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Written by Adewale Oladipupo
Festive period is Around The Corner and Whether you like it or Not Poultry consumption will be high on demand.
Are you planning to start a business?
Then, I can tell you Poultry farming is one of the most lucrative business venture right now with potential and promising future.
I have always emphasize that “Business” is doing just perfect in Africa, because of the huge population of the inhabitant of the continent.
And not just any kind of Business, But Food and Agriculture Business!
In LAGOS STATE Alone, we have more than 3 billion spent on Food and Agriculture daily, now imagine what would have been spent in a month?
I will be focusing this article on Poultry Farming Business, and i need you to pay a rapt attention as we will cover major aspect of concern in the Poultry Business today.
Poultry is one of the most engaged Business in Nigeria, with a lot of people already doing well in it, there are quiet a lot of reasons for these, ranging from;
Poultry are easy to breed.
Poultry can be done even at the backyard of your house.
Poultry farming is less expensive to start (Base on you budget).
There is a high demand for Poultry in the market.
Nigerians seemingly consumes more Chicken even than snakes!
Risk involved in the business is minimal.
Now, there are two major aspect of Poultry Farming;
1. Layers(Egg production)
2. Broilers(Meat Production) .
These are the major two aspects and products from Poultry farming, now we have other by-products too but, we are going to be focusing on these in this article.
*Broiler Production*
They are genetically altered breeds to serve specific interest of the farmer, they are fatteners raised specifically for Meat Purpose, and they reach maturity in 3-months, some reach in 1 month (base on the breed), and i use to recommend for those who are going into poultry but don’t have enough cash to start with Broilers, since its cheaper, and the time taken for the birds to reach maturity is shorter.
Restaurants, eateries and hotels make high demand for broilers, which is use for their chicken delicacy, due to the fact that, their meat are always tender and some eateries also make stuffs like ” Whole Chicken Delicacy” all of these are derived from Broiler, so right now in Nigeria, there is a higher demand for broiler than we have supply.
If you really wanna do Poultry Farming, then Broilers is a good choice for you, with good feeding, housing, medication and drugs, good management with an expert or vet Doctor, you can so absolutely well in Broiler Farming.
The major expenses in Broilers Farming is Feeding.
Broilers been a fatterner, consumes a lot of feeds and so you must make provision for adequate feeds available for them.
I did a logistic recently and i would love to include it in this article, as it will encourage and help those who are willing to venture into Broiler Chicken Production .
Follow me, this is strictly for commercial scale production.
Let’s assume you are raising 50,000 Broilers, and you raised them to attain a good weight (kg) at the 3rd month, you can decide to sell them for N5,000 each;
Now 5,000 x 50,000 = 250,000,000 That’s a whooping right?
Yeah!!! We have more than 180 million in Nigeria, so if you device a good marketing skill, you would sell them all in a short while.
Now let’s take a look into Layers (Egg Production) ;
This is another essentially popular aspect of Poultry Farming Business in Nigeria with so much money and promising future, to be sincere, the demand for Egg in Nigeria is outrageous and even with the good number farmers we have already who are into Egg production, we still can’t meet up with the demand, I remember a time when we use to have 100 crates record per day in the farm, before 7pm daily, they would have been sold, in less than 4weeks of consistently selling 100 crates per day to consumers, we still had a 150-crates per day demand from Big brands and companies who are interested in eggs, so we couldn’t meet up with that demand and this is the current situation in Nigeria, and that is why the government and me are encouraging Nigerians to venture into Layers Poultry Farming Business to be able to meet up with the ever increasing demand for egg in our community.
Poultry Egg Production is capital intensive, I just have to be sincere in this case, that is why I said, if you don’t have more money go for broilers, which is less expensive and capital intensive compare to Layers.
There are so much to spend money on in Layers farming, ranging from the housing, birds, feeds, and maintenance.
*Eggs*
If you are buying them from Day old Chicks (DOC) , then you have to be ready to wait for 6months when they will start laying, but if you are afraid of feeding them for 6months without any profits yet, then you can think of buying the ones we call Point of Lay, which goes a long way to to help you save money, spend less and yet have good profits.
When Layer birds, starts laying, that is when you also start making good income, as they will lay effectively to the end that, you will not have to use your own money to buy their feeds anymore, rather you are going to be using the profits from the sales of their Egg to also feed them and keep the business running smooth and fine.
