Farms: Ducks Trained to Manage Rice Paddies in Thailand
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A listener to my podcast turned me on to this video. I would love to get a word for word translation but his boss is Thai and here are the basics. This farmer trains his ducks to do this work It takes two months of training before they are ready. He hires out their service to rice farmers The ducks enter rice field three times per rice growing cycle. They eat insects that are destroying the rice and then fertilize the crop with their manure. Back at the farm they lay 500-700 eggs/day in rainy season and 2000-2500 eggs/day the rest of the year. Quite a feat of organic, sustainable method combining farming and animal husbandry. If anyone can translate the entire thing and send me a transcript with time stamps I will make a full version with full subtitles.
Comments
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inspiratif
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many many thanks brother, I want visit your farm,
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Amazing!
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These ducks look so happy to be in the rice paddies. Lots of water and food make for cheerful ducks. To them this job must be heaven, getting to do something they love every day.
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Oh my god they are so cuuuuuuuteee >__<
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Love the video.
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Any Thailander who have the time to translate? It would be much appreciated and helpfull to those who want to emulate the practice. PLEACE PLS.
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One duck emerges from the mix, "I'm vegan"
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WELCOME TO THE RICE FIELDS MOTHERQUACKERS!!
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this breed of wild duck is the authentic producer of balut......
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nice idea
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Thai rice farmers are impressive
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Loved this!
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Even without the translation, not too hard to figure out what's going on there. Good find, Jack.
When I called the animals (ducks, geese, sheep, cows, and a horse) I just yelled "Cooooo" and they'd come running because they knew that meant grain feeding time. They were conditioned from the first few days of their life that my presence and me repeating "Coooo" meant food. They followed the older animals until they learned what it meant and then passed it down. Not really complicated. Jack does with his "Duck, duck duck" call in his other videos. -
Ducks are super smart, I let mine out to free range all day, then late in the day I clap my hands and tell them to go to bed (safe in the barn), and that is what they do, no matter where they are at, it is very cool, I enjoy my ducks and of course when they get to the safety of the barn, they get treats (evening meal), this is a good arrangement, I am happy and my ducks are happy.
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I wonder if you could train other animal like ducks, such as turkeys. Think of the pest control you could accomplish if you had a truck load of turkeys you could set loose on a piece of ground and move them around to where farmers where having a problem.
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GAP regulations by the federal government (no livestock within 180 days of harvest) has made it difficult at best for those of us in the USA to effectively integrate livestock in such a rotational system with edible plant/tree based food crops that may be offered for sale to the public.
Systems like ducks in rice paddies have been used in the Orient for thousands of years. As I understand it over there, only the wealthy could afford chickens and ducks have traditionally been the working family's livestock of choice. I love the duck truck and the way the ducks pile in when called their work is finished for the day. Self loading livestock, what could be more helpful to any farmer? -
I asked iROBODUDE if he knows anybody who can translate. He travels all over the world so he may know someone.
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How great is that? And that duck truck? Best video I've seen in awhile, even if I couldn't understand a word!
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That's brilliance :D