How to Start Animal Husbandry Business
Agriculture is one of the most profitable global businesses, but you have to plan your business strategy properly to make a substantial profit. The agriculture industry has many promising sectors, and the animal husbandry sector is one of the most booming industries. It can fetch you lots of money with proper management of the business.
However, starting an animal husbandry business is not as easy as straightforward as many other business startups. It requires much in-depth study; a school degree or experience working in a related agriculture sector may be an added advantage in starting an animal husbandry business. It will be challenging to go into this business without any little knowledge about the animals or how to run the company’s financial aspect.
Guide to Start-Up an Animal Husbandry Business
You have heard of the animal husbandry business, or you intend to start one today, then we have set up a guide that will help you. The guidelines will provide you the information and steps you will take to start the business and run it effectively to make money in the industry.
We will highlight the vital points in starting a husbandry business with the following consideration. Here are the guidelines that should be considered for your animal husbandry business:
- Get to know about animal husbandry.
- Plan your animal husbandry business startup
- The cost involved in starting an animal husbandry business
- The target customers for your animal husbandry business
- Finding your animal husbandry business
- Registration of the Animal Husbandry Business
- Getting Insurance for Your Animal Husbandry Business
- Provision of Medical Assistance
- Feeding of your livestock
- Get the necessary equipment
- Marketing your animal husbandry business
- Keeping the business going
Get to know about animal husbandry
Before you start the business, you have to know what animal husbandry entails, which involves rearing animals for profits. Different animals entail animal husbandries such as cows, goats, chicken, sheep, and many other animals. And there are various products that these animals can produce for your business, such as meat, milk, eggs, furs and hides and skin.
Knowledge of how to take care of the animals is essential to start this business. There are specific kinds of housing, temperature, medical care, and other management forms vital in this business. With the proper knowledge of the animals’ essential needs, you will avoid running at a loss with the company.
However, to start this business, you may need to acquire a professional degree. Or you may take some time out to learn while working in an animal farm, especially for the actual animal you intend to breed. By spending time working in such a setup, you will get firsthand experience and knowledge about its internal structure. Furthermore, they are courses, especially on online platforms, to learn how to take care of the animals and start an animal husbandry business.
Plan your animal husbandry business startup
Now that we have adequate knowledge of the animal husbandry business, it is now time to get to the startup’s business end. Some points should be adequately stated in the business plan to help you capture all required in starting up an animal husbandry business.
An appropriate business plan for animal husbandry should take into consideration the following points:
- The business plan will determine the type of animal husbandry business you choose to start. Will you be going to poultry, sheep breeding, cattle rearing, or other animal husbandry forms? You must have a plan of the kind of animal you will have on the farm as the first step in the business plan.
- The plan should also contain the business’s aim and objective, which entails what to produce, the methods to be used, and how to make money.
- A business plan should state the scale of your intended animal husbandry business. Are you starting a large scale business with lots of animals, occupying a large land, employing many workers, and expecting a considerable profit?
- The business plan should also contain details of how you are going to fund the business. Will you be financing the company from your savings or sourcing for loans or support from business experts to fund your business? We will consider the scale of the animal husbandry business, for a small scale can consider small investment from your savings. But large scale farming, you should consider getting investors to invest in your business to raise enough capital to meet up with your plan.
- It will also contain the number of employees for the business and the various departments that the business entails.
- They should be an estimated calculation of the recurring cost of running the business. This recurring cost will include rent, salaries, feeds for the animals, medical checkups, cleaning services, etc.
- In general, the business plan should contain all needed to start the business and keep the business going.
The cost involved in starting an animal husbandry business
It is essential to research the animal husbandry business you choose to invest in and get the entire requirement ready. The cost of starting the company may vary according to the type of animal, the size of the business and the number of the animal you will have in your disposal, the type of feed you will need for the animals, and the cost of medical bills and care for the animals.
The cost of all these aspects needs to be considered to ensure the business’s smart sailing. In getting land for your business, you have to consider space for expansion as the company starts to grow, and you will need to expand production. Before getting the land space for your business, you have to consider your business plan. Are you starting small with the hope to grow? Are you investing in a large scale business that will require a vast expanse of land?
