Farmers apply high technology to chicken farming

Automatic egg collection system on Nguyen Xuan Minh's family farm.

With a methodical approach, large-scale investment and application of modern techniques, the barn system is designed as a closed system, equipped with feeding troughs, automatic water taps, lighting systems and cooling fans adjusted by the hour, ensuring optimal living conditions for the chickens, his farm not only brings in tens of millions of VND in revenue every day but also becomes a model for many local farmers to learn and replicate.

Sharing about his entrepreneurial journey, Mr. Minh said that before choosing the egg-laying chicken farming model, his family contracted 4,500 square meters of land to raise dairy cows. However, due to difficulties in ensuring food sources for the cows, his family decided to switch to the super egg chicken farming model in 2004 after visiting egg-laying chicken farming models in and outside the province. Initially, with little capital and no experience, the family only invested nearly 300 million VND to build a closed egg-laying chicken farming model with a scale of 500 chickens. While working and learning from experience, after 5 years, he continued to multiply the flock, expanding the barn to 8,000 chickens. From 2020 to now, the scale of Mr. Minh's family's egg-laying chicken farm has always maintained from 25,000 - 30,000 laying chickens - an industrial chicken breed specializing in eggs of CP Vietnam Livestock Joint Stock Company.

Previously, before investing in modern machinery, his farm had to employ 8 workers regularly for manual tasks such as: feeding chickens, mixing feed, cleaning barns, harvesting eggs... Although he had invested in cooling systems, fans, adjusting stocking density and optimizing feed rations, he was always worried about the impact of high temperatures, reducing egg production and negatively affecting the reproductive quality of the chicken flock during hot weather.

To optimize the farming process, he spent a lot of time researching and learning about large-scale chicken farming models in other provinces. In 2022, after visiting and learning about advanced chicken farming models in the provinces of Nam Dinh and Ha Nam (old), Mr. Minh boldly invested more than 5 billion VND to purchase machinery and modernize the production process to reduce production costs and improve the quality of the animals.

Mr. Minh said: "My family's farm is solidly built, the roof is designed to be insulated, helping the temperature in the barn to always be stable according to the season; it is regularly sprayed with disinfectants and sterilizers. To minimize risks during the hot season, I have invested in installing a cooling system, ventilation fans, generators... and a system of water troughs, feeding, egg harvesting, and automatic cleaning to reduce labor, limit food spillage on the barn floor, and ensure the requirements for disease prevention and control. The temperature, light, and humidity of the barn are also timed, automatically controlled, and adjusted according to the season; strictly following techniques such as vaccination and barn cleaning, especially in hot weather when diseases can easily arise in poultry flocks. After each exploitation cycle lasting about 12 months, I replace the chicken flock with a new one to ensure egg quality and reproductive efficiency."

Not only focusing on output, Mr. Minh is especially concerned with environmental factors, thoroughly solving the problem of pollution commonly encountered in livestock farming. He applies waste treatment measures using biological products to build a system for collecting and treating waste properly; adds biological products to food, drinking water and sprays barns to help reduce toxic gases and odors. The chicken manure after being automatically collected will be bagged to supply to fish farms in the province... Thanks to that, livestock farming is increasingly developing, currently the farm only needs 1 worker, saving time and production costs of hundreds of millions of VND each year.

For many years now, Mr. Minh's family farm has become an address for supplying eggs to retailers at markets, agents and kitchens in the province. With the number of eggs harvested about 25,000 - 27,000 eggs/day, along with optimizing production costs, on average each year, after deducting expenses, his family earns a profit of 400 to 500 million VND. In addition, if the chickens are not infected with diseases, after the flock is released, they can be sold as meat chickens, which also brings in a relatively high income.

Evaluating the model, Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Quang Phu Ward, Do Thanh Tam commented: "The livestock model of Mr. Nguyen Xuan Minh's family is considered an effective economic model, representing the spirit of "dare to think, dare to do" thanks to the application of high technology in production. This model has become a model for many other farmers in the ward to learn and replicate, contributing to promoting local economic development".

Article and photos: Phan Nga

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/nong-dan-ap-dung-cong-nghe-cao-nbsp-vao-chan-nuoi-ga-267242.htm