Do you want to know the hidden secret of making make more mone in poultry farming ? This post will give you 13 practical tips you can follow to easily double your chicken farm profits. Whether your are in broiler chicken farming for meat, layers chicken farming for eggs or the improved kienyeji chicken farming in Kenya, these methods are good for you.
How can you increase farm profits?
There are 2 ways of increasing profits for any entreprise;
- Reduce farming costs in your chicken or turkey farm by making chicken feed at home or consider organic/free range farming etc.
- Increase sales from your poultry farm through value addition, large economies of scale or selling your chicken farm by products such as chicken manure and feathers.
To be a successful poultry farmer treat your farming as a commercial business beyond raising domestic birds for white meat and eggs. The ideas below list various changes you can make in your poultry farm to achieve your profit goals. They include;
The post further explains each of these ideas in detail.
Business Plan
Your first step in running a successful business is to manage it professionally. You will need market research and an execution strategy to run a profitable farm. Then the process will lead to a business plan draft for your poultry farm. It will guide you to operate a small farm and expand it in scale and variety of products. It will inform your record-keeping, financing and marketing plans. It should not work as a fixed plan, but a road map with pointers of where you should be.
Production Calendar
Develop and adhere to a production calendar to efficiently manage chicken farming operations and ensure timely tasks such as hatching, brooding, feeding, vaccinations, and disease prevention.
Specialty Birds
Most poultry farmers like to raise the typical birds with high demand such as chicken, ducks and turkeys. Consider rearing specialty birds like ducks, parrots, quails, fowls, and turkeys to diversify your poultry offerings and cater to specific market demands. These high value birds will bring you more money than the conventional birds.
Turkey have a high demand during the November Thanksgiving holidays. Geese are kept for their expensive downy feathers that are used for high-quality fabric used in beddings.
Value Addition
Explore opportunities for value addition by processing chicken products such as smoked or marinated meat, ready-to-cook products, or poultry-based pet food to increase profitability. Some ideas you can consider for your farm are;
- Food processing; Sell slaughtered, dressed and cooked chicken and eggs rather than live birds and uncooked eggs.
- Egg Hatching; Incubate eggs and sell one-day-old chicks instead of unfertilized eggs.
However; note you will need to add investments in cold storage and incubators for your improved poultry farm.
By-Products sales
By-products from your farm can bring you additional income. The major ones you should sell are;
- Poultry (chicken) manure. Capitalize on the value of chicken manure by selling it as organic fertilizer to generate additional revenue streams.
- Feathers; are used to make various decorative products like masks, hats, fans, earrings and artificial flowers.
- Waste poultry meat products; chicken heads, feet and gizzards can produce nutritional human and animal food.
Organic chicken farming
Embrace organic chicken farming practices to meet the growing consumer demand for organic poultry products and leverage the potential for higher market prices.
Organic suppliers earn up to 200% more profits than conventional farmers. To produce and sell organic chicken products, raise them free of growth hormones and antibiotic traces. Pasture them fully or feed them on certified organic chicken feeds and pesticides. As an additional tip to make more from organic farming, brand your products as free-range products.
Utilize Local Materials
It can be expensive to make a modern poultry house. To cut down on your costs, use local materials and resources to improvise a safe poultry house on a budget, laying nests and brooding equipment. Some materials you can use are; old iron sheets, cardboards and plastics as building materials. Utilizing locally available materials and resources, ensure cost-effectiveness and environmental sustainability.
Free-range production system
Implement a free-range chicken production system to enhance animal welfare, provide healthier poultry products, and cater to consumers seeking ethically sourced food. Buying chicken feed is the most expensive component of poultry farming. To achieve high-quality products like yellowish chicken meat and York eggs, use a semi-intensive method. You will feed them on commercial feed, grains, vegetables and kitchen waste. In the evening you will release your birds to pasture in the compound a few hours daily.
Homemade chicken feed
According to the projected profits analysis, the average cost of buying commercial feeds is over 90% on average of the total costs. A single reduction of this cost would translate to huge profits for you. As a farmer, you can invest in grinding, mixing and pelletizing chicken feed. Other methods are gathering protein-rich chicken feeds like dried locusts or omena. Formulate your own chicken feed using locally sourced ingredients to control quality, reduce costs, and customize nutrition for optimal bird growth and health.
Improved Kienyeji Breeds
Consider rearing improved indigenous breeds such as broilers and kuroilers, known for their faster growth, better feed conversion, and suitability to local conditions.
Indigenous chickens are the most profitable to raise. They experience low infection rates to common poultry diseases. Besides, their meat and eggs fetch higher retail prices than exotic products. These two qualities make them the best choice for entrepreneurs interested in profitable chicken farming. For these reasons, invest in improved breeds like the Improved KARI kienyeji chicken breeds. These bird types grow fast and have higher quality yields. For instance, the adult cockerel can weigh up to 2.5 kg compared to a pure indigenous one that weighs 0.8-1 kilogram and takes longer to mature.
Broker poultry inputs and products
There are many challenges affecting poultry farming in kenys. The top ones are poor access to quality chicken feed and vaccines. Majority of rural farmers find them unaffordable due to expensive costs of poultry farming inputs. Besides, they make low income for challenges they face in agriculture marketing to sell their eggs, live birds and meat.
You can make more profits if you diversify your poultry farm operations to solve key challenges for them. Some of the key areas to consider are;
- Inputs Brokerage: Become a broker for poultry farm inputs, such as vaccines and feed, connecting suppliers with farmers, and earning commissions on transactions.
- Product Marketing: Offer your expertise in marketing chicken products, including eggs, on behalf of other farmers, providing a platform for their products and earning a commission for successful sales.
Contract farming
Contract farming will help to stabilize fluctuating chicken prices. You will sign an agreement with a formal chicken farm, a supermarket or a hotel. You will produce given quantities of eggs and meat. Your buyer will buy it at locked prices. You will also enjoy access to quality inputs, information and credit on time.
Watch the YouTube video below for more tips on how to make more profits in chicken farming.