Also, building housing for the animals will be included in the cost of starting the business. The construction will consist of electricity connection, water supply, storage facilities, and other equipment that will be installed.
To better understand, let us list some of the cost you will need to prepare to start an animal husbandry businesses:
- The machinery needed to run the business like vehicles, tractors, mowing machines, and other machinery required in the animal farm. To reduce costs, you may consider getting used machinery which will cost less in the market.
- The animal feeds are a recurring cost and may take a large chunk of running the business.
- Storage facilities, including refrigerators and the construction of other storage facilities.
- Marketing supplies tools for the business.
- Cost of promoting the business.
- And much more.
The target customers for your animal husbandry business
When you are planning about the business in your research, you should consider your target customers, which is one of your business’s main objectives. The target customers will determine your business’s prospective profitability, and your target audience will depend on the scale of your business.
Furthermore, in most cases, your business’s prospective target will be determined by your business’s scale. Small to medium-scale animal farmers will probably focus on local needs, including local consumers, hotels and restaurants, and small-scale fast-food companies in the area. For the small to medium scale animal farming business, you will have to research the need for the product in the locality and how profitable these needs will be to your business.
Moreover, the large scale animal farming business will likely consider supplying to customers outside the cities and exportation. The supplies that come from large-scale farming will be large enough to meet the global market’s need without affecting the supplies to the locals. For this scale of animal farming, you have to consider the appropriate storage facility. If it is a chicken, you should have a place to store eggs before they are shipped to their destination.
Remember that you have to make necessary provisions for the transportation of the products to their final destination.
Finding your animal husbandry business
In the livestock farming business, funds are essential in running a smooth operation. There are various ways you can source for funds that depend on the scale of the startup. For a small husbandry business that you can run from the comfort of t your home, you can quickly start it with your savings.
Also, family and friends can help out in starting a small scale business. However, for a large scale husbandry business, you will need substantial capital to start the business. A range of investors or taking a bank loan will be OK in this kind of set up. The money for a large scale business will consider the land acquired, buy of supplies and equipment, set up the animal farm, medical consideration, storage facilities, etc.
With a well-drafted business plan, you can use it to collect loans from financial institutions and the banks or investors. Remember to clearly state the business’s financial need when drafting your business plan for the husbandry business.
Registration of the Animal Husbandry Business
Starting a small business that you breed animals from your home may not need to be registered. But for a large scale animal farm, you will need to register with the government, get the required license to operate, and be inspected if you are in line with the standard of operations of an animal farm on such a large scale.
It is advisable to join the union associated with your animal farming. There are several benefits in associating with unions such as grants from the government and private sectors, support, and links to the market for your business. With being among an association, your business will be protected from external factors, and you will be recognized.
To know all the legal requirements for registration, you should visit any local government offices, and you will be given the necessary directives. Also, as a small scale animal farmer, you may consider joining relevant associations from the benefits associated with such an organization.
Getting Insurance for Your Animal Husbandry Business
Insurance is a legal requirement to operate an animal farm in most states. To work within the law, you should obtain an insurance policy that will protect your business. Besides being on the side of the law, animal farming is a highly risky business, and getting an insurance policy will protect you from losses.
Natural disasters, widespread disease, accidents, theft, and sabotage are among the few incidents that can run the farm totally to the ground. Any of such incidents can wipe out all you have invested in the startup of the farm. But insurance will protect you and can help you recover from these losses. Thus, it also serves as a personal benefit to take insurance coverage for the business.
You can walk up to any insurance company and seek the different coverage available for your type of business. Take time to go through and find a package that is affordable and benefits your business.
Provision of Medical Assistance
Taking care of animals will require regular medical check up and treatment. Either for a small farm, or large scale operations, you will need to provide the regular medical arrangements. Before starting up an animal farm, you have to put this into consideration. If you cannot hire a veterinarian, then you can have one on standby.
There are available veterinarians you can employ on a part time basis to run regular checkups on the animals. The regular check is crucial for a large scale farm, to minimize the spread of disease which can affect the whole animals in the farm. An infected animal can quickly infect others and this will affect production of the farm. So it is essential to identify and isolate as quickly as possible.
