Log apna feed banane se itna darte kyu hain | Why do people fear to make their own feed?
The feed component of poultry business is the only factor that decides profit or losses in the business.
Many people get out of the business due to high feed prices and increased losses
Let us calculate the feed price dynamics and importance of soy?
soy doc is the most important component of feed and decides the performance of feed. Its amino acid profile is quite balanced except for some methionine, lysine & threonine. These amino acids are safe and cheap to use. That is why the concept of premium feed arises.
Feed made on soy doc is risk-free on the account of performance and mortality if the chick is not of poor quality. The basic rule of broiler farming is that FCR at 2kg is 1.5 & mortality should be under 2%. If we follow this rule then a failure in broiler farming is not possible in most cases.
Any ingredient including SoyDOC is not all cheaper for anyone, whether it is big integrator or small farmer, so feed prices are same for all.
We should examine the cost of Premium feed which would be made through soyDOC and maize.
Here we take starter as an example.
SoyDOC 300 X 60 = 18000
Maize 625 X 23 = 14375
Oil 15 X 100 = 1500
Premix 50 X 80 = 5500
Processing cost = 1000
Packing = 400
Transport = ?
Weight loss during processing 2% = 800
Company margins 15% = 6000
Dealer margin = 1000 to 4000
Farmer = 51-52 per kg
These high prices are too much for the farmers who have to work in cash. Further, this type of costly feed cannot be given on credit.
So due to this reason farmers, cheaper feed is required to make. The cheap feed has no guarantee of performance. That is why cheaper protein & energy sources have been included like MBM (low digestibility/intestinal infections), DDGS & GNC (myotoxicity & high fibre), M.DOC (low protein quality), Bajra (high in tannins), DORB (low energy & high fibre), Maize gluten (bitter in taste, imbalance amino acid profile) etc. These things have a tendency to reduce performance and increase FCR & risk is always there. Due to inconsistency in quality performance fluctuations are encountered.
In premium feeds, the use of these things is very limited & high performance is managed by feed medicines.
As the extent of inclusion of these materials increases its quality gets lower & it becomes cheaper. They bring it to the cost between 35 to 40 with fluctuating FCR. When the price of raw material increases feed performance declines rapidly as we saw last year.
Now we see the economics Cheap feed
Feed cost 38Rs
Chicks cost 22Rs
Medicine 7Rs (up to 8-10Rs)
FCR 1.75
Mortality 6% (and above)
Labor 2.5Rs
In 5000 birds @90Rs market
82.25Rs/Kg = 7.75Rs per kg 10000kg = 77,500/-
Premium feed, if you made it yourself
Feed cost 40Rs
Chicks cost 22Rs
Medicine 4Rs
FCR 1.5
Mortality under 2%
Labor 2.5Rs
In 5000 birds @90Rs market
74.25Rs/Kg = 15.75Rs per kg margins
10000kg = 157,500Rs
Almost double profits
2 benefits of making your own feed
- You can expand your business without fear of feed prices
- Quality is in your hands
Sometimes very poor feed came from a miller that may cause mortality, you certainly give back to the feed miller! what do they do with that feed?
Farmer fear
- they don’t have knowledge to make feed (solution, you can take formulation from consultant)
- they don’t have machine & they think that machine is very costly (cheaper machines, within 1lakh price are available)
- they compare prices of market feed and not performance, he thought that when feed from market is available at 38 then why he should make at 40? – he is loosing 100% of the extra profit
- they don’t have money (now most of the feed is on advance payment basis)
- from where do we purchase raw material (indiamart and other websites are full with suppliers)
