Animal Feed Mill Processing
If you are in search of a lucrative business to invest in, you can add Feed Mill business to the list. Many people are coming around to the fact that agriculture does not have to be subsistence farming alone, as there are many business angles to it that promise good returns one of which is Feed Mill business.
If you are one of those asking what exactly feed milling is, we will explain it right away. Feed milling simply means preparing feed for livestock. Bear it in mind that there are different types of feed as different livestock need different feed.
There is poultry feed which is feed for poultry examples of which are chicken, turkey, ducks, guinea fouls, quails, etc. There is also feed for other types of livestock such as pigs, fishes, rabbits, goats, cattle, and sheep.
GET YOUR FEED MILL Business Plan / Feasibility Study. To place an order, pay N10,000 to
GTBank (Guaranty Trust Bank)
Account Name – Chudi-Oji Chukwuka
Account No – 0044157183
After payment text your name, your e-mail address and payment details to 08060565721.
The makeup of a feed is highly dependent on the age as well as physiological need of the livestock. For your feed mill business to do very well, you need to really know about feed ingredients, their composition, characteristics and substitution values.
If you are not well versed in the above requirement, there is no cause for alarm as you can employ someone who does to handle that aspect of the business for you, under your supervision.
You can operate a feed mill business either on a small scale or a large scale. The difference between the two is in the amount of startup capital required, the machinery/equipment used as well as the quantity of feed that you are able to produce.
If you opt for the small scale, you can still be able to cater for the needs of small and medium-scale livestock farmers in your locality especially if you know how to go about the business. However, going into the business on a large scale gives you a wider reach and the capacity to have and satisfy a large customer base.
It is important that the quality of your feed is very good. This is because if your feed is of good quality, then the livestock will do very well and you will get more patronage. But if your feed is not of good quality and the animals perform poorly, your services will obviously not be needed anymore.
Factors to Consider If You wish To Have a Successful Feed Mill
Register your business: This is a very important step that you must take. You have to register your business with the Corporate Affairs Commission so that you won’t make the mistake of running your business with a name that has already been taken. You also have to make enquires and find out other authorities that you have to register with for those that are into feed mill business. This is so that you can carry on your business without any sort of disturbance or interference.
Carry out a Feasibility Study: To be able to run the business properly, you have to carry out a feasibility study. This will help you to really be aware of different areas of the business. When you know what the business entails and how to go about it, your business will definitely do well.
Write a Business Plan: You need to write a business plan and you can either do this yourself or you get a professional to handle it for you. A well written business plan will help you know how much capital you need, the machinery/equipment needed, as well as other areas of the business such as the production capacity, ingredient sourcing, product distribution as well as marketing.
Gather Knowledge: You cannot run any business successfully if you are not knowledgeable about it, feed mill business included. For feed mill business, theoretical knowledge is not enough as you need hands on and practical knowledge. To achieve this you can go for trainings and workshops. You can also pay a visit to already existing feed mills. There are feed mills located in Ibadan, Ijebu, Ilorin, Kuje, etc. so just look for a feed mill that is close to you and go and see how things are run for yourself.
Raise Capital: There are various ways that one can raise capital for a business venture. It can be through personal savings, loans, gifts from family and friends, investors, partnerships, etc. If you are going for loans, it will be better to go for loans that have unit interest rate. Bear it in mind that your capital is a huge determinant of the scale at which the business is to operate. For instance, if you are starting off with about 2,000,000 naira to 5,000,000 naira, that should do for a medium scale production. In the same vein, there are installations that could cost as much as 700,000,000 naira which of course is for large scale production.
The good news is that even if you start off from small or medium scale production, as long as you are running the business properly you will be making reasonable profit and can even go into large scale production from the proceeds.
Get a Location: There are factors you have to put into consideration when you are in search of a location and they include good access and parking space. If your location is difficult to access it might discourage buyers, likewise if you don’t have parking space for those who come to make their purchases with their vehicles.
