Pigs eating green tea powder helps increase resistance, delicious meat

New livestock farming direction in tea land

As a passionate animal husbandry person, Mr. Tran Van Tuan (Dong Lien commune, Thai Nguyen city) fell in love with pigs 10 years ago.

Starting with 5 pigs with the desire to just have enough to eat, over time, this farmer's farm has expanded thanks to his hard work. At its peak, Tuan's farm had nearly 400 pigs, creating jobs for 5 local workers. Thanks to the pigs, Tuan was able to build a big house, buy a car, and send his children to school.

Pig farm fed with green tea powder of Mr. Tran Van Tuan, Thai Nguyen. Photo: Quang Linh.

However, “when the peak is also the beginning of decline”, African swine fever hit Mr. Tuan’s farm, causing 300 pigs to be destroyed, causing a loss of nearly 5 billion VND. Not discouraged by the difficulties, Mr. Tuan was determined to rebuild from scratch and considered this an opportunity to restructure production, changing direction according to sustainable biosafety farming processes.

Learning from the press and scientific seminars, Mr. Tuan learned that Thai Nguyen province is expanding the technical process of raising pigs for meat from natural food supplemented with green tea ingredients with many benefits. With the support of the Thai Nguyen City Agricultural Service Center, the farm has successfully applied the process and sold the first batch of pigs.

Green tea leaf powder is made from old tea leaves, a by-product after harvesting tea buds. The tea leaves are dried twice at a temperature of about 65 degrees Celsius and then ground into powder. Green tea leaf powder is stored in a sealed, dry plastic bag to avoid contamination.

Raw materials used for food are mainly of natural origin and locally available, including: Concentrated feed (ground corn, rice bran); Protein-rich feed (soybeans, mineral premix, vitamins, salt, probiotics).

Ms. Dao Thi Kim Quy, Director of the Agricultural Service Center of Thai Nguyen City emphasized: "The method of mixing food and fermenting microorganisms helps the process of converting food of livestock quickly and effectively, increases resistance, and significantly limits diseases of the digestive tract".

Green tea powder used in pig farming. Photo: Quang Linh .

Step 1 : Prepare 40 liters of clean water into the tank, add 3 kg of rice bran and 3 kg of corn bran to the water tank, stir well. Add 500 grams of probiotics to the water tank, stir well. The probiotic solution tank activates the yeast for 1 - 2 hours, then proceed to ferment the food.

Step 2 : Prepare the ingredients according to the ratio. Use the mixer to mix the ingredients in order from the largest to the smallest mass. Put the corn bran into the mixer, then add the rice bran, turn on the machine, mix the above 2 ingredients well, continue to put the soybeans into the mixer, mix well.

For small quantities of ingredients (green tea leaf powder, minerals, vitamins, salt), mix first with a quantity of crushed corn to increase the volume, then mix with other ingredients to ensure even distribution in the feed mixture.

Step 3 : Slowly add the prepared yeast solution into the mixer, mix the mixture with the yeast solution for 3-5 minutes. Check the areas where the food is not moistened or lumpy, mix the mixture and yeast solution thoroughly.

Step 4 : Transfer the mixed feed mixture to a container to ferment the probiotics, leave the feed mixture for 1-2 hours, then use a plastic bag to seal the mouth of the feed fermentation container, secure it with a rubber band, close the lid and store for 1-2 days, then check the fermented feed to see if it meets the requirements: the food has a fragrant, slightly sour smell, is not moldy, and does not have a foul smell. The mixed fermented feed can be used for 3-5 days.

The livestock area is far from residential areas and outside access is restricted. Photo: Quang Linh.

110,000 VND/kg of live pig

Green tea leaf powder is mixed with natural food at a ratio of 3%. After 6 months of raising pigs, the average weight is over 100kg/pig (equivalent to raising with industrial food).

Since switching to the process of raising pigs for meat using feed supplemented with Thai Nguyen green tea, Mr. Tuan has noticed that the pigs eat well and almost do not suffer from digestive diseases. The area inside and around the farm has significantly reduced the bad smell.

The effect of green tea leaf powder helps to enhance lipid metabolism, improving the quality of pork. Thanks to that, the thickness of back fat is reduced, the lean meat ratio is increased. No antibiotic and growth hormone residues were detected in pork, the aerobic microbial index in meat is guaranteed within the limits according to fresh meat standards according to TCVN 12429-1:2018 on chilled meat.

"The secret to helping pigs eat green tea powder to grow quickly and stay disease-free is to feed them many meals. We only give them the right amount of food, 3-4 meals a day, depending on their growth stage, to stimulate their appetite," said Mr. Tuan.

According to Ms. Dao Thi Kim Quy, the locality is always ready to transfer technology to households who want to convert the pig farming process from natural food supplemented with green tea powder. From there, develop specialty livestock products, the strength of Thai Nguyen province associated with tea trees.

Currently, pigs fed with green tea powder are still a new livestock product. People recommend that Thai Nguyen province increase promotion and build the brand of pigs fed with green tea as a specialty livestock product, typical of the locality to increase value and stabilize output.

Disease-free pigs help farms significantly reduce input costs. Photo: Quang Linh.

According to the process of raising pigs for green tea powder, the farm also applies many biological measures, including using biological bedding with materials from agricultural waste with good absorbency, such as: rice husks, straw, sawdust, coconut fiber, dry corn stalks, dry sugarcane bagasse... combined with probiotics.

Along with that, add rice bran, corn bran, and molasses to stimulate the growth of microorganisms before using as biological bedding. This process helps the barn to be odor-free and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Manure and bedding after raising livestock can be composted into organic fertilizer, used in farming.

Green tea contains many nutrients including: Polyphenol, polysaccharide, saponin. The effects of green tea on pig farming at different ratios will have different impacts on growth ability and meat quality.

In particular, green tea polyphenols can reduce the total body fat of animals (belly fat, back fat, visceral fat) and reduce the average thickness of back fat. Polyphenols can reduce the accumulation of cholesterol in the body.

In addition, green tea leaf powder can improve the color of pork, one of the indicators of pork quality. Adding green tea leaf powder to the diet of pigs can affect the proportion of essential amino acids in pig muscle, and in good quality muscle, this proportion can reach 40%.

According to Mr. Tran Van Tuan, although pigs fed green tea powder have a longer raising time of 1.5 months compared to the traditional raising method, the selling price is always much higher, currently approximately 110,000 VND/kg of live pigs.

Source: https://nongnghiep.vn/lon-an-bot-che-xanh-giup-tang-de-khang-thit-thom-ngon-d744336.html