Quynh Luu farmers raise mink for high income

Mr. Ngo Minh Dong learned about the weasel by researching on social networking sites. Realizing that this animal is popular in the market, has few diseases, is easy to raise and take care of, he boldly invested in building a model. On his family's land, Mr. Dong hired workers to cover the roof with corrugated iron, and welded 20 cages inside, each with an area of ​​1.6 square meters. At the same time, he submitted a request for a code for a weasel breeding facility to the Forest Protection Department of Quynh Luu - Hoang Mai district. After receiving permission from the authorities, in March 2022, Mr. Dong bought 10 pairs of weasel breeds for 35 million VND/pair to raise.

After 4 months of raising, 10 pairs of mink of Mr. Dong's family developed healthily, entered the mating stage and after 60 days began to reproduce.

According to Mr. Dong, civets reproduce after about 7-8 months, giving birth to 2 litters a year, each litter has 3-5 babies, after 6-8 months they start selling the offspring. Each pair of offspring is sold by Mr. Dong for 20-22 million VND. After deducting expenses, in the first year of developing the civet farming model, the family earned hundreds of millions of VND in profit.

“The mink’s food must be clean, do not feed it spoiled food or leftovers as they can easily cause stomachaches and intestinal diseases. In addition, the breeding factor is also very important. Many households do not know how to choose breeding animals or do not find a reputable mink farm to buy them, so they cannot reproduce. Currently, the farm has 45 parent animals and 50 reserve animals, and can breed more than 100 breeding minks a year to sell to people,” Mr. Dong added.

Weasels usually sleep during the day and like cleanliness, so the cage must be cleaned daily to avoid humidity. Unlike traditional pets, weasels rarely get sick, mainly with digestive diseases, so the food source must be hygienic and fully vaccinated. Weasels' food is mainly ripe bananas, pumpkin, rice porridge cooked with small fish, duck eggs, etc.

Currently, in Mr. Dong's family's cage, there are a total of 180 mink; of which 45 are breeding, the rest are breeding mink waiting for enough time to grow and then sell to the market. From his experience in raising mink after 3 years, Mr. Dong said that after successful mating, it is necessary to separate the female mink for monitoring, close the wooden boxes and put them in the cage for the mink to reproduce, creating a natural environment. In addition, it is necessary to supplement nutritional food for the female mink during this period.

Thanks to improved farming techniques, Mr. Ngo Minh Dong's mink farming model brings in a stable income of over 600 million VND per year. To create a stable supply for the market, Mr. Dong focuses on developing the mink farming chain by supplying breeds, transferring techniques and purchasing products for farming households.

Mr. Truong Dinh Trung - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Cau Giat town, Quynh Luu district said: Weasels are easy to raise, have high economic value, and are very suitable for household farming. Hopefully, the model of Mr. Ngo Minh Dong's family will continue to develop and expand with the goal of creating jobs and increasing income. At the same time, it will reduce the pressure of illegal exploitation in the wild, supporting the conservation and maintenance of rare and precious wild animal genetic resources./.