Most livestock farmers have one major goal in mind, and that is raising healthy and fat livestock.
Yes, livestock farmers want their herds to be fat so that they can be attractive to buyers as most livestock are sold based on their weights and how healthy they look. For the animals to be healthy, they must feed on good foods made with the right ingredients like whole wheat, bone meal, palm kernel cake, oyster shells and a lot of other ingredients.
animal feeds
There is an increasing number of investors in the livestock farming business and it gives room for livestock feed production to boom. This is a business that can give an attractive return on investments for a very long time and since it’s not a highly competitive business, I advice you to give it serious consideration. Livestock feed production can be started on a very small scale (as small as 20 bags) so limited capital is not a challenge.
How to Start a Livestock Feed Production Business with No Money
If you don’t have enough money to buy the necessary equipment, this is what you should do. Now animal feed is about the formula-the ingredients you put into it and the ratio you use. The ingredient is what makes a good animal feed so first; you have to come up with a unique formula. Do some research and you will be able to come up with a very good formula.
After you must have gotten your unique formula, then you should look out for animal feed producers who have the necessary equipment. I know that a lot of feed producers in Nigeria allow you to rent their machines or produce and package your animal feed brand for you at a fee. Whichever one is available and cost effective in your country, just go for it.
When you have your packaged feed, then you can start marketing and selling and then keep repeating the cycle until you have gathered enough funds to buy the necessary equipment needed to start your livestock feed production business.
animal feeds
Trust me, as long as your feed is of good quality and you are hard working and focused, you will have your own equipment in no time.
If you have enough capital and you want to start a livestock feed production business, then these are the steps you should take-:
5 Steps to Starting a Livestock Feed Production Business from Home
1. Feed Formulation-: First, you have to come up with a formula. This would depend on the livestock category you want to produce for. Of course, the formula for chicken feed would be different from fish feed. To come up with a good formula, you should learn about the nutritional requirements of the category of animals you want to produce for.Common nutritional needs are protein, vitamins, fiber and carbohydrate. This is the most important aspect of your feed production business and you must take all necessary steps to ensure that you get it right. One of such steps includes employing an animal nutritionist to come up with a good formula for you.
2. Purchase of ingredients-: When you have come up with the right feed formula you can start purchasing ingredients based on what you would need. Some popular ingredients are maize, corn and cassava grits for energy, wheat offal as a source of protein, noodle wastes for carbohydrate and proteins,soybean meal, fish meals palm kernel cake, oyster shells, bone meals, minerals and common salt.
3. Purchase of Equipment-: Some of the equipment that you would need include grinders(wet and dry), Mixers (Wet/dry), Pelleters, Steam boiler, cooker, freezer, crumbler, elevators, conveyors, sifter, weighing scales, sealers and bag sewers and packaging bag. This is just to give you an idea of some of the commonly used machines in livestock feed production but the specific equipment that you would need would depend on the type of feeds you want to produce. You can buy already made equipment or have one custom made for you.
4. Packaging-: The next thing to think about is how to package your manufactured feed. The best guide is to look at your competitors and other popular feeds that livestock farmers buy more and then look at the packaging sizes that they use. Your customers would want sizes that are sufficient to feed their herds for a specific period of time and would also be affordable. It is best to have different sizes-; the really small sizes for people who want a test sample, medium sizes for people who cannot afford very big bags and lastly, the big bags for people who need to stock up on a lot of feed.
5. Marketing-: This is the part that a lot of new investors find very challenging. Don’t worry, I will show you three easy ways to market your livestock feed especially as a beginner.
- Use of Sales Representatives-: Trust me; there are a lot of people searching for opportunities like this to earn some money. What you need do is to introduce some attractive commissions that would encourage them to sell more. Don’t reward your sales representatives with fixed salary; this may affect your business because the sales reps may not be motivated to work hard and at the end of the day, you still have to pay them. But if you reward them on commission, they would be encouraged to work harder because they know that their earnings are based on how many products they are able to sell. Just ensure that the commissions are reasonable.
- Supply to stores-: Another option to consider is selling to livestock feed stores. Look around for animal feed or pet supply stores and introduce your products to them with some free samples that they can sell to their clients and leave your contact details with them; as long as your product is very good, livestock farmers who were lucky enough to buy the samples would demand for it again and that would force the sellers to call you for a restock.
- Personal Distribution Outlet-: If your pocket is deep enough, then it won’t hurt to have your own sales outlet for your livestock feed brand.
- Sell online-: There’s nothing that can’t be sold online these days. I have seen people sell vegetables online, so what stops you from promoting, advertising and selling your livestock feed online?
