Planning to start a Poultry farm business or looking for a smart guide on how to start a poultry farm business? If that’s the case, you should learn all about it and be prepared by considering all of its benefits. You will need to set up some basic equipment required for raising the birds and for marketing and sustaining your business. You shouldn’t forget that there are countless types of poultry businesses. Poultry farm business profit will depend on what kind of poultry business and how much time do you spend on it. Your profit will also depend on how many poultry farms you will have to compete with. According to an excerpt from USDA website regarding Chicken meat production,
“Global production is forecast 1 percent higher year-over-year in 2021 to a record 102.1 million tons. Forecast economic recovery will buoy modest demand growth, outweighing rising feed prices. Global exports are forecast 1 percent higher in 2021 to a record 12.0 million tons.”
If you follow all the steps on how to start a poultry farm business carefully, then the business will grow quickly. Poultry farm business investment is another huge deciding factor on what kind of poultry business you wish to start. Here is a complete guide on how to start a poultry farm business.
What are the Pros and Cons of a Poultry Farm Business in 2021?
The poultry farm business has its own set of pros and cons. Therefore, a lot of people are choosing to enter the industry. People usually start the poultry farm business for the purpose of producing eggs, meat and earning money by selling these products. Just like the advantages the business offers; it does come with some disadvantages too. We have mentioned all the advantages and drawbacks of starting a poultry business in 2021.
Pros of Poultry Farm Business:
- Less capital is required. You just need basic capital for starting your business.
- Don’t have to spend a lot of money on renting additional space.
- Can get high returns in a short amount of time.
- Not a lot of maintenance required. Diseases are less common in specific types of birds.
- A license is not required to start your poultry farm business.
- Huge global demand and not a lot of recession periods.
- Business is easy to market.
- Starting a poultry farm can help you raise income and employment opportunities.
- Pretty easy to get a bank loan.
Cons of Poultry Farm Business:
- While you need relatively small capital to start, you still need to have reserve capital in the bank to maintain and expand poultry farm.
- You can lose an entire batch of chicken with a single disease.
- There’s always a risk of catching avian flu from chickens.
- Some birds do not survive well in environmental conditions.
- You need to feed your birds with the right kind of food to sustain your business over time.
- Poultry farming requires access to non-acidic, clean water.
- Use of antibiotics for poultry farming.
- Can be a lot of hard work for you and your families.
The advantages and disadvantages of poultry farming balance out the work, time, and cost required. A lot of people find that raising chickens, ducks, geese and other types of poultry is a relaxing experience. If you can balance the pros and cons of starting a poultry farm business, then you will love being a poultry farmer.
What are the Tools Required to Start a Poultry Farming Business?
Want to learn how to set up a poultry farm business then you will need to learn about the tools and equipment. No business can survive for too long if you don’t have all the required tools. A poultry farming business requires a lot of care and hard work, you will only make things harder for yourself if you don’t have all the basic tools.
Here is a list of basic tools required to start a poultry farming business, courtesy of TNAU project website..
- Setter
- Hatcher
- Compressed Air systems
- Emergency standby Electrical plants
- Hatchery automation Equipment
- Brooder Equipment
- Charcoal or Kerosene Stoves
- Gas and Electrical brooder
- Infra-Red Bulbs
- Reflectors
- Brooder Guard
- Electrical Heaters
- Feeding Equipment
- Water equipment
- Watering Aids
- Vaccination Equipment
This is a list of equipment that you require to start your poultry farm business. Although your poultry farm business size is the basis of the tools you require, your farm size is what is going to determine how many tools you need.
How Much Does It Cost to Start a Poultry Farm?
Want to start a poultry farm business and not sure how much does it cost to start a poultry farm? When starting a poultry farm business, you must get your costing and economic analysis which can help you in building the profit. Growing and expanding your business takes a lot of time, understanding the expense and profit ratio is crucial.
It is important to note that poultry feed costs are one of the major expenses of a poultry farm business. While trying to figure out the poultry farm business investment, the expenses incurred on feed are a crucial factor.
When it comes to starting a medium-scale poultry farm business, you should be prepared to either rent or lease a large farmland in a good and easy to access location. Renting the farmland is one of the biggest areas where you will spend your start-up capital.
