Setting up a poultry farm 101

Good day ladies and gents

Many of us have heard that having a Poultry farm is a goldmine. The truth is poultry has its ups and down. Its very lucrative but can also be frustrating when there is an outbreak of disease. I always advise people, if you dont have strong heart, don't dare enter into poultry.

I've seen people build empires from Poultry business, I have also seen people lose their wealth in Poultry business. So before you venture into this business, think deeply.

I've had the privilege of setting up poultry farm for people. Most were successful but few struggled to survive because they ignored some advice I gave them.

Before I continue, I am an Animal scientist. My experience cuts across breeders, layers, broilers, feed formulation, hatchery operations etc. I've worked in farms in osun, oyo and anambra, with some exceeding 120,000 stocking capacity.

This writeup is solely based on my personal experience.
Before venturing into Poultry business, there are few things you seriously need to consider.

1. It requires sufficient time and effort
2. Employ an experienced manager
3. No holidays for you
4. don't stop your business to set up a farm
5. don't expect profit in the next 6 months
6. Dont borrow money to start poultry
7. Make sure your farm setup is complete before stocking
8. don't expect quick and easy sales
9. don't employ your relative/siblings
10. You need to be smarter than your workers
11. You need to have a production time table
12. The farm should have residential building
13. Have a good record keeping
14. You need to be mobile and accessible
15. don't get too comfortable, be proactive
16. don't sell on credit
17. Seek for an advice from a practising farmer(irrespective of educational background ).
18. If possible formulate your own feed
19. Seek for a good feedmill
20. Seek for a good vaccine and drug outlet
21. don't reserve your produce for customers
22. Be mindful of your farm employees.
23. Scale your workers according to farm stock
24. What works in another farm may not work for you.

I would explain each point for better understanding. Kindly let me know you're following this discussion for more updates.

1. it requires sufficient time and effort

poultry will really require most of your time and effort. most especially during brooding of chicks. you have to monitor the temperature, feed and water intake because they are very essential for proper growth of the chicks. you need to monitor your poultry closely to detect early signs of diseases and treat to avoid having an outbreak.

2. Employ an experienced manager.

if you are a newbie in poultry, you need to have an experienced manager to handle the farm. most people make the mistake of employing inexperienced managers so they can pay low salary but the result ends up disastrous. having an experienced manager reduces the losses in your farm. but if your poultry scale cannot afford a manager, you can employ an experienced farm attendant.

3. No holidays for you

there is no public holiday in poultry farming. no Easter, Chirstmas, Salah, Etc. infact it is during these times that you will be more busy in farm because the demand for poultry products increases

4. don't stop your business to setup a farm.

don't stop your business to setup a farm but rather set up a farm to stop your business. poultry farming is highly intensive and definitely needs a lot of funding for you to thrive at the setup phase. if you make the mistake of resigning from your job to startup a farm, you may be discouraged after some months of startup considering the money you have invested so far. its better to keep your job and allow your poultry run for some time to achieve self sustainability. once your poultry is financially sustainable, you can then resign from your job if you want.

5. don't expect profit in the next 6 months.

depending on your area and method of poultry, it can take up to 6-12 months for you to start generating profit. for instance if you are raising layers, they start laying at 17 weeks( just few of them) but you only start breaking even at about 22 weeks when majority of them start laying. 22 weeks is 5 months plus, and during this period you'll be spending money on feeding the poultry , paying staff salary, fueling the generator, vaccination, Medication etc.

As a starter, its better to buy point of lay pullets so as to decrease the waiting period for you to start making money

but the broiler farming at generate profit quite faster. you raise the broilers for 7 weeks and supply to food processors.

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6. don't borrow money to start poultry.

when starting poultry, don't borrow money to start because fixed costs like your poultry house, cages, feeders, generators etc. will definitely take 2 to 4 years to recover the money. so you may default in paying back the loan. if you must take a loan, invest it only in variable cost which will generate money such as purchase of chicks, point of lay, vaccines, medication, feed, water etc. using a loan to build a farm structure is like tying your money down.

7. make sure your farm setup is complete before stocking

before you stock your farm, make sure your farm is ready, thus;
your poultry house should be complete.
your cages should be installed.
feeders and drinkers should be adequate for your stock capacity.
your source of water should be acessible.
your brooding items( coal pot,lantern,burner) should be ready.
etc.

when all is set before stocking, it aids in limiting your expenses to only running costs. for instance a client stocked his farm with point of lay birds without considering the capacity of his laying cages. his cages became overstocked, he ended up buying extra cages worth 500k because the layers were struggling for space and not laying well. he borrowed the 500k because he did not want to tamper with the farm capital.

