By definition broiler farming is the rearing of broiler either from day old (DOC) or from four weeks to market weight usuallty 6 to 12 month.It is one of the lucrative business in agricultural sector if not the most.
It does not require much capital as people will have you think, unless you want to start a large scale production.
Broiler production is sector of agric business people don’t like to go into due to its roughness, lack of know how and risk, yes there is a lot of risk in broiler production businesss but if you are able to curb this risk you will always smile to bank every month.
About the know-how of broiler business, this article will show you in details on how to go about broiler production.
Before we go into the steps I will like you to note the following
Broiler production is a subset of poultry farming
You might have read a lot of article confusing poultry with broiler, it is not so poultry is a collective name for domestic bird such as fowl, turkey, guinea fowl, quail e.t.c. while broiler is a fowl like layers, cockerel, and noilers.
While you can combine all of them into business they require deferent process of rearing and deferent business model.
Terms in broiler production business
DOC : Day old chick
Brooding : Taking care of day old chick by providing them with warmth, feed and everything their mother hen would have give them.
Litter: Fowl faeces mixed with wood shaving
Vaccine: It help to prevent viral diseases
Vaccination: Administration of vaccine
Medication: Administration of drug
Ad libitum: Feeding birds 24/7
Niche in broiler production business
One of the benefit of broiler production busness is that it has many profitable niche. You can start with niche that does not require much capital, but if you have enough capital you can take up all the niche at once. The more chain of the business you take the more the profit.
Recommend: How to start soap production business in Nigeria
Below are some of the niche you can go into
1) Breeding niche
This requires huge capital but less space. In this niche your job is to rear parent stock of broiler, I mean both the female and male broiler.
Your aim is the fertilized egg they will lay, you can sell the egg to hatchery or hactch them your self.
Note the egg I’m talking about is not the same as the one you cook, this is a fertilized egg and is costly, to buttress my point right now one egg is sold at #80 while breeders egg is sold at #250 while chick (DOC) is sold at #450.
2). Hatching
Did I say breeding is capital intensive, haa this one is capital “eplosive” (lol). Your job here is to incubate the breeders egg with incubators and hatch them after 21 days.
There are two business model in this niche and they are
1). You can rent your hatchery to breeders for 21 days, your charges will be per egg. Recently the charges for chicken eggs is at #30.
2). You can buy egg from breeders, hatch it yourself and sell chicks to those that will rear them.
3). Four weeks broiler production
In this niche you take care of chicks from day old to four weeks then sell to people that will rear them to market weight.
It is not capital intensive and requires less space. This is a good niche for those that have little capital.
4). Market weight broiler
This niche could be capital intensive depending on the scale of your business. Here you can start from rearing chicks to market weight or buy at four weeks and rear them to market weight.
5). Processing
This belong to the group of capital “explosive”. Your job here is to process the broiler into chicken which means you will need to set up a processing plant.
There are two business model in this niche
1). You can help producer slaughter their birds and collect charges per bird, recently it is #150 per bird.
Recommend: How to make money from Amazon kdp in Nigeria
2). You can buy broiler, process them and sell them to retailer or final consumer.
6). Retailer
This is the last chain on the list. If you cboose this niche your job is to buy chicken from processor, froze them and sell to final consumer. The capital require here depend on how your negotiation goes with the processor.
All the chain can be profitable if you know your target custoirmer and what to do to satisfy them.
Steps to starting broiler production business in Nigeria
1). Knowledge
One of the reason broiler farming has high failure rate is because of lack of knowledge, to avoid this pitfall try to acquire necessary knowledge by interning in a farm.
Another way is to employ professional who will guide you in all the process, you can contact me for that (I’m an animal scientist).
2). Feasibility study
Before starting a business it is a good idea to conduct a feasibility study, this will show you up and down of the business and how lucrative it is in a your propose location.
Some question to include in your feasibility study are:
Does your propose location have good road network?
How is competition in that location?
What of manpower?
How easy it is to get raw material like wood shaving?
3). Business plan
Business plan illustrate your vision, mission for your business and how to go from one milestone to another, not only that it is a safe haven when you need to obtain loan form bank or investment from investor. You will do your self a favour by writing it.
4). Set your house in order
Whatever niche of broiler production you choose, you need to set up your house before stocking. If you want to engage in rearing niche there are two system you can adopt.
Semi intensive
In semi intensive you allow your birds to roam about in a fenced area. Their feeding program might not be ad libitum and you can rear them for many month.
Intensive system
There are two methods in this system, they are
Battery cage system
This method is not advisable but if your bird is not much or a backyard farming you can keep them in a battery cage.
Recommend: How to start dairy farming business in Nigeria
Another reason I don’t like battery cage is because it is exepensive and business wise it is not good for broiler production, but if neat broiler is your goal you can go for it.
Deep litter system
Here broiler is raise on the wood shaving spread on the floor. It is the best method of housing chicken but it requires more labour.
5). Purchase equipment
Equipment needed in broiler production business are
Feeding through
Water through
Source of light
Source of heat for brooding
Shovel or spade
Waste disposal
6). Stocking
When buying day old chick please buy from a reputable hatchery. Day old chick can mar or make your broiler business.
Day old chick from bad hatchery might have been infected with disease which will later showcase at the later day, also there are some vaccine such as Marek disease vaccine that hatchery need to give day old chick before selling them and if they are not given yeou birds are likely to die.
Breed of day old chick to stock depend on your niche and your target market, below are the breed to choose from
Abor acre
Cobb
Marshal
Ross
To book day old chick you can contact me.
7). Feed and feeding
Feeding in broiler production carry 70 to 75 percent of your production cost, with this you will want to pay attention to your birds feeding programe.
Recommend: How to start tissue paper production business in Nigeria
To have market weight in a short period of time feed your bird ad libitum, but if you want broiler that will live more than three month you can feed them at libitum for the first four weeks and ration their feed later.
8). Management practices
Management practices can be split into two
1). Routine management such as feeding and watering
2). Occasional management such as medication and vaccination
Apart form hatchery another angle where disease can come from is from bad management practices, so do well to carry out your routine and occational manngement practices well.
9). Marketing
If you do your feasibility study well you will have little or no problem with your marketing. Broiler is always in demand your job here is just to find peple looking for what you are selling(your target custormer), you can do this by using advertising medium that your target custormer can relate with.
Below are the advertising medium you can use
Setting up website for your business (you can contact us for that)
Share your business Logo/fliers
Branding of vehicle with your business name
Sign board
TV/Radio
Social media advertising
Drive SEO traffic to your website (you can contact us for SEO optimization and content that will drive traffic to your website)
Google advertising
Challenges in broiler production business
There is no business without its own challenges. Below are the challenges you might encounter in broiler farming business.
Odour
Broiler farming is characterize by odour that might be offensive at times.
solution
pack your litter as soon as possible
Disease
Broiler are susceptible to disease and this often lead to loss of birds.
Solution
Have a good management practices
Buy from reputable hatchery.
Theft
Poultry farming business especially broiler production in Nigeria is ravaged by thieve. Funny enough this thieve can be one of your employee.
Solution
Employ people you can trust.
Conclusion
Broiler production is lucrative no matter the niche you chose once you are ready to learn and relearn, you will always smile to bank.
Kudos you have taken the first step in having a profitable broiler production business the next in line are
1). Buy well detail broiler production book (it is still in development mode, you can preorder by contacting us.).
There is still a lot to know in broiler production, from constructing pen to vaccination. Pre order the guide now at a reduced price.
2). Hire a professional that will help you set up your broiler business, you can contact us