Here are all the major expenses that you should expect to start a medium scale poultry farm business. Reference used for costing, courtesy of profitableventure
- The cost for the purchase of poultry feed and medication costs around $30,000.
- The operational cost of the first few months $55,000.
- Other start-up expenses such as phone and utility bills may cost up to about $5,000.
- The cost of construction of a standard poultry facility with the right kind of fencing, the cost can depend on your area and what kinds of fencing you require. The cost can be around $150,000 – $200,000.
- The cost of insurance including general liability, can reach up to $30,000.
- Legal expenses such as licenses and permits are needed to be included in the start-up expenses. Based on the licenses and permits that you require, the cost can reach up to $15,000.
- If you’re starting a business in America, then you’ll need to register it first. Registering your poultry farm business costs $750.
- The cost of store equipment like a cash register, security, and ventilation.
- If you want a CCTV setup, then it can cost around $5,000.
- Cost of building and setting up a website.
You will need an estimated cost of around $300,000 to successfully set up a medium scale to small scale business. You should note that this amount includes the salaries of the first 3 months of operations, if your family will be helping you with the farm, then you can cut out that expense.
If you are trying to open a large-scale poultry farm business in the United States of America, then you will need at least $2 Million. Also, you should know that this cost includes the first 3 months of salaries and working operations.
Market Research and Competitor Analysis Required for Poultry Farm Business
No business can survive for a long time without conducting ideal market research and competitor analysis. There are countless ways market research and competitor analysis can help you in growing your business. Here’s why you should do market research on how to start a poultry farm business:
- It helps you to understand consumer behavior. You would be able to understand what your customers want, who your customers are, and what kind of buying decisions they make.
- Doing market research will give your ideas on how you can expand your poultry business. You can learn how to increase your income.
- Proper market research before starting a poultry farm business can help you build strategies to leave your competitors in the dust. It helps you to “spy” on your competitors which can help you develop a better business strategy.
- The market research also helps you with setting up your prices ideally to match your competitors. Highly-priced products are the first step in making your customers run away from you. At the same time, too low prices will also raise suspicion of quality among customers and can also cause you to lose customers. Doing competitor analysis can help you find the ideal price point for all your products.
- You would be able to discover trends, industry standards, and industry practices that can help you grow your business.
You need to know how to conduct market research to grow your business. Conducting standard market research can be an expensive task. You may even need to get the help of services and experts who know how to do competitor and market research. However, you don’t have to spend too much money to do market research, there are ways you can research without breaking your bank. Doing market research is vital if you want to learn how to start a poultry farm business:
- You should already look for already written research reports by other people about poultry farms in your area.
- Learn from others. The best way to do market research for your farm is to learn from others who are already in the industry.
- You can also take personal interviews with potential customers and learn about their buying behaviors.
- Do product testing. Start producing your products in small quantities and learn how customers like your products.
- A lot of people and companies tend to get impressive results from doing market research on social media.
Building a Pre-Launch Plan for Your Poultry Farm Business
Egg production is one of the most popular forms of poultry farming because egg consumption is incredible all over the globe. Poultry production comes in different forms, and you need to decide on a lot of factors before finally opening and running your poultry farm business.
The first step you need to follow is to choose a name for your business. Your business name has to be easy to remember, unique and the most important thing is that no other business shares the same name.
If you are hesitant about investing so much money without having any professional working experience in poultry farming, then you should get some working experience in some other poultry farm in your area. You can get relevant experience about working on the farm and how to take care of farm animals while understanding how to prevent diseases.
There are so many niches in the poultry farming business and before finally stepping into the market, you will need to decide which niche you want to build your business on.
Here is a list of things that you need to set in motion before finally starting your poultry farm business:
- Choosing a business name is the first step in starting and building your business. Your business name should show your business goals and it should be easy to remember.
- Finalizing your business niche is the second most crucial decision you have to make. You need to know what you want to do such as to cater to chicken, breeding, broilers, poultry feed, eggs, and meat processing, or something else altogether.
- Choosing the birds for your poultry farm business is the next step. Choose from two types of birds from broilers that are used for meat processing and a bird that can be used for egg production.
- Finalizing the location is also important. What kind of farm you will have will depend heavily on the space you have.
