Efficiency from closed livestock and production models

In recent years, the trend of “leaving the city to return to the countryside to start a business” among young, intellectual people is no longer strange in Ham Thuan Bac district. However, not all of them have successfully started a business because it depends on the will, profession and way of doing business of each person.

However, Mr. Tran Trung Hoang (38 years old), living in village 1, Thuan Minh commune, has successfully "left the city to return to the countryside to start a business" on his family's land with an annual income of about 400 million VND.

After graduating from high school, in 2007, Tran Trung Hoang passed the entrance exam to Ly Tu Trong College in Ho Chi Minh City with a major in automotive technology. After 3 years of studying here, he got a bachelor's degree and applied to work for a company. Although his salary was stable at over 8 million VND/month, he still had the intention of returning to start a business in his hometown. After 5 years of accumulating capital, he decided to return to his hometown to realize his idea, and dragon fruit was the crop he chose to start a business. However, after 3 years of care, this crop continuously fell into the situation of "good harvest, low price", business was unprofitable, so he proactively destroyed it and used all the land his parents gave him to grow bamboo for bamboo shoots. He said that in 2018, bamboo was a very effective crop, with favorable output, and was favored by farmers in some provinces. After learning and gaining experience, he ordered 400 bamboo seedlings to plant on an area of nearly 1 hectare. Instead of planting in a 3x3 m pattern like some places, he planted rows and trees 6m apart to avoid the situation of overlapping canopy which would result in low productivity. Because the bamboo is easy to grow and suitable for local climate and soil conditions, after only 1 month of planting, the bamboo took root and grew well. After 8 months, it produced bamboo shoots, after 18 months it was harvested sporadically and after 24 months it was harvested stably. The advantage of the bamboo is that it produces bamboo shoots all year round, but it reaches its highest yield from the 5th to the 9th lunar month. Every 3 days, Mr. Hoang harvests bamboo shoots once, on average each time he harvests about 70 kg of fresh bamboo shoots; that means he harvests 10 times a month with about 700 kg of bamboo shoots/400 bamboo roots. To increase his family's income, in early 2020, Mr. Hoang expanded his investment in raising cows, goats, hybrid wild boars and poultry to utilize crop waste and bamboo shoot shells as animal feed; at the same time, he used poultry and livestock manure to fertilize the bamboo, creating a closed breeding and production process. Of which, hybrid goats and wild boars are the two main animals. For goats, he invested in buying 11 breeding animals, including 10 female goats and 1 male goat; for hybrid wild boars, he bought 10 breeding animals, including 9 female pigs and 1 male pig with the purpose of self-breeding to supply the market. Unlike bamboo, raising goats and pigs for breeding is not simple, so in the first year of the experiment, he failed, the conception rate was low and the quality of the breeding animals was not up to standard. Determined to pursue to the end, Mr. Hoang researched and learned from the experiences of many people, then filtered useful knowledge to apply to breeding goats and hybrid wild boars. Thanks to his perseverance and hard work, he soon achieved results. The goats and pigs reproduced well and regularly, ensuring both quantity and quality of the offspring. A sow gave birth to 2 litters/year, 1 piglet each; the crossbred wild boar gave birth to 3 litters/year, each litter had 8-10 piglets.

With the closed-loop farming and production model, Mr. Hoang has earned a significant income. According to calculations, from 2021 onwards, with 400 bamboo roots, he has harvested about 8,400 kg of fresh bamboo shoots each year, selling them at prices ranging from 18,000 - 25,000 VND/kg, earning from 150 - 210 million VND. In addition, he also grafts bamboo seedlings to sell to local people at 30,000 VND/seedling; from the beginning of 2023 until now, he has sold nearly 1,000 trees, earning nearly 30 million VND. As for the goat herd, thanks to proper care, each year 10 sows give birth to 18 - 20 kid goats. When they reach a weight of 18 kg/kid, he sells them at an average price of 1.8 million VND/kid, earning from 32 - 36 million VND. For hybrid wild boars, each year 9 sows give birth to over 210 piglets, sold at prices ranging from 600,000 - 700,000 VND/pig, he earns 120 - 150 million VND... The total income from growing bamboo for shoots combined with raising goats and hybrid wild boars for reproduction of Mr. Hoang's family each year reaches 330 - 420 million VND. Mr. Hoang said that the effectiveness of his family's closed-loop farming and production model is not only reflected in the total income, but also in saving investment costs. Thanks to taking advantage of bamboo shoot husks mixed with bran and corn as animal feed, the hybrid goats and wild boars grow quickly; on the contrary, he uses goat and pig manure to fertilize the bamboo, so he does not have to spend money on buying chemical fertilizers, but the bamboo still grows well, produces more shoots and is also of higher quality. Thanks to that, the profit after deducting costs is very significant, from 250 - 320 million VND/year. According to Mr. Hoang, in his family's closed-loop farming and production model, growing bamboo for shoots brings the highest economic efficiency thanks to almost absolute cost reduction, low maintenance, long bamboo life, no pests and diseases and stable output. Therefore, he plans to expand the area of bamboo for shoots on the remaining land of his family in the near future so that the green color of this crop will not only help him stabilize his income but also get rich.

“Currently, in the locality, there are many models of combined livestock production; however, Mr. Hoang's model of growing bamboo shoots combined with raising goats and crossbred wild boars in a closed process has brought high efficiency, and many people in and outside the commune have come to learn and apply it. The Commune Farmers' Association has also widely introduced this model to farmers in the area so that people can grasp and replicate it to improve their income and increase the value of farming on their family's land…”.
Mr. Nguyen Van Toan - Chairman of the Farmers' Association of Thuan Minh commune excitedly shared.

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