epainos:
I am flabbergasted with the recent high cost of broiler day-old chicks. It is going to hit N1,000 or get as high as N1,700 per chick this year, according to a friend I discussed this issue with.

What exactly is the reason behind this sudden price increase? How are farmers coping?

I was told low production is one of the reasons. Low production? What are the reasons producers are getting out of the business?

Please suggestions on how to survive this period will be highly appreciated.

NoToPile:


Live turkey has always been expensive so it will sell I think. Last year Dec not fully mature ones were sold for around 50k. I believe there's a market for it and it's sweet sha.

happney65:


At your last paragraph "How many farmers are still operating on NL" You see how can you use internet farmers to guage the situation of things. There are still lots and lots of farmers doing very well

See,I don't deny the fact that cost of feed has gone through the roof. I actually wanted to buy much more than I bought but had to reduce because of the cost of feed and yes it is true about the cost of feed

But you saying farmers japa and some others was what caused the high cost of DOC is not true my brother.

As at the last survey I did about a week ago,I didn't see anybody,As in anybody selling imported chicken. NONE. All sells of local chicken even a KG going as high as 4,400.

The woman in my area doesnt even have again as it now very scarce. She has re-sorted to selling only fish.

And about you talking about Hatcheries parking up,This is not the first time hatcheries park up. Yet lots of them are still in existence and doing well. Will they do better when cost of feed comes down? Of course Yes

However,The breeder farmers that I know are Big Men and Big Women. Their yanga is always out of the roof because they make cool good money

PrincessofDSS:


😂😂😂

You’re not serious then, after blocking all the loopholes that they will chop from

Zonefree:

Two of the farmers I do buy manure for my plantation are already out of business. Their reason; high cost of feed.

I now source for manure at a very far place with higher amount.

epainos:


Interesting. Do you think its possible to sell up to 1,000 adults 23kg turkey (those extremely big foreign breeds like Nicholas and BUT) in December? If yes, how best can one market them?

sexyyoyo:



Thanks for this . Despite all the Challenges we farmers go through buyers of six weeks from us even tend to cheat buying at a lesser rate of 1950 per kg . How does that help the farmer to break even with high cost of Feeds, cost of DOC , Vaccination, just to mention but a few .nothing stops buyer from purchasing from farmers at 3500 per kilo life weight going by the cost of production and there should be a total ban on importation of frozen chicken and the likes

NoToPile:


Live turkey has always been expensive so it will sell I think. Last year Dec not fully mature ones were sold for around 50k. I believe there's a market for it and it's sweet sha.

Emmabyte:
But why is feed this expensive can't we produce that shit here in Nigeria, even chicken no fit feed well for this Tinubu government

jumper524:
enter the business make you see.
you might have one gigantic turkey with the right hype and sell for good price but then having in large quantity to resell is bad business as you might end up selling at a loss or they die.
I've seen this multiple times.
there's no real market for it, why buy one turkey for 50k when you can buy 10 chicken for that same amount with much more or *2 meat value?

clockwisereport:
how many tonnes of Agbado do we produce in a year?

Soneh:
Left poultry. Rabbit farming seems to be better. I don't spend much on feeds. Just get them vegetables and you're fine

Soneh:
Left poultry. Rabbit farming seems to be better. I don't spend much on feeds. Just get them vegetables and you're fine

Dogalmighty17:
Hunger is loading. While I'm not into chicken, I'm into hatching and raising of catfish. Everything has shot up the roof! Price of feed is no more sustainable.

Hatching catfish fingerlings can be hit or miss even with the most delligent of efforts. Imagine spending close to 600k and everything dies at 5 weeks due to bacterial infection outbreak. It isn't easy.