8. don't expect quick and easy sales

as a starter, selling your poultry produce may be tough in the first few months, you may even be forced to sell at lower price in other to build your customer database. also when your layers start laying, the eggs are small in size which will attract lower prices but the egg sizes will definitely increase overtime. during this period, go round farms and markets to confirm the prices of the similar produce you have in your farm. once you know what your customers know, that is when you will start selling at a better price.

9. don't employ your relative/siblings

there is no brother/sister in business most especially poultry. sometimes relatives think they are entitled to free chicken and eggs. Also they can develop lazy approach to work considering your relationship with them. cautioning, punishing or correcting them may spring up hatred amongst eachother. sometimes it works for people to have their relative in their business but most of the times it doesn't.

thanks dear. ride on pls

10. you need to be smarter than your workers

if you're not smarter than your workers, they will take advantage of you. take notice of your poultry stock, purchases, feed intake, sales etc. your workers will steal from you if you're not smart enough to know and act on their shortcomings. poultry workers has developed funny ways of stealing, I will explain with my experience so far;
when I noticed some staff were stealing eggs and hiding in their bags, I instructed the farm security to always search every one crossing the gate. then the female staff started hiding eggs in their bra, some will even tie the eggs together with head tie on their head in the manner you won't even know. some also started coming to farm with 10 litres water can, they will tell you they want to fetch water but will later fill those water containers with eggs.

11. you need to have a production time table

some poultry farm has failed to grow in their capacity because they cannot maintain steady cashfow. this is because sometimes they have little or nothing to sell due to their chicken is still in the growing phase(the layers have not started laying or the broilers are not yet matured). but they still have to pay staff salaries.

A poultry farm should always have something to sell all year round. if you don't satisfy your customers demand, they will start looking for another farm.having a production timetable keeps you in steady production.

Production timetable simply means planning your farm in way that you will have two or more batches of chicken of different ages. for instance if you are into layers production make sure you have a replacement stock that have already started laying before you sell your old layers. if you're into broiler production, you should have different ages, so that by the time you sell the big ones, another one should be ready for sale in 2 weeks interval.
having poultry batches of different ages helps you to maintain and increase your production capacity.

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12. the farm should have residential building

having a farm house for your staff is very important. it provides a form of security and ensures work efficiency.However, some farm works are done at night such as brooding and rinsing of water lines. some farms also regulate lights for their breeders and layers at night to boost their performance. Having accomodation in your farm improves work efficiency because your staff are closer to the farm thus resuming early to work. but you may not necessarily provide accomodation for all your staff but the key staff like the production manager, security and technician should have accomodation in the farm. the only advantage is that sometimes farm occupants becomes the theif, but if you make them responsible for any loss in the farm they will definitely desist from such evil act.

13. Have a good record keeping.

having a good record helps a lot in the farm. it helps you to calculate your profit and loss. it also helps to monitor the sales of your products even when you're not around. the records to keep in the farm includes:
purchase records
daily feed intake
daily mortality record
medication/vaccination record
daily egg production record
daily sales record
etc.

your production record should balance with your sales record. if not, someone is stealing from you.

14. you need to be mobile and accessible.

like I said earlier, poultry requires time and commitment. your mobile phones should be accessible no matter the jungle you're living in. because of farm work, I have 3 lines from different network providers. some customers also call at odd hours, midnight etc. when its easier for your customers to reach you, you sell your produce at ease. Also market your produce on online platforms like nairaland, jiji, facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, twitter etc. infact about 70% of my customers were gotten through social media platforms

15. don't get too comfortable, be proactive

when managing a poultry farm, don't be comfortable with what you know. always aspire to know more no matter your level of experience. things evolve everyday in the Poultry industry, for instance a particular antibiotics you use in your farm may become less effective due to the fact the bacteria in your farm has developed resistance to such antibiotics. Also dont tamper with your medication and vaccination program even if your chickens are doing well. I have been in a situation whereby my farm lost about 1000 birds in 7 days because of procrastination in vaccinating the birds of Newcastle and Infectious bronchitis.

16. don't sell on credit

from experience you have 99% chances of not being paid for the value of your produce( or not paid at all) when you sell on credit. this is due to the fact that your customers would try to share their losses with you when they buy on credit. for instance some would buy old layers or broiler on credit, by the time they want to pay, they start telling you stories how they lost some chickens on their way to the market, expecting you to share losses with them.

if you are a poultry enthusiast and follow updates, you'll notice some farmers burying their eggs during egg lot. this is due to the fact customers that carry on credit fails to pay up their debts.