- Registering your business as per the state laws.
- Arranging funds is a crucial task before launching your business. You need to meet the working capital requirements like buying equipment and machinery, purchase of raw materials, manage cash flow, etc.
- You need to figure an ideal marketing channel that you can use to market and sell your products.
- Finding your target audience is important, your target audience will include wholesale markets, retailers, business owners, local shops, vendors, local supermarkets.
Bare Minimum Tools Required to Launch Your Business
Let’s be honest, not everyone can invest a huge sum of money right away into the business. You don’t have to put in $300,000 to start your business, not everyone even has that amount for starting their business. If you want to go all in your business, then you may have to arrange funds and that may require you to get a loan.
First, you need to figure out how much it costs to start a poultry farm according to your area, once you figure that out you will need to arrange the funds. If you can’t arrange the funds required, then you can start with the amount you have. You can ask your friends and family for funds and start your dream of a poultry farm business. If you have any space in your backyard, you can get a couple of chickens for egg production. You don’t need to start big with a registered business and official licenses.
You can follow all the necessary protocols and start an egg production for your neighbourhood. Here are some basic guidelines ( reference courtesy of poultry.care ) to get you started:
- The regular distance from one house to another house should be around 12 meters. It may not be possible in your backyard, but you need to maintain a safe distance.
- Install new or maintain already available equipment for the birds. The most basic equipment required is heaters, feeders, drinkers, and fans that function properly.
- Each birdhouse has to be thoroughly cleaned before bringing the chicks in. You should wash the ceiling, sidewalks, walls, and equipment.
- You should look for insects, if you do have a problem with insects then you should run them off with a blowlamp.
- The heating system should be monitored and maintained regularly.
- Moderate temperatures have to be maintained in the birdhouses.
Now you know how to set up poultry farm business with minimum funds and assets. You can avoid further challenges by performing regular good sanitation, rodent & fly control during the rearing period.
Steps for Official Launch of Poultry Farm Business
Now that you know how much it cost to start a poultry farm on a medium scale or to launch a poultry farm business with bare minimum assets, you can finally scale your business.
In the end, it all boils down to how much money you can put upfront and how much working capital you have. Most businesses don’t start generating profits up until they are in the first few months of operations. You need to decide if you can open your poultry farm business in your backyard or rent a place.
Once you’ve decided on the location, and have set up all the equipment required, you will need to set up your prices. To generate enough profits, sustain and grow your business, you will need to choose a price point that is not too high and not too low. If your products are more expensive than your competitors, then you won’t be able to break into the market. If your prices are too low, you won’t be able to generate enough profits and low prices may also hint to customers that the products aren’t up to the quality standards. Once you are done with that, you can slowly start investing more money in the business and grow over time. Marketing and promotion can be a great way to grow your business operations.
You need to find your ideal price point and start your business right away.
Summary: How to Start a Poultry Farm Business?
Starting your poultry farm business can be tough for a variety of reasons. If you follow the steps listed above, then pretty much everything will go right. There are some industry standards and practices that you will need to follow to eventually grow your business and sustain the operations.
You need to choose the kind of birds you want in your poultry farm, set up equipment, and make sure the diseases don’t spread through birds. The next step is to grow your business using conventional marketing techniques.
FAQs About Starting Your Poultry Farm Business
- How much does it cost to start a poultry farm?
The exact cost of starting your own poultry farm business can depend on a variety of factors. If you don’t have the money required, you can start with a minimum number of birds and expand which you can grow eventually.
- How much money can I make in a poultry farm business?
The amount you can earn also depends on various factors and it is extremely hard to find the exact figure. But you should know that the average ROI in the poultry farming business is extremely high. The amount you can earn is based on the investment you make and the number of birds you are raising.
- How can I prevent the spread of poultry disease?
Most common poultry diseases can be prevented by following some basic steps. These steps are crucial to understanding how to set up poultry farm business.
- Cleaning the house regularly.
- Changing old litter beds after a certain period.
- Keeping wild birds out of the chicken house.
- Being careful when there are visitors to your farm.
- Providing clean water and high-quality feeds.
- By providing enough space between each birdhouse.
- Creating quarantine areas for birds with infection and diseases.
- Isolating or removing dead and diseased chickens from the flock.