Duck farm remains optimistic it will survive COVID-19 pandemic

Long Island's last remaining duck farm has been devastated by the coronavirus outbreak, but says it is hoping to bounce back once restaurants reopen.

News 12 Staff

May 18, 2020, 5:17 PM

Updated 1,663 days ago

Share:

Long Island's last remaining duck farm has been devastated by the coronavirus outbreak, but says it is hoping to bounce back once restaurants reopen.
Crescent Duck is a sprawling 140-acre family run farm in Aquebogue that started in 1908. It is currently run by fourth-generation farmer Doug Corwin, who's hoping when some ducklings are ready for market in July, restaurants will start buying again.
"I'm selling roughly 20% of what I'd normally sell," says Corwin. "I was down to about 5% of what I would normally sell, so we really had to stop our operations."
The farm raises ducks from when they hatch, up until they are ready for market. They sell to restaurants all around the country.
Corwin's farm is now only housing a fraction of the birds he'd usually have. He says they cut way back on production in January.
"The marketplace is shot right now. We can't go to restaurants. Not too many people are thinking about duck, we're just trying to think about surviving. It's going to be a long haul for us to get back to where we were. But we're going to get there," says Corwin.
The farm had to euthanize some of the animals because there was no market for them.
Crescent raises about 1 million ducks a year and just last year started an expansion of its operation. It is moving forward with a bit of optimism and hope.
"We don't have a choice. Either we move forward or we perish. We're going to move forward. We're going to get through this thing," says Corwin.