Broiler Farming in Nigeria: Guide on How To Start (2024)
Rearing broilers in Nigeria today is a very lucrative poultry business. This is because there is a high demand for it and its also a healthy meat for those facing health challenges. In Nigeria today, there is the need to venture into more than one source of income. This will help one achieve financial security even in the midst of economic recession and one of the ways to go about it is to engage in broiler farming.
Are you looking into venturing into broiler farming in Nigeria? If you answered yes, then this easy guide to start this poultry business successfully is for you and you will be glad you did.
Broiler farming is just a niche in the poultry farming business. It is the raising of birds for the sole purpose of meat as opposed to layers which is done for the purpose of laying egg. While these two are related, raising broilers is quiet easier compared to raising the troublesome layers. However, it also comes with its own bag of risk to be uncovered to avoid loss of investment. This is why you need to read and practice this to the later.
Even if this is not your full time job, rearing broilers it can be set in place while you go about your daily activity and handed to someone competent to manage your poultry business, someone with the ability to raise broilers and take good care of them as you supervise occasionally to make sure that things are moving smoothly and on weekends, you could devote more of your time to your chickens and help nurture them to the best of your ability.
Challenges Of Broiler Farming In Nigeria
While the market demand of broiler is high and return on investment is equally high, there are some challenges in venturing into this business. One of such challenges is the high capital intensive nature of the business. Raising just a broiler in the present economy requires nothing less than 700 per bird. This is even on the conservative side. This means you need to be prepared to spend if you really want to profit from this venture.
The next challenge is the problem of disease outbreak. This, I expect you to know. Just one bird with infection among your birds can make you loss nearly all your investment if not all. This is why you need to always seek the advice of a Vet Doctor.
Broiler Farming is a really interesting venture as it does not take away your current job from you. Let us look below for the step by step guide on how to engage in broiler farming in Nigeria.
Guide To Start Broiler Farming in Nigeria
Step 1: Get Trained
Get trained. Yes, you heard me, get trained. I don’t know of you, but I know nearly all my neighbors that ventured into broiler production lost, big time. Some even had a mortality rate of as much as 80%. All because someone told them how profitable broiler farming is and how they can even start it in their backyard. What am I saying here? Go get a practicing farmer, a farmer that has had his own share of success and failure inn thee business. Don’t listen to all those eBook sellers; over 90% of them don’t own a farm. Don’t wait money buying a guide from “a good writer”. You need to learn all it takes to run a broiler farm successfully.
Step 2: Planning & Research
To begin your journey into broiler farming in Nigeria, you need to have a good plan to follow and do a comprehensive research on the business you are about to venture into. You should also seek out the opinion of successful broiler farmers you know in order for you to be well rounded in the business. Things like why you are venturing into the business, your commitment to the business, your startup capital, the location of your business and many other factors need to be considered.
Acquire first hand knowledge of the business and do a thorough market survey of the broiler business and finally get your business plan ready. Now, you’re good to go.
Step 3: Write Your Business Plan
The next is writing your business plan. It had to be comprehensive and capture everything about the business ranging from how much you will need to start the business to how you will get it down to how you will sell and profit from your product. You can check online sources for how to write a broiler business plan as it is slightly different from a conventional business plan.
Step 4: Decide on Broiler Breed
After taking care of everything you need in step one, the first thing you need to do in step two is to decide over the breed of broiler you want to farm. This depends on what you want and you could go for broiler chicks of one-day old whose weight is between 36g-40g or broilers between 0-6 weeks old.
Step 5: Prepare Poultry Farm
Once that is taken care of, begin to make preparations ahead for the broilers by getting the materials of your poultry farm ready. Things like the feed, medicines for the broilers, the poultry buildings etc should be put in place. Then, get founding broiler; after all the preparations are made and the environment is made conducive for the broiler, introduce a healthy broiler to the poultry.
Be careful not to Introduce a random broiler from the street as this may lead to a waste of your investment. Therefore it is advisable that you buy your founding broiler from a good poultry. This shows the need for a good relationship between you and other farmers.
Another factor to consider before you introduce your broilers into the poultry is Temperature. Temperature is very key in broiler farming. Do make sure to check the temperature of the boilers 48 hours before bringing them to the farm, the temperature of the poultry should be 350C at the time of arrival of small chick broilers. For week one, the room temperature would be 350C. This should reduce gently as the broilers acclimatise to the new environment.
While you can start a broiler farm at the back of your house, it is best to get a land away from settlement because of it foul smell. You need to also get the best breed of broiler and their feed. Now, broilers have specific food they eat at a particular age. At first, they start with starter then move up to finisher. All this, you will be taught by the practicing farming. I don’t want to tell you all this and you think you are good to go; I don’t want any of my readers to loss his/her hard earned money trying to cut expense or corner.I repeat, you can loss virtually all your investment if you are not careful. Again, get trained! Poultry business is serious business.
Step 6: Manage Broilers’ Feed
This step involves managing the broilers’ feeds. Disinfectants such as Lysol, Lime, Bleaching powder and Phenols are key in helping to keep poultry clean and in managing the feed of the broilers, this helps prevent the broilers from contracting poultry disease. You should also get a veterinary doctor to come do routine check ups on broilers. While the broilers are grown up, ensure that there is enough space for ventilation. Cleaning the liters of the broilers should be done on a daily basis both at mornings and evenings.
Step 7: Create A Feeding Routine
You need to create a feeding routine if you want to feed the broilers effectively. To feed the young chicks for the first month you will employ starter feeds, from the second month you will feed the broilers with finisher feeds. In feeding broilers, proper and high quality feed is a vital factor for success in broiler farming, broilers needs high percentage of protein in their feeds to make them grow well, vitamin A, B2, D3, B12 and K should also be made available so as to meet their vitamin needs. Broilers eat all the time (morning, afternoon and night) therefore you should make available their feed all the time. Alongside the feed, make available clean and fresh water in the poultry always.
Step 8: Advertise Your Business
Your broilers should be doing just fine at this stage so it is necessary for you to inform everyone that you’re a broiler farmer and you can do this by telling family and friends by word of mouth, via social media and by making acquaintances with potential customers.
The more exposure you get, the more sales you make. Registering with professional bodies also help your business by getting it established. Also get involved in talk shows, seminars and other avenue where you will be given the opportunity to speak.
As your broilers approach passes 8 weeks, it is ready to be sold but it is best allowed to reach around 12 weeks. Before this time, you can inform all the people, businesses and organizations around you of your new business so you wouldn’t find it difficult to sell. For every day and week they spend on your farm without been sold, you are losing money by feeding them. So it is best you start marketing your business early. Lookout for hotels and eateries near you, they are customers that when they are ready to deal with you, your business will boom so move close to them, speak to them, make friends with their representatives and walk your way to success in this poultry farming business.
Need not worry over making profit on broiler, there is a very high demand of it in the market, eateries, bakeries and so many other places, the more you sell the more profit you stand to make.
If you follow these steps wisely, you should have no problems being an established broiler farmer in due time.