How will Nigerians meet protein needs going forward? Beef, goat meat, fish, eggs and chicken have become so expensive. Is this country cursed?

epainos:

Ross 308 is good. Really, I'm not sure how Sayed's Ross 308 is inferior to Agrited's. I was tempted to buy Sayed one time, but I saw a youtube video where both hatcheries were compared from days 1 to 42, and Agrited won hands down. So, the management of Agrited seems to outperform that of Sayed.

obinna58:

Poultry is not the answer at this moment except you have your maize farming land
Outlets which chicken will be distributed to(it must be yours)

malali:


What large scale farming do you think will have high profits in Nigeria ?

epainos:

Even poultry can still make a profit. Marketing is the key. Ready-made markets are mostly vegetables like tomatoes, pepper, watermelon, etc. Move it to a major market and meet selling agents there. But really, I think if you do smaller production and retail your products, you will make more money. I used to use agents before, but I discovered retailing, and I am not looking back. Small production, huge profits.

Pepperdemisback:
[b] Do your local incubator in your house.
Steps to follow.
1 Put sand in a transparent plastic, like this one people use to hawk assorted snacks.
2. Fix a rechargeable lantern on the lid, it will produce heat to the eggs. U can use kerosene lantern
Put a small hole on the lid for temperature regulator. Set between 32-37.
3. Number the eggs on 3 sides with a small charcoal or marker. You will turn the eggs 3 times per day.
4. Set the eggs in the plastic, moist the sand a bit everyday. Plug the rechargeable lantern cos the light must be always on. Set your voltage regulator to any number between 32 and 37. Turn eggs 3 times per day for 21_22 days. On the 12th night, do Egg candling in the darkness. This is the useage of phone torch to light the eggs. Cover bucket with blankets every night for deep heat.
Finish.
If you buy a crate of eggs for about N4k, u get a chick for about N130.
You can experiment this with 6 eggs only and check it out.
You might watch video on YouTube for better understanding.
Best of luck! [/b]

malali:


I prefer poultry and livestock. I want to do large scale, maybe even run my own feed mill.

epainos:

Lol!

Bear it in mind that livestock farmers are actually grasses and legumes producers. Some people pushed out intensive livestock farming without farming grasses and legumes, but the result is using concentrates, leftover food, and it is extremely hard. Plus, such livestock is very unhealthy to eat.

For example, if you are a dairy farmer, you scale your livestock to the number of acres of land you have. Then, cultivate your land, and let your livestock graze it. Or you harvest your plants and feed them inside the pen.

For me, the same goes for poultry, but since you are going to feed your bird seeds instead of leaves and stems, many farmers don't get it right. The process of removing antinutrients from seeds is hard and out of the reach of small-scale farmers.

What you call large-scale is not. I can bet you that if I give you the cost of raising chickens, you may just be barely able to afford to feed even just 50 chickens. This is not large scale. It's still extremely micro scale.

You will need to know what you want to do. Sell meat or eggs. If meat, do you want to sell live or processed? These are questions you need to answer.

epainos:

Yes, you are right. Overall, production has dropped, but the few farmers still buying have more demands than the leftover hatcheries. Well, since the borders have been opened for imported poultry products, it is a matter of time....the whole business will soon collapse. So, I am getting ready for such a day, and it is why I am starting my personal hatchery. I

malali:


LOL.....50 chickens. I want large scale at least a million birds for starters. But i want to be sure i am going down a profitable route, do to capital commitment. I am also looking at renewable energy to power the energy requirements. I want to be the producer and main retailer having outlets where people can buy affordable protein in large states likes Lagos.
Something new different and creative ? Do you see where i am going ?

Natbrowny:


Even local is high bro. And u'll need two to get the meat size of 1 broiler.

Noilers n kuroilers and duals are expensive as f*ck

yemmit90:


Lolz, your personal hatchery won't help if cheap imported frozen chicken flooded Nigeria market as majority of Frozen chicken buyers prefer imported ones with tough meat than what we produce locally.

