Due to the growing demand for quail eggs and meat in various market segments, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) has supported the raising of this bird.
During 2019 and 2020, SADER Jalisco channeled 12 million pesos to poultry farms of small producers in infrastructure and equipment actions. This is one of the promotion actions that this agency has underway to diversify the poultry industry in the state.
The head of the Secretariat's office, Salvador Álvarez García, said that the sustained presence, and even the increase in the consumption of quail eggs in popular markets and of their meat in some niches of the gastronomic environment, shows that this species is part of a diversification of products within the state poultry industry.
Cotornicultural farmer (that is the farmer of quail,) Miguel Vargas Preciado, commented that the quail egg increases its presence in the municipal markets, due to its demand in such popular drinks as chocomilk and pullets with sherry wine.
He also said that his business has started with good results the sale of products with added value from the bird's egg, such as mayonnaise, pickled eggs, and eggnog. He details that, for example, a liter of eggnog requires 50 yolks.
He mentioned that the great precocity of these birds to lay eggs is an element in favor, since at 45 days of being born they are already laying. In the case of his farm, he pointed out that each laying female produces one egg every 30 hours.
He recalled that, upon realizing the calls of SADER Jalisco, he made the procedures to establish a quail farm with support that represented half the cost of the investment.
Already experienced in the field, he said that the challenge in rearing is to constantly have good sanitary measures on the farms and to feed the quail well, so that 28% protein is ensured in the daily diet. He also said that you have to make sure you have pathogen-free water and continuously check the humidity and temperature conditions in each farm.
He specified that his farm, located in the municipality of Ixtlahuacán de Los Membrillos, has an inventory of 5,000 birds, adequate for the current production of his business.
Miguel Vargas concluded that his farm also has cage-free hens, since those who buy quail eggs usually request grazing hens. In the near term, he intends to manage the raising of ducks, whose eggs and meat are also in demand in certain niches, in order to advance in the diversification of the business.