How to Start a Profitable Broiler Poultry Farm: A Step-by-Step Guide

Research

The poultry business is complex, competitive, and demanding. So, before you begin investing money, research the industry.Start by understanding the market demand, potential challenges, and key success factors. Contract farming for large Integration companies is a stable and sustainable approach but sometimes with marginal profits. Consider studying the successful broiler businesses in your region, speaking with experienced farmers, visiting them, and comprehending local regulations.
It will help you know the territory you are entering, prepare for it better, and thrive.

Prepare a Business Plan

A solid and thoughtful business plan lays the foundation for a successful venture. Accordingly, it must include every aspect, including the following.

• Potential Poultry House locations
• Business mission and goals
• Estimated initial costs
• Funding alternatives (investors, financial institutes, self, friends, and family)
• A breakdown of operating expenses
• Marketing and sales strategies
• Risk assessment strategies

Select the Right Location

Location plays an instrumental role in driving the success of your broiler Murgi/ Poultry farm. Unlike other businesses that need a prime location in the heart of the city,
poultry farms are usually located away from the city or sparsely residential regions.
Nevertheless, while selecting a location, you must ensure,

• Accessibility for easy, convenient, and economical transportation
• Leveled, clean, open and ventilated land.
• Where summers are hot (Tropical or temperate climate) it is advisable to build Poultry houses in east / west direction. i.e during summer the sun should travel along the roof line of Poultry House. This will help minimize heat transfer in building ensuring cooler environment in Poultry House. Hence ensure east to west side of the land is minimum 25 meters plus the proposed length of the Poultry House.
• If the summers are hot, it is advisable to locate the farm where the climate is dry during summer. Evaporative cooling is the only economically viable system for Poultry Farming. The reduction in temperature is directly dependent on outside air humidity. Dryer the climate better the temperature reduction.
• Access to clean water and a reliable and seamless electricity supply. (Present day Broiler farms are equipped with automated systems and need stable and continuous power supply)
• Land should be elevated with proper rain/storm water drainage availability. Check the land history in terms of water logging/flooding of the proposed location.
• Check for statutory permissions required if any.
• Ensure there is sufficient space for expansion.

Create the Poultry Setup

Broilers demand a comfortable, hygienic, well-ventilated and insulated setup to grow and stay healthy. Accordingly, your poultry setup must include,

• Well-ventilated, Insulated, spacious, and predator-proof poultry house.
• Proper heating systems for young chicks to stay warm and develop properly.
• Heating capacity and building insulation should be calculated based on severe winter conditions in the proposed locality.
• Heating source must be determined based on what is economical, environment friendly and easily available locally.
• If feed is coming in bags, then an exclusive feed storage facility should be provided to keep it dry and fresh. Storage capacity should be calculated based on the quantum and frequency of feed delivery.

