Anyone here feed duckweed to their ducks?
"Role in the habitat: Duckweed is an important food for wild waterfowl and fish both directly and as a source of food for small creature that are in turn eaten by the birds and fish. As it grows, Duckweed absorbs nutrients from the water. Thus it has a useful role in controlling the growth of algae, both by removing nutrients and by shutting out sunlight as the Duckweed covers the water surface. Algae absorbs oxygen and as it decays, it further reduces oxygen levels. Algal blooms can thus severely affect aquatic life. By shading the water, Duckweed also keeps it cool and thus allow for more dissolved oxygen. And by covering the water surface, it minimises water loss through evaporation.
Uses as food: Because Duckweed floats and require little structural fibres (5-15%), it has more nutrition by weight compared to other vascular plants: protein (15-25% in natural conditions, 15-45% when cultured under ideal conditions), fat, nitrogen, and phosphorus. It also contains higher amounts of essential amino acids than most plants. In fact, it most closely resembles animal proteins. It also contains large concentrations of trace minerals that make Duckweed good supplements for animal feed. In addition, they are easily cultivated on small strips of wasteland and easily harvested. In fact, Duckweed is eaten by people in Thailand. There are also projects to look into the cultivation of Duckweed as feed for fish (carp), poultry (chickens, ducks), livestock (pigs). Duckweed is also an effective "crop". For the same amount of nutrients, Duckweed grows on 10% the area needed for soyabeans, and 20% that of corn. Because it has such low fibre, the whole plant can be used, unlike other crops where only a small part of the plant can be eaten.
Other uses: By absorbing nutrients, Duckweed also has potential as a natural water purifier, converting waste water and sewage into pure water and edible Duckweed with little resulting sludge. The only drawbacks are that a large surface area is required; and Duckweed cannot handle toxic wastes and heavy metals. But Duckweed can become a serious weed in nutrient rich, shallow ponds."
http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/plants/duckweed.htm
"Role in the habitat: Duckweed is an important food for wild waterfowl and fish both directly and as a source of food for small creature that are in turn eaten by the birds and fish. As it grows, Duckweed absorbs nutrients from the water. Thus it has a useful role in controlling the growth of algae, both by removing nutrients and by shutting out sunlight as the Duckweed covers the water surface. Algae absorbs oxygen and as it decays, it further reduces oxygen levels. Algal blooms can thus severely affect aquatic life. By shading the water, Duckweed also keeps it cool and thus allow for more dissolved oxygen. And by covering the water surface, it minimises water loss through evaporation.
Uses as food: Because Duckweed floats and require little structural fibres (5-15%), it has more nutrition by weight compared to other vascular plants: protein (15-25% in natural conditions, 15-45% when cultured under ideal conditions), fat, nitrogen, and phosphorus. It also contains higher amounts of essential amino acids than most plants. In fact, it most closely resembles animal proteins. It also contains large concentrations of trace minerals that make Duckweed good supplements for animal feed. In addition, they are easily cultivated on small strips of wasteland and easily harvested. In fact, Duckweed is eaten by people in Thailand. There are also projects to look into the cultivation of Duckweed as feed for fish (carp), poultry (chickens, ducks), livestock (pigs). Duckweed is also an effective "crop". For the same amount of nutrients, Duckweed grows on 10% the area needed for soyabeans, and 20% that of corn. Because it has such low fibre, the whole plant can be used, unlike other crops where only a small part of the plant can be eaten.
Other uses: By absorbing nutrients, Duckweed also has potential as a natural water purifier, converting waste water and sewage into pure water and edible Duckweed with little resulting sludge. The only drawbacks are that a large surface area is required; and Duckweed cannot handle toxic wastes and heavy metals. But Duckweed can become a serious weed in nutrient rich, shallow ponds."
http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/plants/duckweed.htm
, 0.24 (Tk. 15) and 0.23 (Tk. 14.4), respectively. The feed cost for the control (commercial feed compound) group was almost double that of the DWH and DWG groups. It is apparent that duck raising with duckweed is much cheaper and more economically viable, especially since feed cost contributes the major production cost in duck rearing.