Layers consumes more feed than broilers, so to help you as a farmer save some money, i advice you learn to mix your own feeds, this is very important, and i will give you two reasons why you should mix your feeds;
1. Most of the feeds raw materials (maize, soya beans and some other stuffs) can actually be planted in large quantity, harvested and store to take care of their feeding for the next 5years, even to buy a whole maize gran is cheaper than buying a whole mix feeds for layers.
2. Buying Already mix feed from Feed mill can be too expensive and can lead to loss in the business.
Proper medication is a must in your poultry layers business, because any abnormality in the health of the layers will cause a drop to happen to the production of the Egg, and this will affect your business on the long run.
Also consult experts, get adequate supervision and knowledge as regard feed formulation and management so that you will be able to produce excellent feeds for your birds, a little alteration in the feed, can reduce the egg production and level, so you must take note.
Now for general Poultry Farming Business, I want to list certain factors that must be in place to help your business
1. Good Housing : This is very important and it will go a long way to determine the success of your business venture, you must take it with all seriousness. I recommend Battery Cage system for Layers and Deep Litter system for Broilers, these as been proven to give the best and excellent farming experience.
2. Feeding : This can be said to be as important as the blood that flows through the vain of a man, when you lack blood, you die! Feeding is the blood that fuels Poutry Farming Business, the birds must not be lacking good effective feed and feeding, you must derive continually excellent feeding system to help them deliver accurate and effective best produce, you can employ the service of a livestock nutritionist or expert in the field(I recommend an expert with years of experience).
3. Location: This is very important, you must choose a rural area for your business, or a place where there are no people living, so that the smell from your farm will not be causing a nuisance to the community, this is very important and must be watched out for, when you cause nuisance to a residential area, you can be sure your business is at stake, besides; poultry birds don’t like noisy environment so rural location that are not yet occupied always seems to be the best!
4. Marketing: This is important, though there is a huge and ever increasing market demand for poultry farming produce in Nigeria, yet you must go out there to network with brands and develop your own strategy of selling your products, the internet seems like a way-to-go in a technology and digital marketing world today, you can choose to create a website for your farm and list products available for sales on it while you run adverts for it and gain the attention of your potential customer coming in.
5. Medication: Health is wealth, the health of the birds must be secure, now i would to make it known that, birds’ health blossom when their feeding is in place, their health is greatly dependent on their feeding, so feeding them well will also give a good health. However, there are instances when certain supplements are needful and they can only be communicated in drugs, vaccines, like antibiotics and stuffs like that, the attention of a specialist/expert will be needed.
6. Finance: Not just capital alone, you must have both the starting fund and the running fund, if your business must do well, Poultry requires a lot of money, especially when you are starting out for a long term business budget and a commercial scale, you consider stuffs like; Land, The Building/Housing Fees and stuffs like that are to be put into consideration.
7. Knowledge : This is a major requirement, I do tell people when they come for consultancy, that in poultry business, you just don’t need words, you need practical knowledge, so if you really want to do get your business going, you need to probably go and learn from a farm that is doing well in Poultry Farming, experiential knowledge is very important for exploit in Poultry Business.
8. Feasibility Studies : This is a major requirement, feasibility studies, helps you to know where and how to start, where and how to sell and market your product, the risk involve in the business and how to reduce it and even many more, every average business person knows that feasibility studies is not something to joke with, you must have a lot of information at hand as regard the business industry, you are going into, this will be the determinant of your success at the end of your business year.
a. Transportation : When your Poultry business begins to experience expansion, you will have to begin to put factors like transportation into place, For instance, when you begin to have farms in various states and you have capacity for good production level, then you have to make provisions for transportation of eggs from your farm to other places, also things like having your farm situated in Rural area also calls for transportation into urban where the marketing takes place, you might have demands to deliver to eateries, hotels, industries and even your own shop, like an egg store, transportation must be put in place.
b. The God-factor : This is yet an important success booster, I am a God believer and I believe in dealing Business with prayers and faith, there as been instances when disasters and diseases like Bird-flu and co, hit certain farms and brought about massive loss, some farmers even got sick and were hospitalize, the truth is “When there is a man to pray”, there is a God to answer, so it is wisdom to take everything to the Lord in Prayers.
I hope something as really gained so much from this article?
