Record Keeping: An Important Poultry Farming Tool

Record maintenance is a crucial activity in any business. It serves as an important source for monitoring and evaluation as well as to analyze the profit or loss made. A business can be efficiently managed, only if proper recording of data is carried out periodically. So, we should keep farming records as also a business tool; it can also be an indexing guide to improve the quality of poultry farming.  

The records maintained are primarily a documentation of accountability and secondarily a data system for management. They should be reliable and relevant. This information, when recorded, should be made available at any time. Records should be simple, easy to understand, without repetition but must provide all the needed information. The importance of record keeping is as follows; 

• Record keeping reflects poultry farming with a well headed title or label and purpose. This helps the poultry farm have an identity and a special categorized branding and purpose.  

• Financial decisions-before creating a budget or making important and costly financial decisions, records need to be analyzed. 
• Feeding decisions-records are useful in deciding what types of feed rations, the quantity of feed rations, and the effectiveness of a specific feed ration. 
• The history of the records will provide a poultry farmer with a clear picture of all mistakes made in the past and to be avoided in future. 
• Productivity of birds-records should be kept on the productivity of birds (eggs, reproduction, pounds of meat, etc.) to be used when the flock must be culled. 
• Breeding decisions-when deciding which birds to mate, past breeding records can be put to use. 

• The records are necessary to study the egg production performance and keep check of prescribed standards in poultry farming.  
• They (records) provide information for future planning, changes and expansions, if any. 

Record keeping systems vary because of many factors. For example; 

• Species raised – The records kept for different species of poultry are going to differ because of the different uses. For example chicken records are going to be different from turkey records. 
•  Breed raised – Certain breeds are raised for a specific purpose (laying, broilers, breeding), and therefore need different records. 

• Type of bird – The type of bird raised is going to determine the record keeping system. Some chickens are raised for egg production (for consumption), egg production (for repopulating), meat production, etc. 

Also there are different records to keep for chickens. 

1. Chicks – chicks are young birds before the growth process has started. The records for chicks may include date hatched, date moved to pullet/broiler house, feed consumption, and water consumption. 

1. Pullets – pullets are birds growing to become layers. Certain records to be kept for these birds include feed consumption, water consumption, and light-dark hours. 

1. Layers – layers are female birds that are in the stage of laying eggs. Records needed include feed consumption, water consumption, and egg production. 

1. Broilers – broilers are raised to be harvested for chicken meat to consume. Specific records may include feed consumption, water consumption, weight, average daily gain, days on feed, and processing date. 

1. Breeding stock – breeding stock are used to produce birds to repopulate the flock. Breeding date, birds mated, and hatching date are examples of important records. 

In a poultry farm here are required record keeping tactics that help a farmer prosper his poultry plans; 

1. Equipment Register 

This can be used to keep track of poultry farm equipment like feed mill, cages, incubators, feeders among otrhers.  

The date, source, number and cost of purchase of equipment must be recorded. 

The repairs carried out along with the details of repairs also must be indicated. 

The annual depreciation should be calculated for equipment and the actual post-depreciation value for equipment must be brought forward for the next year. 

1. Feed and Feed Ingredient Register 

 Feed is the major item of expenditure in poultry production. Hence, much care should be exercised in maintaining this register. Few pages must be allotted for each ingredient in the feed. 

For each of these items, the opening balance, receipts, issues, storage loss, manufacturing cost and the closing balance has to be maintained. 

In the remarks column, the source of purchase, invoice number and date and cost per unit must be indicated. 

Since the feed ingredient prices vary frequently, the actual ingredient cost for each batch of feed mixed must be taken into account, for accurate calculation.  

Since the feed ingredient prices vary frequently, the actual ingredient cost for each batch of feed mixed must be taken into account, for accurate calculation. 

1. Feed additives and medicines register 

This register keeps track of the various feed additives, medicines, vaccines, disinfectants, chemicals purchased and utilized. The opening balance, receipts, issues, closing balance and a remarks column must be maintained for each item. 

In the remarks column, the invoice number, date, cost and source of each purchase have to be indicated. 

