Livestock farming faces numerous difficulties

A galloping increase in animal feed price and continuous impacts from the current pandemic are resulting in numerous difficulties for farmers in many regions across the country.

An increase and high prices of breeds and animal feed but a decrease in the price of live pigs are the reasons why the herds have not been able to increase. Photo: Trong Linh.

Empty barns

Most of the farmers in Binh Dinh Province presently have to leave their cattle barn empty and decide not to re-herd their flocks due to high feed prices, hard consumption, and low output profits.

Over the past 10 years, Mr. Nguyen Manh Huy, 50 years old, in Nhon Hung ward, An Nhon Town, Binh Dinh Province, has regarded raising chickens as his whole family’s main source of income. At his most successful time, Mr. Huy raised up to 10,000 commercial chickens.

However, from the beginning of 2021 until now, Huy has had to leave the barn empty because the price of animal feed kept increasing while that of chicken continued to decrease. The market's consumption was also weak, especially in recent months due to impacts of the 4th Covid-19 outbreak hindering the output flows of commercial chickens.

At the beginning of this year, the price of chicken feed was just over VND210,000 per bag of 25 kg but until the end of June, it had increased by VND80,000/bag to nearly VND290,000/bag. Despite such an increase, consumption in the market slowed down due to the impact of the 4th outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic which made the commercial chickens in Binh Dinh not able to reach traditional markets such as Hue City, Da Nang, Quang Nam, and Quang Ngai provinces.

“Faced with this situation, chicken farmers in Binh Dinh have to leave their cages empty and did not dare to re-herd. The number of chickens left now is very small, but the price still does not increases. Price of caged chickens only stands at VND51,000/kg."

Huy estimated with such a price of VND 51,000/kg, farmers will suffer a loss of VND1-2 million/1,000 chickens not including the cost of labor and other facilities such as electricity, water, and veterinary medicine.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Vuong, Director of the Agricultural Service Center of Hoai An District, Binh Dinh Province- the locality that is strongly developing chickens farms, also confirmed the price of animal feed now has increased more than 70,000 VND/bag compared to the beginning of the year.

Vuong took the case of Mr. Mai Van Ro as an example. Ro, the owner of a chicken farm of 30,000 chickens in An Tuong Tay Commune, is still "stuck in cages" with more than 20,000 chickens that reach harvest time but no traders come to buy.

“Normally, the total chicken herd of Hoai An District reaches about 850,000 heads but currently it is reducing to750,000. The actual number is even lower. As the number of chickens is decreasing day by day, that figure is not close to reality," said Mr. Vuong.

As farmers left their barns empty and did not re-herd the chickens, the breed market also became sluggish.

According to Ms. Van Thi Minh Nguyet, a marketing official of Cao Khanh Poultry Breeding Company Limited in Cat Tan Commune (Phu Cat District, Binh Dinh Province), said the breed price assigned by the company is about VND12,000d-13,000/head, but it has been reduced to only VND6,000-7,000/head to encourage farmers to re-herd their chickens.

"Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the company's chicken breeds recently have not been sold in foreign markets with consumption has decreased by nearly 50% compared to before," said Nguyet.

Mr. Dao Van Hung, Deputy Director of Binh Dinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the total chicken flock of Binh Dinh in recent years has maintained at about six million heads. However, because the animal feed price has increased too high, in addition to the weak market consumption, farmers have sold out their chickens and do not dare to raise them again.

Cattle food is mixed with bran

In Dak Lak Province, many farm owners are struggling to buy food for their family's livestock and poultry when prices are constantly increasing. Mr. Mai Van Chau from Hoa Thuan Commune, Buon Ma Thuot City, said that his family is raising 6,000 ducks to lay eggs but is struggling to buy food for them.

According to Mr. Chau, from Tet until now, the price of animal feed has increased six times with each reaching more than VND10,000/bag.

"In the past, the cattle feed price was only VND280,000/bag of 40 kg. As it increased rapidly, farmers had to mix with bran to increase the quantity. By doing that, they may reduce the cattle quality”, Mr. Chau said.

Chau said the price of duck eggs has increased to about VND24,000/dozen with which farmers can afford it. However, it begins to fall in the coming time and this may cause large losses for the growers.