The only grace that would be left by then is selling of life chicken to those who loves fresh meat, and in this arrangement, only middlemen take bulk of profit and not farmers. Like you've rightly said, the whole business may soon collapsed, especially if the price of feeds and DOC dont come down significantly.

To excel in poultry business, you must have a market channel that will bring you to final consumers.

JASONjnr:


Yeah, that's why I'm rearing Fulani fowls.....

They're a bit above the local fowl and with great amount of meat.

They also grow faster with browker's feed.

epainos:

OK. In this case, you will need to be involved in all the like of production. You must be solidly prepared.

Caution: Do not start production at the highest capacity of your production. You may install that high efficiency line of production as long as you have made a thorough market research, but you start production at a minimum level and gradually upscale it till you reach the full potential production level of your set up.

Areas you must consider are:

Soy and Corn farming for feed production. Then, research well how to make very good pelleted feed.

Next...get your hatchery done. You can scale this up gradually.

Brooders set up for day old to 2 weeks chicks.

Management of parent stocks if broilers

Management of commercial birds.

Cold rooms if you choose to sell meat.

Marketing and Sales.

Note: If you say 1 million birds to start, first, you can't easily get such day old birds except you want sellers to run fast one on you. So, you need to start breeding stocks first. You are going to do exactly what I am trying to do.

Test yourself and your ability with these three areas:

1. 100 parent broiler birds (these ones will produce about 2,400 birds you can sell every month. It takes like 1 year to run this. If it's too small for you...increase it. But the whole idea is to learn how this works well before committing millions to scale up to maybe 10 000 parent birds that will give you 240,000 birds per month. So that you have 1.44 birds per year. If too small, you scale up later to 50k to 100k per birds parent stock that will give 1.2 million birds per month to 2.4 million birds per month.

But you still need to know how to sell. So, scaling up gradually is still the best. Do not just start at a very high end. The poultry value chain in Nigeria is not yet ready for such an aggressive move. Your suppliers will fail you. So, you need to be your supplier. You produce like 85% of your raw materials and buy the rest. If you start so big and rely on suppliers for your raw materials, they will crush you. So, you need to put so many things on the ground to produce the number of birds you desire to have.


2. You may do pilot breeders for egg production, too.

3. Then, see which one pays you more. You can d3cide to do both, but you must know which is your main target based on your pilot.


Do not rush it. Go steadily and consistently. You need to deal with workers too. You need to be able to learn your business first to tackle workers very well. Also, you need to handle security very well. It is better to have a smaller version and see what kind of security breach you will experience in your first year of pilot than to start very high and collapse cos of a single security breach.

My point is this: learn A to Z of what you want to do, and be prepared for any wahala that comes out of it from your experience with a good pilot. A good pilot can still fetch you millions of Naira in profit....and can last 1 to 2 years. The good thing is that you know how to scale up as you make progress.

You have so much to work on. Start today. Yes, you can do it. Remember that Isaac made his money when there was farmine in the land. People make heck of billions during recessions.

malali:


Thanks for the detailed response. Curious about your background ? you seem well versed.

slan87:
Pls anyone into locally breed turkey should hit me up

epainos:

I cut across many disciplines. Engineering as a graduate...moved into Bisiness & Finance, Investment, Trading (upper university degree), Sustainability and Ecology with different certifications, Experienced in livestock and vegetables production (solid ground I trained myself with in Naija). Presently, working on modern tech like Artificial Intelligence, Gene Editing, and soil microbial....advance level of education. Lol. Education does not stop as long as a dey cash out with am...a go learn am. My principle is not to learn what will not make money. If I see another PhD. that will profit me, I will add to what I have presently. Na money be the main issue. Certs without result na rubbish. Even added Theology....man must know God well. Lol..

Hope I have answered you well. Oga, a no be consultant oooo..so...a beg...no ask me to come set up your place. My hands are full on my personal projects sef and I need helping hands... but getting good hands is hard these days. So, I move steadily at the pace I can, and God crowns my effort.