By now, most farmers in Nigeria knows that poultry farming (and broiler production in particular) is a very lucrative venture. We have prepared some important pointers on how you can make broiler production in Nigeria even more profitable than it is today. Check out our article to find out about useful tips on turning your chicken farm into a goldmine.
A quick notice before we continue:
This article will be more useful for people that already have broiler chicken farms and are interested in improving the profitability. Nevertheless, if you are just starting out, you can also use these tips to avoid making common mistakes in the future.
Another little thing worth mentioning is that these tips are mostly generic (and they are all about feed). They do not take into account such details as the size of the farm or the exact species of the chickens. Therefore, you should read them carefully and decide whether they will work for your farm or not.
Now that we have addressed the most important things, let us teach you how to improve your broiler farm and make it more profitable.
Minimising feed wastage
Many poultry farmers often talk about how they might be wasting feed, but not all of them actually do something about this problem. Some think that that is not very important, or that feed is not that expensive to worry about every wasted kilogram. Nevertheless, it is still wasted money that could have been saved.
For that reason, you need to invest in quality feeders right away or upgrade your old ones as soon as possible. Cheap feeders promote feed wastage, as feed spills everywhere and becomes inedible. Moreover, inexpensive feeders have a much shorter lifespan than their more expensive counterparts. Unless feed is literally as cheap as dirt where you live, you should definitely address the feed wastage issue.
Adjusting feed formulas in accordance with the specific breed of chickens
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Year after year, scientists come up with new breeds of broilers that can grow faster and consume less feed than their predecessors. Thus, farmers have the ability to grow their farms much faster and with less money. However, many of these farmers do not take into account that they should not be using the same old feed they have been using for the past few years (or, God forbid, decades!)
Oftentimes, farmers do not match the feed to the genetic background of their chickens. This might lead to broilers not getting enough nutrients with their feed or getting too many nutrients. The latter is not necessarily dangerous for the chickens, but it is dangerous for your wallet, as you might be wasting money on unnecessary nutrients!
That is why, if you want your farm to be cost-effective and your chickens to grow up healthy, contact your genetic supplier or ask a nutritionist. With their help, you will be able to modify the feed formula according to your birds’ genetic needs.
Using low cost ingredients for the feed
If you want to save more money, you should keep your eye out for new emerging cheap feed ingredients. For the longest time, one of the cheapest options were Distiller's dried grains with solubles, also known as DDGS, and rapeseed. Who knows, maybe they have come up with something new these days.
You should also make friends with people involved in agriculture and restaurant business. Agro-industrial by-products, as well as such things as overcooked/undercooked macaroni can be bought for almost nothing. Just grind them up with some nutrients, and your birds will never know the difference. Just remember, do not go too cheap, or you might risk the health of your chickens and your whole enterprise.
Rethinking the additives
At some point in time, you might have added some extra ingredients to your feed. It could have been because you had to neutralise some negative effects of other ingredients. Or your birds could have been sick, and you needed to add some medicine. But did you remember to stop adding that stuff after it had served its purpose?
In order to save money, you need to rethink all the additives you put in the feed. Do you still need them? Are they of any importance for the birds? Is there a cheaper alternative to the ones you have been using? Answer these questions and remove all the unnecessary additives to save quite a lot of money.
Defining the right strategy
If you have ever thought that fast growth is the only thing that matters in broiler production, think again. In broiler production, the only thing that matters most is profit. Sure, you might want to invest in more expensive feed that will make your chickens grow faster. But is it really cost effective? Will your profits increase from this or will you actually end up with less than with what you have started?
Carefully examine your strategy, weigh all the pros and cons, calculate and think of every possible option and choose the one that is the most profitable. Growth speed does not matter if it does not increase profitability.
All that said, you should re-evaluate the cost effectiveness of your farm at least once a year. This will help you save a lot of money, improve the life of your chickens and, as a consequence, the quality of your product. These simple yet useful tips should help you in making your broiler production more profitable.
READ ALSO: How to start quail farming business?
Source: Naija.ng