Mr. Thuy Le Vu, Director of the Dak Lak Livestock Sub-Department, said the high feed prices were due to supply and demand. The African swine fever in 2019 and 2020 resulted in a low price of animal feed. However, now, the rapid development of the pig herd has caused an increase in animal feed demands leading to a rise in the price. Another reason is also about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sale agents also complain

According to a sales agent in Buon Ma Thuot City (Dak Lak), the increase in the price of animal feed has caused difficulties for farmers who have to choose vegetables and bananas for feeding the cattle. This also makes it harder for agents in selling their products.

An agent said she had been in business for nearly 20 years, but this was the first time she witnessed such a high price. According to her, the price of live pigs and poultry has decreased, so people are also limited to buying food for their cattle. As a result, agents have also to reduce sales by more than 30% compared to previous years.

Mekong Delta: Struggling to rebuild herds

Mr. Tran Quang Thai, Director of the Sub-Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine in Ben Tre Province, said: “The province now has a herd of about 400,000 pigs, about 200,000 pigs lower than before the African swine fever epidemic. The poultry herd alone has about 8.3 million heads. The animal feed high price has significantly affected the re-creation of pig herd as well as the development of livestock in the whole province.”

Similarly, the total pig herd of Bac Lieu Province has currently only about 200,000 heads. Striving to meet the plan target, it is estimated to increase only to 210,000 heads by the end of 2021.

According to Mr. Nguyen Duy Hung, Director of Bac Lieu Province's Sub-Department of Livestock and Veterinary Medicine, in recent times, the price of animal feed has increased, inversely proportional to the pig price, which has affected on profits of livestock farmers. The price of animal feed increasing while that of live pigs decreased has also impacts on the re-herd plan of the households who were afraid of losing income so did not dare to re-create the herd any mor. 

Livestock households in the Mekong Delta revealed that animal feed selling agents have adjusted the prices five or six times in an upward direction since the beginning of the year. Each time, it increased from VND 10,000-15,000/bag, pushing the price from VND250,000 to VND 320,00 /bag (25 kg type). It is really bad for farmers as they have to suffer an increase in investment costs, but the selling price of pigs, chickens and ducks is continuously decreasing and they no longer can earn a profit.

The An Phuoc Biosafety Breeding Cooperative in An Phuoc Hamlet, An Thoi Commune has 18 members in raising pigs with a target output of over 1,100 heads/year. Currently, the total herd of meat pigs of member households has decreased significantly.

Mr. Huynh Van Phuoc, head of the cooperative, said: “In order to endure, many members have switched to raising sows and reduced the number of pigs for meat. Some members have started to self-produce food by mixing bran for animal feed as it cost only about VND 270,000 - 280,000/bag, cheaper than the market price of about VND30,000-40,000/bag. 

Not only on pigs raising but poultry farming is also heavily affected by high prices and the Covid-19. The Tan Hung Chicken Farming Cooperative (in Tan Hung Commune, Ba Tri District, Ben Tre Province) has had more than 50% of its members temporarily stop working because of continuous losses during the past few months.

Mr. Nguyen Duy Hung, Head of Bac Lieu Province's Sub-Department of Livestock and Veterinary Medicine, said: “With the current high price of animal feed, farmers will not be profitable but not really suffer a loss. Previously, as the price of piglets and pigs for meat was high, many breeders rushed to actively re-herd or buy breed, but now they are much more cautious."

Ms. Tran Thi Phuong (Long Thanh Commune, Vinh Loi District) said: "For the past few months, the price of live pigs remained at VND50,000-55,000/kg, but that of cattle feed has increased continuously, so everyone is worried. Previously, everyone wanted to develop more pigs in the hope of making a profit. My family also raised two sows to create more herds but with such a high price of feed, my family is afraid of losing capital so now only cook bran for pigs to maintain the raising."

According to agents selling animal feed and veterinary drugs, companies producing and supplying animal feed reported that the increase in prices was due to the sharp increase in most input materials for feed processing. Moreover, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has made transportation difficult with shipping fees increased by 200-300% compared to the normal level, especially those related to international shipping by containers.