1. Petty items or miscellaneous purchase/ expenditure register 

In this register, all miscellaneous purchases like tools, stationary, bulbs, nails etc. and other day-to-day expenditure has to be recorded and a monthly and annual consolidated report has to be prepared to calculate miscellaneous expenditure. In addition to the above-mentioned common registers, the following specific registers have to be maintained, depending on the nature of the farm and type of enterprise. 

1. Layer farm register 

For each batch, a production performance register has to be maintained from day one to disposal; with the following columns. 

•  Date, age in days, opening balance of birds, mortality, feed issued, feed/ bird/ day, eggs produced, % Hen-day egg production, Feed/ egg and remarks. 
• The remarks column should deal with date of vaccinations, debeaking, medication, post-mortem report if any, sale of culled birds and any other relevant information. 
• A separate book has to be maintained for each batch from day one to disposal, so that batch wise economics can be calculated. 

1. Eggs register 

• This is a consolidated record of egg turnover by all batches maintained in the farm at a time. 
• This will take into account the eggs produced by all the batches of layers in the farm. 
• This register consists of the following columns namely:
  Date, opening balance of eggs, eggs produced, sold, and closing balance of eggs and remarks. 
• Number and sale price of the pullet eggs and broken saleable eggs may also be maintained. 

• Moreover, the day-to-day sale price of eggs should be recorded daily. 
• The monthly and annual consolidated report, indicating the volume and value of the total eggs turnover may be furnished. 

1. Broiler farm records 

• For broiler farms, batch wise performance sheet has to be maintained, with the following columns. 
• Before the regular columns, the batch number, source of chicks, number of paid and free chicks received, date of hatch, cost per chick and strain, have to be recorded. 

• The regular data to be recorded are date, age in days, opening balance of birds, mortality, total feed issued and remarks. 
• In the remarks column the medication and vaccination details, cause of death may be indicated. 
• These regular columns should continue up to 56 days; but recording should be done until the date of sale. 
• Below these regular columns the following particulars like total live body weight of birds sold, number of birds sold, per cent mortality, total feed consumed, feed conversion ratio, cost of feed, sale price of broilers sold, cost of chicks and miscellaneous cost (electricity, labour, medicine, vaccination, fuel etc) have to be recorded. 
• Based on the above data, the actual cost of production/ kg live weight and the profit/ loss incurred for that batch has to be calculated. 

1. Breeder farm records 

• The records will be similar to that of the layer farm. However, one more column, namely the number of hatching eggs produced daily has to be included in the batch wise performance and egg out turn register. 

1. Hatchery records 

• The hatchery should maintain a register similar to that of egg out turn register but with some modified columns as follows:
  Date, opening balance, receipts, settings, discards and sales, chicks produced, chicks sold, chicks discarded, free chicks and remarks. 

1. Batch wise hatchery sheet 

This may be maintained, to provide the following information. 

• Serial setting number, number of eggs set, type of eggs, strain, source of eggs, number of eggs discarded, number of eggs transferred to hatcher, number of good chicks hatched, number of weak chicks, number of pullet chicks (in case of egg-type only), number of male chicks and mode of disposal, per cent total hatchability and per cent fertility. 

1. Chick out turn and disposal register 

• This register consists of strain wise chick out turn and disposal particulars, consisting of date, opening balance of chicks, chicks hatched, chicks sold, chicks used for own purpose, chicks discarded, chicks given as free margin, closing balance, price per chick and remarks. 
• The remarks column should have the Marek’s disease vaccination and other particulars. 

1. Feed mill record 

• The feed mill registers will be similar to the general registers discussed above but with more details about individual feed ingredients. 
• Instead of maintaining few pages for each ingredient and feed in the same register, a separate register has to be maintained for each ingredient and feed. 
• An extra column showing the feed ingredient shortage due to storage, grinding and mixing loss has to be indicated at the expiry of each batch or lot received or mixed. 

• Moreover, the remarks column must indicate the source of purchase, bill number, unit price and mode of payment, in case of feeding ingredient. 

In case of different feeds prepared – to whom sold, quality, rate per unit, invoice number and mode of receipt should be indicated. 

All the advocacy for record keeping in poultry farming is because in the long run precision knowledge is learnt, mortality rate is greatly decreased and a farmer will experience and enjoy bigger profits as he or she travails the farming life in dedication and wit.