CHRISTMAS IS ALMOST HERE! HOW TO MAKE YOUR CHICKENS GROW BIG ENOUGH FOR CHRISTMAS SALES

Every poultry farmer knows that Buyers want BIG chickens for Christmas.

If you are rearing chickens for this Xmas, you should be working towards getting them ready by 20th December when sales begin to peak.

But then, how big should your chicken be to attract customers?

What size does the Christmas chicken buyer actually want?

Let me attempt answers to these.
The Christmas buyer wants big chicken.

But then the Nigerian poultry market does not have a uniform standard for dividing chicken into big and small sizes. There are customers who consider 3.5kg chicken as big while there are others who consider any chicken less than 5kg as small.

The size of chicken considered as “BIG” therefore depends on your type of customers.

Now, most buyers of live chicken are sensory based buyers. They gauge size by what their eyes see and what their hands feel. They do not usually rely on any weighing scale for measurement.

It is therefore important that your birds are both big to the eyes and heavy to the hands. Big birds that do not have weight will not sell.

From my personal experience, I categorize Xmas buyers into regular and premium customers.

The regular customer buys chicken weighing between 3kg to 4.5kg. With the right care, these Broilers should be between 6 weeks to 10 weeks of age.

The premium customer however buys Broilers weighing above 5kg and aged 12 weeks above.

Now, if you have chickens on ground, you should by their age, already know the type of customers you are targeting. Is it regular or premium?

No matter your target customers, it is important your birds add weight quickly so that you can meet up with the Xmas deadline.

I will briefly itemize a few things you should do to achieve the desired weight gain quickly.

Did you know that broiler chicken farming is one of the shortest production to make profits.

When their nutritional requirements are met in full, broilers can grow from a 50g chick to a chicken that weighs 2.2kg in a period of 40 to 42 days (6weeks)

As a farmer know this and have peace of mind
Each farming system comes with risky or loses raining season farming is more risky than dried season farming,because sometimes in raining season farmer experience drought or too much rain. It can't not be control it will bring loses...and poultry farmers sometimes experience loses more than other animals farmers because it needs more care a little mistake can lead to loses in case control heat or vaccines.

Compare to raining season farming poultry farming can be controlled because it involves human activities.

To be a farmer especially raining season and poultry farming is not for weak people

That's why I always advise people to get themselves trained for embarking in agribusiness especially livestock farming

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The Talking Goat

In a small village, there lived a man named Baba Musa, who prided himself on being the smartest person in town. He always had an answer for everything, and no one could outsmart him—at least, that’s what he thought.

One day, a farmer named Alhaji brought a goat to the village market. But this was no ordinary goat. This goat had a mischievous streak and could mimic human speech perfectly. Alhaji decided to sell it because it wouldn’t stop talking during the night, keeping his whole family awake.

When Baba Musa saw the goat, he smirked. "A talking goat? What nonsense! Animals don't talk!"

The farmer grinned. "This one does. Want to try?"

Baba Musa scoffed. "Fine! How much is the goat?"

"10,000 naira," the farmer said.

Baba Musa laughed. "10,000 for a goat? I'll give you 5,000."

The goat suddenly turned its head and said, "Really, Baba Musa? You can spend 20,000 on those ugly shoes, but I’m only worth 5,000?"

The crowd burst into laughter. Baba Musa's jaw dropped. "It talks?! This is witchcraft!"

The goat tilted its head. "Witchcraft? No, it's called talent, old man. Unlike you, I actually entertain people!"

Now the entire market was in hysterics. Baba Musa, feeling embarrassed, handed over 10,000 naira and took the goat home.

That night, as Baba Musa sat with his new goat, he whispered, “If you can really talk, let’s make money together. I’ll take you to cities, and we’ll perform!”

The goat sighed. "I don't work weekends. And if you don’t give me three square meals a day, I’ll tell everyone about the time you fell into the village pond trying to catch a fish."

Baba Musa froze. “How do you know about that?”

The goat winked. "Let’s just say… I’ve got my sources."

From that day forward, Baba Musa became the goat’s assistant—and the goat? It became a legend.