17. seek for advice from a practising farmer

Some poultry startups have poor business foundation because they consulted the wrong source. we have professions attached to the poultry industry such as, Animal nutritionist, Animal scientist, animal producer, animal health personnel, Animal technologist, Veterinary doctor etc. but most times people prefer consulting a vet doctor.

my advice is when starting a poultry farm, consult a practising farmer whether he has degree or not. The fact is almost 80% of farm owners in nigeria has no educational background in the poultry business, they learnt the business why practising it. I'm not against consulting professionals in the business though some will give you a proper guideline, but most of them have little or no experience when it comes to practical poultry.

there are somethings professional may not tell you, I will list few of them

1. don't roof your poultry house with zinc but aluminum or asbestos. if you use zinc, it will completely rust in 3 years because of ammonia emission from poultry feces. but aluminium will never rust

2. the length of the poultry house should be aligned in east west orientation so that greater portion of house will be under shade throughout the day. when your poultry is exposed to sun most times it reduces their performance. also if you study the wind, it normally blows from the east, so when its raining the poultry houses may be filled with water splashes if its not properly aligned in east west orientation.

3. a client complained that his layers are not laying well despite all his efforts. when his farm was visited, we discovered his poultry house was not bright enough because he covered the house with sacks. He was advised to remove all the sacks so that the poultry house would be bright(layers need good light intensity to lay). after he did that, his egg production jumped from 40% to 85% within a week. meanwhile his vet doctor was recommending drug to boost his egg production before our intervention.

like I said earlier,I'm not against consulting vets or animal personnel but when your investment is at stake, you need people with proven practical experience

18. if possible formulate your own feed

formulating your own feed can save you about 15% cost on your feeding. in poultry about 70% of your running cost is feed.

for example, a farmer has 210 layers that consumes 1 bag of feed per day. He buys the feed at 3350 naira per bag which amounts to 100,500 naira per month. l later formulated feed for him at the cost of 2850 per bag( that amounts to 85,500 naira per month). He achieved similar result and still have extra 15,000 naira to save at the ending of the month.

if a farmer with 210 layers can save 15,000 from feed per month,
how much do you think a farmer with 21,000 layers will save?
do the math yourself

issues like paralysis in birds, poor egg shells, egg yolk discoloration can be corrected with proper knowledge of feed formulation.

I have an ebook and a basic software for feed formulation(comes with a price tag).

19. seek for a good feedmill

before setting up your poultry, you need to be sure of your source of feed. you should have access to feed stores or feedmill so that you easily place your demands. make sure your choice of feedmill is always on stock. because if you starve your birds because of unavailability of feed in feedmill it will reduce your poultry performance.

20. seek for a good vaccine and drug outlet

your source of vaccine is very important. before you choose an outlet for purchasing your vaccines, make sure they have a good storage system. vaccines are stored at lower temperature to preserve its efficacy. if this temperature is tampered with, there will be vaccine failure after administration. I have seen farms lose thousands of chicken within few days because of vaccine failure.

if your farm is far from vet outlet, make sure you have a refrigerator for temporarily storing your vaccine before usage.

21. don't reserve your produce for customers

sell your farm produce according to customers who are ready for pickup. do not reserve your eggs, broilers or old layers for customers even if they have paid. the maximum interval you can give them is 24 hours, if you don't see them sell to another customer who is ready to pack.
The reason for this is because after poultry produce are paid for, they will start losing value over time because you still have to continue your operational cost if the buyer is not ready for collection.
for example, a farmers sold 170 broilers at 2000 naira each(total of 340,000 naira) to a customer who wants to pack in the next 5 days. within that five days, 5 of the broilers died(that's 10,000 naira) and he spends 3500 naira daily to feed the broilers for 5 days(that's 17,500 naira). so in 5 days, he has lost total of 27,500 Naira.

22. Be mindful of your farm employees

the success of your farm is highly dependent on your farm employees, Good employees raise good chickens while bad employees raise bad chickens. its as simple as that

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23. scale your workers according to farm stock.

throughout my visit to many farms, I discovered that about 60% of them have more ratio of staff to poultry stock. this implies that they much staff in the farm than required. having more staff increases your farm expenditures. 1 farm attendant is enough to handle 4000 to 5000 chicken. if you don't operate at this ratio then you are increasing your cost of production.

24. what works for another farm may not work for you

when setting up a farm, don't copy the modus operandi of another farm because sometimes they may be doing the wrong thing. their choice of poultry house may be wrong, their vaccination time table may be faulty, their method of litter disposal may be improper etc. but rather seek advice on what works best for you.