Poultry Farming Business Plan For Starters
Poultry farming is a very profitable agribusiness if you can run it properly under good management and conditions conducive for the poultry birds. In agribusiness, poultry farming means raising various types of domestic birds for commercial purposes, which specifically involves keeping them for meat, eggs and feather production.
For any type of farming to be profitable, it requires to follow specific operational principles for it to make more profit. In any farming business you do, when such operational principles are ignored by the farm management system, it results in serious loss to your farming business.
This article will take a look at poultry farming business plan for starters. In our business plan discussion, you will be required to have land, capital and equipment, for the success of your poultry farming. Thus, you cannot start your poultry production without land, capital and equipments, as these are basic requirements.
As a poultry farming beginner, you will need buildings where you will be raising your chickens. For your poultry farming buildings to be constructed, you will require a good start up capital and a piece of land, where you will build a poultry bird house. Having done this, you will need to have a land where you will have equipments and machinery ready to start your poultry production.
How to Start the Business
As a poultry farmer, you should follow the step by step process required for starting your new poultry farming business.
Starting your poultry farming is easy, but it will require a lot of regular work at your farm. Below is Poultry Farming Business Plan Guide.
1. Have your investment ready
Any poultry production requires investment. You cannot start any poultry business without any capital. You can get your starter up capital through a loan or any form of borrowing you could use. You might as well use your own money if you have a better chance of doing it.
As a poultry farmer who is new in poultry farming business, you are advised to start with a minimum number of birds which will cost you less money.
2. Production type
As a poultry farmer who is new to poultry production, you need to choose the type of poultry production for your poultry farm. You can venture into broiler chicken production for meat production purpose and alternatively you can also choose layers if you want to produce eggs commercially.
You can also choose to start your poultry farm mainly for selling poultry products and breeding stocks directly to your local customers. You can determine your poultry production purpose, select proper poultry bird breeds according to your desired poultry production and go for the detailed planning.
3. Set farm location
Selecting a good site for your farm is very important in poultry production. You should choose a site which has all required facilities favorable for your poultry production. You should avoid setting up your poultry farm in residential areas, because poultry farms produce offensive odor. While selecting the farm location, you should consider transportation system and medical facilities too.
4. Construct a poultry house
Having selected a good farm location, the next thing you should do is to construct a good house for your poultry birds. You should ensure all required facilities are available in the new poultry house.
There are three types of poultry housing system you can construct and use. These are; Extensive, semi intensive and intensive. For commercial poultry production, intensive system is most convenient for you. You can be raising your birds in the floor or in cage system.
On an average, broiler chickens require about 2.5 square feet space and layer poultry birds require about 4 square feet space. For example, if you want to raise 200 layers then you should have to ensure about 800 square feet space is available. About 4 square feet space is required per bird in cage system. Your poultry house should have proper lighting and ventilation system in the house.
5. Buy the required equipments
You are required to buy some equipment for your poultry farm. List of required equipments you should buy are listed below for running your poultry farm successfully.
- Feeders
- Waterers
- Nests
- Cages
- Coops
- Crates
- Incubator
- Egg tray
- Lighting instruments
- Perches
- Brooders or heaters
- Ventilation system
- Waste disposal system
6. Labour
The amount of labour you will require at your farm will depend on your farm capacity and capital. As a poultry beginner, if you start with a minimum number of birds (200-500) then you can manage your farm by yourself easily. If you plan for raising more birds (500+) then you will require additional labour to do some farming activities. You should ensure cheap labour is available in your selected area to lower cost of poultry production.
7. Buying chicks
After setting everything up and having everything ready on your farm, the next thing you should buy high quality chicks from trusted breeders in your area and start caring them.
You should set the brooder ready in preparation for day old chicks arrival on your farm. As a poultry beginner, it is wise to start with day old chicks instead of older chicks. If you are a complete beginner without any prior experience, you should keep the number of chicks to minimum, thus not more than 500.
8. Feeding
Feeding is the most important part of poultry production. It covers about 70% of the total cost of your poultry production. The success in the poultry farming business also depends on quality and adequate feeding. You should buy the feed ingredients from the market and prepare the feed by yourself or buy ready-made poultry feeds from the market. Preparing the feeds yourself lowers cost of production.
9. Health management
The success of any poultry farming also depends on the physical health of your poultry birds. You should ensure your poultry birds are in a good health all the time. If you notice unusual health conditions within your poultry birds, you should invite a veterinary expert for medication. Poultry birds are susceptible to various types of diseases and you should be ready to control them. Always remember ‘prevention is better than cure’.
10. Marketing
The success of any poultry farming business also depends on your marketing strategies. Good marketing strategies influence the profit from your farming business. If you can sell your poultry products in the market easily, then it will necessitate to increase production.
Therefore, you should always determine marketing facilities in your area before starting any farming business. Because your business will not be much profitable if you can’t market your products properly, it will result in losses.