Nghe An breeders increase rooster flocks to sell for Tet
Grasping the need for roosters for offerings at the end of the year, many chicken farms in the province have boldly invested in increasing their flocks of roosters to sell during Tet.
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As a small-scale breeder, with a scale of only about 200-300 chickens/batch, mainly sold to villagers and communes, every year, Ms. Nguyen Thi Cuc (Phong Thinh commune, Thanh Chuong district) divides the flock into 2 batches. The first batch of the year is mainly for sale, so she prioritizes sugarcane chickens, native chickens, and grass chickens, in which the proportion of hens is higher than that of roosters; the last batch of chickens of the year (around the 7th lunar month) has the proportion of roosters dominating 80%.
Ms. Cuc said: “At the end of the year, chickens are mainly sold for offerings and ceremonies, so people mainly order roosters. Therefore, of the 250 chickens in the flock this time, the proportion of hens is only about 20%, the rest are roosters.”
Since mid-August, Mr. Le Hoang, owner of a chicken farm in Cao Son commune (Anh Son), has prepared the barn, disinfected and sterilized it of pathogens. Then, he selected 3,000 breeding roosters to raise in a semi-wild model, free-range in the garden.
Unlike meat chickens, the roosters used for offerings are the sugar cane or Lien Minh breeds, characterized by beautiful feathers, yellow legs, large red combs... suitable for the traditional criteria for choosing chickens for offerings of the people.
Mr. Hoang said that raising roosters for worship is more difficult than raising regular chickens because all the breeding stock must be roosters, so fighting often occurs, damaging the feathers and combs of the chickens. Therefore, the coop area must be arranged reasonably, with food and water always available to limit the roosters from fighting each other. In return, with the same raising time, roosters weigh more than hens, and the selling price is also higher.
“At the end of the year, the demand for roosters is high, they are easy to sell and have high prices, so in this batch, the proportion of roosters is dominant, 90-100%. This batch of chickens takes longer to raise than regular meat chickens, about 4-5 months. The investment cost for a flock of 3,000 chickens is about 400 million VND. At the end of the year, the price of chickens for offerings fluctuates between 90,000-100,000 VND/kg, after deducting costs, the profit is about 100-120 million VND,” said Mr. Hoang.
According to Vietnamese beliefs, roosters play an extremely important role in religious life. In most religious ceremonies, there are roosters as an item, especially on holidays and festivals at the end of the year: Full moon in October, Ong Cong Ong Tao festival, New Year's Eve, Lunar New Year and then Khai ha festival, Full moon in January...
The demand is high, the price of chicken on these occasions also increases, therefore, in recent years, many farms in the province have boldly changed their model, from raising regular meat chickens to raising roosters at the end of the year to supply the market.
“Broiler chicken farms are often structured according to market demand at each time of the year. At the beginning of the year, in the total flock, the proportion of hens is about 60%, roosters 40%, at the end of the year, roosters are 80-90%, hens 10-20%. In particular, we focus on beautiful chicken breeds to serve the Full Moon market, the year-end Tet holiday, which are easy to consume and have high selling prices. Therefore, our chicken breeding agency also supplies chickens according to the needs of farming households, importing beautiful roosters, good meat quality, moderate weight to supply to people”, said Mr. Tran Van Dam - owner of a chicken breeding agency in Do Luong district.
According to the experience of the farming households, the young roosters for worship are usually the sugarcane chicken or Lien Minh chicken breed with the advantages of beautiful feathers, yellow legs, high, large and dark red combs. To make the chickens firm and delicious, in addition to using industrial feed, it is necessary to supplement other foods such as vegetables, bran, rice, corn, etc. To make the chickens have red combs, spurs, smooth feathers, and beautiful appearance, many households also supplement some herbs available in the garden such as: basil, lemongrass, ginger, perilla, and betel grass.