Although the land area of your location would depend on the scale you want to operate on, one thing that has to be present no matter the scale of production is good access. Nobody wants stress and if they find another place that is very easy to locate and access, they will move there without giving it a second thought.
Get a Building: In your location, you need a building. This is where you will keep and install your equipment and machinery. The building also needs to have a space that you can make a warehouse which is where you will store ingredients and finished product.
It will be better if your building has high roofs and proper ventilation. It also has to be constructed in such a way that rats and rodents will be kept out. This is crucial because if they get into the building, they can destroy feed ingredients as well as the finished products. This is why it is also advised, that the building be fumigated before you commence operation.
Purchase Equipment and Machinery: Not to state the obvious but you need to purchase equipment and machineries to make your work easier, faster and up to standard. They include; Mixer which could be either a vertical or horizontal mixer. There is also crusher and grinder which could be Hammer mill, burr mill, attrition mill, jet mill and roller mill for particle size reduction. You could have more than one of the crusher or grinder if you so wish. If you want to manufacture pelletized feed then you need Pelletizer.
Other equipment you need include; Warehouse and/or Storage Bins, Generator, Ear muffs and goggles and respirators, Scales, Fire Extinguisher, Buckets, shovels, scoops, rubber hammers, brooms, brushes, Protective Clothing such as helmet, overall and protective boots, First Aid Box, Transportation and Conveying Facilities, forklift and a Hand-held sewing machine for bagging.
Employ personnel: You can’t handle all the processes of the production yourself. However you have to ensure that the staffs you are hiring are really skilled and experienced so that they don’t incur losses for you.
The personnel that you should hire include;
An Administrator: The administrator is more like a manager. He is in charge of supervising the other staffs as well as day to day running of the business.
A Nutritionist: You definitely need a nutritionist whose work will be to formulates and produce the feed. He or she is responsible for the quality of both ingredients and finished feed. You have to ensure that whoever is handling this for you really knows what he is doing because if you market low quality finished feed, it will mar your reputation and lead to the downfall of your business.
The position of a nutritionist could be part-time or full-time, the most important thing is for him or her to be knowledgeable and experienced.
An Engineer: A mechanical or electrical engineer is also needed as the person will be responsible for the smooth operation and maintenance of mechanical and electrical gadgets used in the production of the feed mill. This could also be a full-time or part-time position.
Accountant and Marketing Specialist: To keep a good eye on your money, you need an Accountant and Marketing Specialist. While the accountant is in charge of meticulously keeping and balancing records, the marketing specialist is in charge of purchasing the raw materials for the manufacturing of the feed as well as marketing of the finished products.
The marketing specialist can use the help of the nutritionist to know the quality of the raw materials as well as which one to purchase and when.
THE PRODUCTION PROCESS INVOLVED IN FEED MILLING
It is in your best interest to take all that we have discussed above into serious consideration if you want your feed mill business to do very well. You cannot just buy feed ingredients and mix them together just hoping that they would come out right, you need to be armed with the right knowledge. Besides getting the mixing of the feed right is just one aspect of having a successful feed mill business as you must have gathered from all that we discussed above.
Do not take lightly the need for a nutritionist in your feed mill business. The nutritionist does not only formulate the feed by making use of available ingredients but also ensures that even when there is scarcity of one or more ingredients, production and quality of the feed will still be at optimum level. This is because the nutritionist will know of a substitute or a non-regular ingredient that can be incorporated into the feed without compromising the quality of the feed.
For better guidance the Nutrient composition of feed ingredients are available in NRC tables and the most commonly used ingredients in the country include maize, soya beans, groundnut cake, wheat offal, fish meal, and bone meal.
Moving on let us take a look at the processes involved in feed production.
Weighing: The ingredients that are to be used in the production of the feed are meant to be weighed out. This way you can be sure that the mixing is done in the right proportions.
