STARTING A POULTRY FARM, AVOIDING PITFALLS.

Starting poultry farming in Nigeria is an ideal business to venture because of its lucrative turnover and huge consumption rate of chicken products in Nigeria.

At the moment there exists a huge market potential for chicken and poultry products in Nigeria given the high rising population. Out of the needed annual 200 million birds to meet demands, only about 140 million birds are produced annually, creating a huge gap of over 60 million birds annually.

Poultry farming has become one of the most important aspects of agriculture in Nigeria. It creates business opportunities for entrepreneurs, provides employment for job seeking citizens and brings in a lot of income for families.

Unfortunately some poultry farmers end up losing greatly after starting up their farm, this is simply because they lack basic knowledge on what it takes to make good yield, and therefore end up getting it all wrong.

Most new and prospective investors lack proper information and investment knowledge to decide if they should invest in Broilers or Layers. For others they clearly lack the informed knowledge of why they should start with day olds as against point of lays.

The more knowledge and poultry set up tips and tricks you acquire, the more successful your poultry business in Nigeria will be.

To set up a profitable poultry farm, certain factors must be put into consideration as well as the acquisition of basic knowledge, some of these include;

• Different Breeds of Chicken, their advantages and disadvantages as well as which is more profitable.

• How much funding to take off

• Poultry / Livestock Insurance (Very necessary)

• What number of chicks are considered sufficient

• Day old or Point of Lay (Their advantages and disadvantages)

• Quality of Chicks (Especially day old)

• Identifying quality chicks.

• Pen set up (How to save money when starting by choice of equipments)

• Suitable location for the pen

• Appropriate spacing of the chicken pen to reduce overcrowding.

• Selection of best materials for chicks

• Vaccination and timing (Very important)

• Temperature regulation (Very crucial)

• How to maximize profit by using local feeds formulation (very crucial)

• Types of feed given to the chicken at every growth stage

• Feed timing

• Effective management of various areas, such as changing the food or water in the event of fecal contamination which lowers the risk of disease

• Enhancement of egg production for layers

• Debeaking of chickens to avoid pecking

• Water treatment

• Identifying your target Market before set up (Very important)

Are you interested in investing in poultry farming? Business Plan? Guideline, Farm Set Up & Management? BY AGRONEWS.