Ba Che district in Quang Ninh province has many precious medicinal herbs, including ba kich tim (Morinda officinalis How), tra hoa vang (Petelot, or Camellia petelotii Var), sam cau (Curculigo orchioides), dang sam (Codonopsis pilosula) and cat sam (Millettia speciosa Champ).

Nguyen Van Cuong in Ba Che Town of Ba Che district is now raising fowlnwith natural grazing method, using feed mixed with local herbs to create a new brand - herb-fed hill-grazed chicken.

In November 2021, Ba Che district local authorities tried the model of biologically safe poultry farming under the canopy of planted forests. Cuong was one of the pioneers in deploying the project.

The local authorities provided Cuong with 300 breeders, feed and medicine. Meanwhile, Cuong borrowed VND150 million from the Bank for Social Policies at a preferential interest rate. 

He built farms, bought herb slicing machine, a feed cutting machine and bran ball pressing machine, and 600 local breeders. He began the natural grazing on an area of 4 hectares of his family’s forests and hill.

He has been growing tra hoa vang on the hill for six years. He also grows medicinal herbs such as tia to (perilla frutescens var. crispa), sa (Cymbopogon), kim ngan (Lonicera japonica), dinh lang (Polyscias fruticosa), and sam cau, which are used as feed for fowl.

According to Cuong, this farming model can create high-quality fowl. In general. The new farming models reduce expenditure in antibiotics, reduce the proportion of fowl deaths and open up a new way of approaching the market with safe products.

Natural grazing allows his fowls to eat existing herbs. Cuong regularly boils tra hoa vang leaves for the fowls to drink and mixes other kinds of herbs into animal feed to improve their resistance capability.

According to Cuong, the key to success when applying this farming method is mixing herbs and feed at a reasonable ratio to help fowl grow well, with no diseases and minimize the loss ratio. He said that the quality of the hill-grazed fowls is much higher than the fowls fed with common method.

After seven months of natural grazing, each chicken can have the weight of 1.8-3.2 kilogram. The first brood of chicken brought VND100 million of profit to his family. 

Pham Cong