Particle Size Reduction: Different ingredients are used to produce the feed and they come in different sizes. Whole grains such as maize are large particles because their size has to be reduced before they can be incorporated into the feed. The process of reducing the size of the feed ingredient is what is known as particle size reduction and this can be done through various ways which include; cutting, crushing, grinding or shearing. This is possible by making use of equipment such as jet mill, hammer mill, attrition and burr mills.
In the same vein there are feed ingredients that do not need size reduction because they can be incorporated directly into the feed an example of which is fish meal.
Mixing: For mixing two or more feed ingredients into a uniform product, you will need a mixer. There is the horizontal mixer and the vertical mixer.
Bagging: When you are done mixing, the next thing to do is bagging. Bagging is a way of measuring the finished product and it also ensures that the feed will be easy to move from place to place as well as stored properly. You will not be able to effectively handle deliveries if you do not bag the feed. The way the feed is bagged depends on your customers’ preferences and budget, while some like 25kg bags, others prefer 50kg bags. It all comes down to the choice of your customers and how convenient it is for them.
It is advised that you brand your bags as this is a marketing strategy to promote your business. The nutrient information of the feed should also be either printed on the bags or in a leaflet that will be sewn into the bag when it is being sealed.
Feed could be in mash, pellet or crumble form although the mash is the most popular feed type in the country. The different types of feed for poultry are Chick Mash, Growers Mash, Layers Mash, Broilers Starter Mash and Broilers Finisher Mash. They are also available in pellets or crumbles and it all depends on the order placed by your customers or your target market.
Fish feed on the other hand usually comes in pellets form. Rabbit feed are also usually pellets, because rabbits are sometimes affected by the dust from feed in mash form. The pelletized feeds are not in the same size because the size is highly dependent on the die of the pelletizer.
Marketing and Distribution of Feed Milling Products: And finally, Marketing and Distribution of your feed mill products. You have to employ the right strategy to ensure that your products are accepted in the market. One sure way of achieving this is by making sure that your products are of very good quality. Customer satisfaction is paramount here because when someone patronises you and likes the quality of your products there is a very high chance that they will come back. Not just have you retained that customer but there will be more as a result of referrals for the customer. Best believe that anyone who buys from you and finds out that your product was really accepted by the animals and they grow and produce eggs, meat or milk better will be very happy to buy from you again.
Another important factor that will make your product to be accepted easily in the market is your price. Bear it in mind that there are other people in the business who also have products of very high quality, so to have an edge over them your price has to be very attractive to the buyers.
Also learn to compensate distributors, marketers and sales representatives based on sales as this will make them favour your products.
For easy marketing and distribution a pickup truck is needed. If you are involved in large scale production, you need tippers that can take up to 600 bags per loading. You can also improve distribution by having depots in strategic locations across Nigeria.
Bear it in mind however that it is not proper to store feed for too long as it tends to depreciate over time.
Profitability of a Feed Mill
Like we pointed out at the beginning of this article, feed mill business is a lucrative one and if you really know how to go about the business, you will make good profit. You make profits not only from selling your products but also by allowing people to use your mill and charging them for it.
A lot of people are going into agriculture, livestock rearing included and they need feed to run their farms. Poultry farms are springing up in their numbers in the country and that is because people have realised that there is a lot of money to be made from it. This goes to say that there is a high demand for feed in the country and a ready market.
You just have to make sure that you get the right training and that you know how to run the business so as not to incur losses. That is why we highly recommended that you take all that we have discussed so far in this article into serious consideration.
Knowledge is power and it will be a very risky venture if you go into the feed milling business without being armed with the right knowledge and training on how to run it.
GET YOUR FEED MILL Business Plan / Feasibility Study. To place an order, pay N10,000 to
GTBank (Guaranty Trust Bank)
Account Name – Chudi-Oji Chukwuka
Account No – 0044157183
After payment text your name, your e-mail address and payment details to 08060565721.
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Good and good to go.