Poultry farming is one of the most lucrative businesses in Uganda and the world at large.
The increasing demand for chicken (call it chicken meat) and eggs resulting from the growing population and townships across the country provides an opportunity for new and existing farmers to cash in on this enterprise.
Apart from earning from your poultry business, eggs and chicken can provide proteins to your family members. The enterprise can also be resourceful in providing manure to your other agribusiness enterprises.
Those with limited land in towns, they can sell the manure which also lucrative.
Whether you’re just starting out in poultry farming or you’re already in the chicken rearing business, this article can help you maximize profit from your poultry farm.
Business Plan
Farmers must draw a budget for his or her poultry enterprise.
Do I have the required workers? Is the available equipment? How about feeds and clean water? Is market readily available? The questions must be answered before a farmer ponders starting a poultry farm.
After looking at costs involved, ask yourself; will the business be profitable? In poultry farming it is important to look for breeds with high production of meat and eggs.
Location of Enterprise
Location of your enterprise is crucial.
What’s the history of the place? How is the geography of the place? Will it be safe from the neighborhood? Is it free from noise? Those are key questions one must answer before pondering joining poultry farming business. Farming experts agree that the poultry building must be facing East-West.
Choosing The Enterprise
Specialization is key when one starts a poultry business. It is foolish to stick your fingers everywhere when one starts poultry farming. A farmer must decide on whether to rear layers or broilers. Also a farmer can rear local birds and passion is a key in this business.
A farmer therefore must ask themselves, ‘what is my passion?’
Reliable Sources Of Raw Materials
You need a reliable source of chicks. A number of farmers have made losses after procuring poor quality chicks from unscrupulous sources. Anyone starting out must choose to buy chicks that are free of endemic diseases like Mycoplasma.
Other key materials include maize, cotton and fish among others. These help in making feeds. A farmer must pay attention to the source of feeds/feed ingredients because some of them are fake.
Litter materials to use usually are coffee husks and saw dust. However, some unscrupulous people mix the two which is unwise. If eaten by the birds they become stunted and t is essential to maximize feeds. Feeds must be in abundance so as to maximize the growth and production of more birds with time.
Risks
He says risks involved in business include disease outbreak, unskilled labourers and the neighborhood. It is imperative to have a veterinary doctor one call away in case of any risks. Also poultry farming needs proper and closer supervision which means one should not carry out business on telephone.
Perimeter your poultry business and make it a surety to check with the neighborhood that they do not affect the health of your farm, interrupt it with rowdy pests like dogs and careless children who might affect the growth of the farm with their rowdy behavior.
Proper bio-security
Farmers should avoid visitors on their farms and employ measures (bio-security) to avoid spread of diseases. This will bring efficient growth of your farm.
Record keeping
A farmer should record the number of birds he starts with, mortality and closing stock of birds. Others things to record include age of birds, feed consumption per day and per bird, vaccination records/schedule and drugs administered to the birds. It is also important to look at the growth of birds; uniformity growth of birds ensures consistent production for layers as well as bulky sale for chicken.
This must be done daily until depletion of stock.
Transportation
He says transport is key in poultry business. It helps in bringing in materials, feeds, chicks, equipment and poultry products. Also, it aids in supply and production as the business grows.
Others
For poultry farmers to succeed, it is advised to attend workshops and seminars to gain more knowledge and any other vital information needed in poultry farming. Interaction also with fellow farmers is needed, read a lot and carry out home research.
With this in mind, the above tips will help and aid one in a business break-out in poultry farming.