The price for the medical checkup and treatment are recurring expenses to consider in this business. Also the veterinarian is essential in providing immunity and production boosting drugs. You can employ someone with adequate knowledge in this area or outsourcing it to a professional.
Feeding of your livestock
Another important area to consider is the feeding of your livestock. This requires knowledge about the best nutrition for the livestock for optimal production. The feeds differ from each livestock to the other and this will determine the money you will spend on feeding. For livestock like cows, sheep and goats, it may be easier feeding them on grasses. You may decide to feed them on grasses growing around the farm or get them from close by farms or unused lands.
For other livestock like fish, you may have to spend money on buying their regular meal. Feeding the livestock is important for animals to enhance production. It is best to involve a nutritionist on suitable feeds for your livestock to ensure productivity. There are some feeds that will enhance bulk building usually for livestock that are meant to be used for food, while some enhance reproduction and increase the number of livestock in the farm which may be necessary to increase stock.
When citing your farm location, you should always confirm the presence of suitable feeds close. With the source of feeds close by, you will reduce the cost of transportation of the feeds to the farm.
Get the necessary equipment
The success of the husbandry business will depend on your knowledge about the business and the availability of the right equipment. There are certain equipment and tools that should be put in place to ensure that the business operation runs smoothly and efficiently.
You should get the suitable feeding, watering, housing and cleaning equipment for your business. Every type of livestock has their specific housing and their mode operations are different. Thus, with the knowledge of the kind of care needed for the livestock for your business, you can then get the right equipment that will help you run the business appropriately.
One vital equipment you should consider is the storage facilities to keep your product fresh. You do not want to let them go bad, and end up as loss, before you sell them off. This is because you may not sell off your livestock product as fast as possible, so you will need to keep them fresh for as long as it will take. For this purpose, you may also need a refrigerated van for transportation or hire one when you want to transport and produce long distances.
Research about the equipment and tools that you will require for the livestock you decided to breed. You can learn from an already established livestock farm to get an ideal of what you will need in your farm. Prepare to get equipment like backup generators, pumping machines and other needed equipment to ensure smooth and uninterrupted operation of the farm.
Marketing your animal husbandry business
Now we get to the vital part for the business minded people. We will be discussing how you can market your business to improve your profit potential. Whatever your end product from your livestock farming, be it meat, dairy, hides and skin and other animal related products, the quality of the products will not push the market.
Furthermore, the first approach in marketing any of these products is through the local market. You have to make people around you aware of your products. Promote your business to the local meat sellers, restaurants, food joints, supermarket and much more. Build local awareness about your products to build a customer base, as you seek to expand your reach.
The quality of your meat, milk or any other animal product will not promote itself. It is advisable to create an online presence to expand the reach of your business. For with the increasing number of online users, you can reach out to people that need these products globally.
Thus, it is important to build a website and create social media accounts for your business. These tools have become popular in promoting other forms of business and the animal husbandry business is no exception. For with the platforms, people can easily search for your business and patronize you by ordering for your products easily.
For a small scale husbandry business, you can do this yourself, creating and running the social media campaign. However, for a large scale business, it will be proper to hire a social media manager to handle the publicity of the business. For a large scale business, they can handle the business side of hiring a digital manager, but not necessarily so for a small scale business.
Keeping the business going
The animal husbandry business is a time consuming business that will require your focus and time. It requires adequate management of the business, and you will need accounting, bookkeeping and store room management. You can acquire the necessary business skills from any business class both offline and online that will give you the practical knowledge required.
For with proper management, you can keep the business going and make substantial profit. Also, to sustain the business, it will require you to keep the customers happy with fresh and good products. You have to keep the animals healthy and provide them with nutritious food to maintain quality products at all times.
Conclusion
The animal husbandry business can be profitable if you are ready to put the work to it. It can be a complicated business and it will have its up and down for a long term business, but at the end it is really profitable. At the end, you will need good managerial skills to make this business a success, and to stand the test of time. There are some important aspects like the medical and feeding aspect that you have to consider to make the business more profitable. The produce of livestock are in demand and this makes the business a huge potential for investors to make high returns. So follow the guide above if you want to start the animal husbandry business and be successful. They are as easy and straightforward as you can get.