How to start beans farming in Nigeria

The following steps should be taken when starting beans farming in Nigeria;

1. Get a farmland:
To start beans farming, you need to get a farmland. You can acquire, rent or lease your farmland. It is pretty easy and cheap to get farmland in rural areas of Nigeria. In some areas in Nigeria, you can rent one hectare of farmland for as low as N10,000.

It is a fallacy that beans can do well only in the northern part of Nigeria. Beans or cowpea can be cultivated in all regions of Nigeria. If a farmer implements sound agronomic practices, he will get a good yield from his beans farm in any location in Nigeria.


2. Soil Preparation:
Cowpeas grow well in good soil that is fairly loose. This crop does not do well in compact soil. Cowpea can grow in poor soils. This is one of the advantages of cultivating this crop.

The crop can even improve the quality of your soil. After getting your farmland, you will need to remove the weeds. A tractor with plough can be used to bury the weeds in the soil. The buried weeds can improve the quality of the soil.

The soil should be harrowed after ploughing, then a ridge or bed should be done on the soil. Having ridges or beds on the farmland is not a must but it can increase the yield while doing beans farming.

3. Engage people as members of staff:
You cannot do beans farming alone except if you want to cultivate a very small area. If you want to make good money, you need to cultivate at least one hectare of farmland. You will need to recruit people who will work with you on your farmland.

Employing people around the location of your farmland can be advantageous. You can also employ labourers who come from neighbouring countries into Nigeria

4. Get the right seeds:
You should use good beans seeds. Do not buy beans seeds from the open market, patronise only accredited seeds dealers.

Hybrid seeds are usually higher yielding than open pollinated seeds. They also resist a lot of diseases and pests.

5. Get farm inputs needed:
Your beans farm needs farm inputs like fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides and nematicides. To plant beans, the type of fertilizers needed should have high phosphatic content. Examples are Single Super Phosphate (SSP) fertiliser or Diammonium Phosphate (DAP).

You can also use a little bit of Muriate of Potash (MOP) at the flowering stage of the cowpea. Avoid high nitrogenous fertilizer and this can negatively impact your beans crop.

6. Manage the farm:
You need to efficiently manage your farm. Do not rely on your unskilled members of staff as they can be funny. Make sure that all your instructions are fully carried out. Your staff can make or mar you chances of making money from your cowpea farm.

7. Harvest:
Sow cowpea varieties have a short growth time. There are 40 days variety and also 100 days variety. The creeping variety has a longer duration time and higher yield. The erect type has a short duration but a slightly lower yield.

You should harvest when the pods are dry and slightly brownish in colour.

8. Market the harvested beans:
After harvesting, you can store your beans for a while and sell when the prices peak. The prices of beans in Nigeria peaks around March – April every year.

Beans Farming in Nigeria.

Beans farming is the cultivation of beans seeds from the planting stage to the stage of harvest and marketing of the harvested produce. Nigerians have a special love for beans (cowpea) because it provides the much needed protein for people. The relatively cheap price and the unique taste is one of the reasons Nigerians fall in love for this food crop.

Go to cities, towns and villages in all parts of Nigeria, you will see people cultivating this crop. However, most farmers cultivate beans the wrong way. The yield gotten from beans farming in Nigeria can be as low as 0.2 tons per hectare while those who farm cowpea or beans the right way can get as high as 2 tons per hectare.

Beans is a legume. Planting beans on your farmland can improve your soil as it fixes nitrogen in the soil. Beans do well in slightly acidic to neutral soil. It prefers soil pH of 6 – 7.

Beans also prefer temperature of above 70 F as it likes tropical climatic conditions.

Profitable farming business in Nigeria

1)Poultry farming

2)Snail farming

3)Cassava farming

4)Fish farming

5)Maize farming

6)Rice farming

7)Pig farming

8)Honey bee farming

9)Pineapple farming

10)Plantain farming

11)Tomatoes farming

12)Cocoa farming

13)Cotton farming

14)Vegetable farming

15)Beans farming

16)Palm oil farming

17)Timber plantation

18)Cashew farming

19)Cattle farming

20)Crop cultivation

21)Goat farming

22)Livestock feed production

23)Mushroom farming

24)Rabbit farming

FARMING TIPS
What It Takes To Start A Turkey Farming Business
turkey farming is one of the unique business ideas you can venture into.

