for cows to fatten quickly is to keep them in captivity, definitely not let them roam freely; the barn must always be clean. Fattening cows is like a machine that turns food into meat, if they are bathed regularly, they will quickly become hungry and feel comfortable, the more comfortable they are, the more they eat. In addition to strictly following veterinary regulations on vaccination, during the epidemic season, people have voluntarily not moved cows from outside, and even not gone to cut grass in other areas to feed the cows... With strict awareness of disease prevention and control and the above fattening process, many families in the commune have earned over 10 million VND a year from the profession, helping their lives become more and more prosperous.

To find out the output of the profession, we went to the house of Mr. Nguyen Duc Son (in hamlet 1, Nam Cuong commune), one of the people who has been involved in the profession of "driving" cows in the commune since the 1990s. It is known that each month he collects 10-12 trips, each trip also has 25-27 cows, mainly dumping goods in Hanoi, Hue, Da Nang, sometimes even to neighboring Laos...

According to Mr. Son, the fattening of cows in his commune is still developing because the market demand is very large. In Da Nang City alone, the demand for him to sell is up to 10 tons of meat per day, equivalent to about 200 cows, not to mention the markets in other provinces.

It can be said that fattening cattle is very suitable for household economic conditions, and in fact, for many years this profession in Nam Cuong has become a key spearhead in the people's efforts to get rich.

Ngoc Anh