• If feed is delivered in bulk truck, then ensure there is proper motorable road up to feed silo with sufficient space for the truck to turn around.
• Silo Capacity is determined based on total housing capacity and the frequency of delivery. Silo should have sufficient empty capacity to accommodate a total bulk feed truck capacity or at least 1 or 2 compartment of big truck. This should be discussed and finalized with the feed supplier.
• Feeding System should be selected diligently. Feed is biggest cost of your product "The Broiler" and major deciding factor of your profitability. The system must work 24/7 for many years to come. Hence should be purchased from reliable reputed company that can provide after sales service and spares for many years to come. Design and quality of feed Pan is of paramount importance. The Pan should be easy to Clean with minimum components. More components mean more work during cleaning, operating and expensive for maintenance. Select Feed Pan which enables chicks to eat from it easily from day one. This is very important as providing additional supplementary feeders for first few days is very cumbersome and labor intensive. Avoid using Pans that need feed level adjustments for different age groups. This is also very time consuming, labours and can cause feed wastage if done incorrectly.
• Water is most critical input but unfortunately is also the most neglected. Ensure availability of Ample clean water while selecting Land. Total Chemical and Bacteriological analysis of water should be done and a suitable water treatment Plant must be installed.
• Watering system: Nipple drinking system is most widely used and recommended. Side action or 360deg type nipples should be used in broiler rearing. In warm weather it is recommended to use high flow nipples with drip cups. Frequent Flushing of nipple system is highly recommended. The Nipple drinking system should be well equipped easy flushing arrangement. Water pressure is most crucial aspect in functioning of correct nipple system alongside the flushing system. The incoming water pressure should be above 1 bar. 1 kg/cm2) 14 PS1. It is advisable to install a pressure pump for the incoming water.
• Fans play a crucial role in maintaining proper ventilation in the Poultry House. For a tunnel ventilation system, it is necessary to maintain velocity up to 3.5meters/sec. (700 ft/min) during summer. To achieve this velocity, selection of right fan is very important. Until recent past 50 inches (diameter) box fans were popularly used. However, these 6 blade fans are cheap but not power efficient for required high capacities of Modern-Day Poultry Farm. They have limitations of capacity when it comes to achieving required high air velocity. Today Larger Diameter Cone Fans (54-inch diameter) are used in Modern Day Poultry Farm to achieve the demanding high air velocity. These fans are power efficient and have higher throughput capacity. Higher Capacity mean almost 30% to 40% lessor number of fans to achieve required air velocity. High efficiency fans have 3 to 4 aerodynamically designed blades that can run at demanding low and high RPM.
• Cooling Pads: Ensure the area of cooling pads is in commensurate with the capacity of incoming air. For efficient cooling the pads should be kept clean of dust and scale. As a standard practice 25% recycled water should bleed off to avoid scaling. However, this will depend upon the quality of incoming water. Higher the Hardness and TDS more the bleeding.
• Heating System: There are many types of heating systems available in the market. Primarily they can be classified as Infrared heaters, Space (Air) heaters Embedded Radiant Heater. In Broiler farming heating is required for every cycle hence should be integral part of the entire system. Selection of heating system should be based on economically and easily available energy source. Energy means cost and to conserve this expensive energy cost it is imparitive to have a properly insulated airtight Poultry House. Else it like poring water in a leaking utensil. Heating system has to be well connected withController, air inlets and minimum ventilation fans to achieve perfect brooding condition without eye watering ammonia, carbon dioxide and other toxic gases.
• Poultry House: Today the most neglected aspect in Broiler Farming is the building itself. This building which houses your profit-making birds, and all required expensive equipment. Let,s understand why this is so crucial. Only a healthy flock and a greater number of cycles (harvest) per annum determines the profitability of Broiler Farming. This is possible only if the building is disinfected and cleaned thoroughly before inducting the next flock. Any residual sub clinical infection can cause severe problems affecting flock performance. For this the entire inner surface of the building (walls and ceiling) should be smooth and easily washable. Insulated wall Panels offer such smooth washable clean surface. Further these panels with required R value are excellent for insulation. A well-insulated airtight Poultry House will ensure perfect brooding condition and at the same time it will be a perfect solution for maintaining cooler temperature during Hot summers.
• Ventilation and Controllers: The required ventilation in the building can change multiple times every hour and that to base on different seasons, time of the day, age of the bird etc. The controller is brain of the system to understand and control the ever-changing ventilation parameters. In tandem with Big Fans, Minimum Ventilation Fans, Air inlets, Tunnel inlets, Heating and cooling system, lighting system the controller achieves most comfortable and growth promoting healthy environment in the Poultry house. In addition to monitoring systems the controller should be able to collect real time data like, temperature, humidity, Air pressure, ventilation rate, water and feed consumption in addition to controlling many other equipment like Silo etc. The controller should analyze this real-time data and activate necessary on farm Alarms and online alerts. Remote access and control via internet (Phone/Computer) is must.
• ( Always consult a specialist while building a Broiler Farm)

Procure Quality Chicks

Quality is the cornerstone of the poultry business and your success as a poultry farmer. Hence, you must buy chicks only from reputed hatcheries. While buying them, you must ensure the chicks you buy are properly vaccinated, healthy, and exhibit a good growth rate. Poor-quality chicks might save you some money. But they will be more susceptible to diseases, high mortality rates, and consequently, financial losses for you.

Buy the Necessary Poultry Farm Equipment

Next, buy the equipment you need for your broiler poultry farm. It includes housing - broiler chicken cages, feeders, watering systems, water filters, pressure tanks, temperature control systems, and lighting systems. You will also have to set up a waste management system to manage waste and keep the poultry healthy, hygienic, and conducive for chicks to grow.

Set Biosecurity Rules and Regulations

Disease outbreaks can inflict diseases on birds, letting all your hard work, and investment down the drain. Prevention helps and lets you go a long way. Here are some preventive measures or biosecurity rules and regulations you must implement.

• Keep visitors to a minimum
• Disinfect your equipment and farm regularly
• Ensure regular vaccination of your birds
• Monitor illness signs and act immediately
• Control pests and rodents to prevent the spread of diseases

Monitor Bird Growth

Broiler farming is about meat. Thus, you must regularly check the weight and health of your birds. However, while doing that, you must also maintain detailed records of their daily feed consumption, growth rate, mortality rate, and vaccination schedules. This is part of broiler farming poultry best practices that help you identify issues early, optimize farming productivity, and maintain profitability.