Nghe An farmers prepare agricultural products to serve the year-end market

Focus on taking care of livestock to prepare for Tet

After an electrical short circuit at the end of September killed 9,000 chickens, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Huy - owner of a chicken farm in Nghi An commune (Vinh city) repaired the damage, cleaned the barn, disinfected and sterilized it, and brought in a new batch of chickens to supply the year-end market.

Mr. Huy said: “The last batch of chickens of the year is always easy to sell, the selling price is higher than other batches of the year because of high market demand. Therefore, after the incident, we quickly resolved to restore the flock. It is expected that this Tet, we will supply the market with about 7,000 chickens, with an output of about 15-17 tons of chicken meat”. In order for this batch of chickens to achieve the highest economic efficiency, the farm owner fully vaccinated the chickens; carefully prepared the barn system, ensuring the necessary temperature for the chickens to grow healthily.

Thanh Chuong hill chicken has long been a brand, favored by consumers because in addition to the delicious meat quality, this type of chicken also has a beautiful appearance, slim body, bright red comb, smooth feathers and a maximum weight of only about 1.5 kg. This Tet chicken batch, 52 households of Thanh Chuong Chicken Cooperative (Thanh Xuan commune, Thanh Chuong district) expect to sell about 15 thousand chickens.

This type of chicken starts in the flock from the beginning of September, after 5 months of raising, it can be sold. With the form of semi-free-range farming, eating mainly corn, rice, beer dregs and foraging on the hills, the chicken meat product ensures food safety, delicious meat, sweet taste, not crumbly and sells for a higher price than other types of chicken.

“For Tet chickens, households mainly raise roosters (about 80%) to serve people with their feasts. The price of chickens during Tet ranges from 110,000-120,000 VND/kg, most of which are ordered directly by traders, so farmers do not have to sell retail,” said Mr. Tran Van Son, a household that raises hill chickens with Thanh Chuong Chicken Cooperative.

According to forecasts, the demand for pork at the end of the year is twice as high as usual, so currently, farms as well as small-scale farmers are focusing on taking care of pigs to reach the weight for sale in the last months of the year. It is expected that on the occasion of this Lunar New Year, Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai's farm in Binh Son commune (Tan Ky) is expected to sell about 20 pigs, weighing about 2 tons.

According to Ms. Mai, this year, pig farming has encountered many difficulties due to complicated developments of pig diseases, increased piglet prices, and increased animal feed prices, but in return, the price of live pigs has increased sharply, so farmers still make a profit. According to the rule, around Tet, pork prices will be higher than usual. Therefore, Ms. Mai and other farmers are quite hopeful.

“According to forecasts, demand at the end of the year is high, pork prices will increase further, possibly reaching 70,000 VND/kg. Therefore, at this time, we try our best to take care of and prevent epidemics so that the year-end pigs can reach the weight and sell at a high price,” Ms. Mai shared.

Ensuring supply of green vegetables

Taking advantage of the warm weather, these days, people in the coastal areas of Dien Chau, Quynh Luu districts, Hoang Mai town are gathering vegetables such as kohlrabi, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, radishes, etc. to supply the year-end market. Mr. Truong Cong Hung's family in Quynh Lien commune (Hoang Mai town) planted 1 hectare of carrots at the end of August, but in September, heavy rain caused flooding, affecting the growth of the plants, so far.

To harvest in time for Tet, his family hired more workers to take care of the plants. Now that the carrots have started to grow roots, Mr. Trung is fertilizing with potassium to strengthen the roots and harvest them in January 2025.

Currently, many areas of cabbage, kohlrabi, and cauliflower planted early in some localities have been harvested. The early-season selling price is quite high, so farmers are very excited. “1 hectare of cabbage, kohlrabi, and cauliflower is divided into 3 overlapping batches. Of which, the batches harvested during and after Tet account for 50% of the area. Currently, in addition to weeding and fertilizing, we focus on pest control with biological traps, ensuring a safe supply to the market,” said Ms. Vu Thi Lien, a farmer in Quynh Bang commune (Quynh Luu).

According to farmers in vegetable growing areas, this year's Tet season, the prices of long-term vegetables such as kohlrabi, carrots, cauliflower, and cabbage will increase due to the impact of storms that damaged the winter vegetable crop in the northern and south central provinces. Local people affected by floods missed the extremely early winter crop, so they have to proactively change their crop structure, focusing mainly on short-term leafy vegetables. "Leafy vegetables will certainly be abundant at the end of the year. However, long-term vegetables will be scarcer and their prices will be higher," said Ho Dinh Tue, a household producing vegetables in Minh Luong commune (Quynh Luu).

In addition, storms and rains have damaged many areas of orange, grapefruit and banana plantations of farmers in the provinces, making it impossible to recover and generate income this year. Therefore, the market will limit supply, and prices will be pushed up. Therefore, many orange, grapefruit, banana farms, etc. are stepping up care to have products to sell during Tet.

With only 2 months left until the Lunar New Year 2025, farmers and cooperatives are making efforts to produce and ensure supply. However, according to experts' recommendations, from now until the end of the year, the weather will be unusual, households need to monitor the epidemic situation and produce according to market demand.