Poultry farming is arguably one of the most lucrative ventures in agribusiness. While many people have made great strides in the business, others have failed terribly, primarily due to poor handling practices.
Just like any other business, poultry farming follows specific operational principles, but when such principles are ignored, it may lead to serious losses.
One of the things that need a keen eye for profitable poultry farming is feeds. Feeds account for 80 percent of the total production cost in poultry farming.
According to Antonio Mudong’i, an experienced farmer and a farming expert, for poultry farmers to maximize their returns, they need to embrace homemade feeds to cut costs.
Mudong’i adds that homemade poultry feeds are of high quality and cheap compared to commercial feeds.
“Many companies manufacture feed for sale, but you’ll find that the cost of feed keeps increasing and the quantity and quality reducing. Therefore, the best way to cut that cost is by formulating your own feeds. By you formulating your own feeds, you’ll reduce the cost and increase the quality,’’ he said.
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There are various types of chicken feed which include mash, pellets, and crumble chicken feed. All these feeds are manufactured using similar ingredients: grains, protein, vitamins, and minerals, but the way they are milled is what makes the difference.
Mash is finely ground up and is mostly fed to chicks and layers at the mature stage. Broilers, on the other hand, can feed on either mash, pellets, or crumbs.
Mudong’i, however, notes that pellets and crumbs are the most recommended feeds for broilers owing to their higher and quick digestion and absorption.
“When you want to formulate broiler feeds, you break it into two. Broiler chicken should be fed on broiler starter mash from week 1-3 and feed on broiler finisher from week 4-6,’’ he said.