Turkey are very good scavengers consuming earthworms, small insects, snails, kitchen waste and termites.

“Turkeys only need a lot of care when still young. Young poults need to be kept warm by being kept close to a source of heat

Turkeys start laying eggs at six to eight months and this production period is up to 24 weeks from the point of lay. Under proper feeding, a single turkey lays as much as 60-100 eggs annually. Nearly 70 percent of the eggs will be laid in the afternoon. When it comes to hatching, it can hatch as many as 15 at each sitting.

Specifics for breeding and incubating turkeys are quite different from chicken.
It is very challenging when turkeys start laying eggs because they do not want anybody to see them.

The incubation period is 28 days. There are two methods of incubation. Natural incubation with sitting females; naturally turkeys are good brooders and each can hatch 10-15 numbers of eggs. Only clean eggs with good eggshells and shape should be placed for brooding to get 60%-80% hatchability and healthy poults.

Turkeys require particular conditions which are different from those for other poultry birds. First of all, turkeys need a lot of space by virtual of their size.

Specifics for breeding and incubating turkeys are quite different from chicken.

Feeding

start your turkeys on starter mash. Make sure there is plenty of starter mash in the feeders, and that the chicks have fresh clean water at all times. Common varieties of turkeys include broad-breasted bronze and Broad-breasted white.

Feed for turkey poults must contain at least 24 per cent protein (not found in many commercial feeds), 2 per cent calcium and 0.9 per cent phosphorus.

Turkeys require about six square feet of space each.

Young ones

For a start, a lamp that provides 100F is required. The temperature should be lowered by five degrees a week thereafter.

Young turkeys can be hard to look after as they have been known to eat their litter.

Remember that turkeys are curious birds. It is hard to tell what they can get into. You should strive to keep the area where your turkey lives free of hazardous elements like oil.

Facts about turkey meat

Turkey meat has nutritional and sensorial properties which make it almost ideal raw material for rational and curative nutrition.

People prefer turkey meat because of its leanest nature.

It is also rich in essential amino acids and vitamins like niacin, vitamin B6 and B12. It is rich in unsaturated fatty acids and essential fatty acids and low in cholesterol.

A well-fed mature turkey will give over 90 eggs per year. Turkeys are known for their protein content which is good for the body and a good source of amino acids. Just one serving of turkeys provides 65% of your recommended daily intake of protein.

Turkey is known to contain traces of minerals, thought to aid in cancer prevention. It contains selenium, which is essential for the healthy function of the thyroid and immune system. Selenium is an antioxidant and protects against cancer.

Turkey is considered a good source of vitamins.

Saturated fat is necessary for biological functions, hormone production, padding for organs and energy. While saturated fat is necessary for a healthy body, most moderately-active people need to avoid too much of it in their diet. Turkey has under 12% of the recommended daily allowance of saturated fat per 4oz.

Grass-fed turkey raised under organic conditions conveys the most health benefits. Grass-fed turkeys offer higher nutrition and are superior to birds given antibiotics or raised without access to natural pasture.

Diseases

Fowl pox disease is a viral infection that attacks turkeys

We do sell turkey farming guide book in softcopy guide at 10,000/- interested call/ Whatsapp 0803 088 6411

Soybean farming in Nigeria.

Nigeria produces a wide range of agricultural commodities, amongst which are soybean, maize, rice, cowpea (beans), sorghum, guinea corn, wheat, yam, cassava, potato, etc. Apart from being used as food, many of these crops are also used as raw materials in the manufacturing industry.

Among the crops used as raw materials in the manufacturing industry is Soybean. The crop is grown in many states across Nigeria. Major Soybean producing states in the country are Kaduna, Katsina, Niger, Benue, Borno, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Kwara, Oyo, Jigawa, and Taraba State.

The cultivation of soybean has increased year over year due to the rapid growth of the livestock farming and food processing industry.

Soybean is used as a protein source in the preparation of livestock feeds especially poultry feeds. It is also used in the production of vegetable oil, baby food, drinks, etc.

Any farmer that goes into soybean farming will always smile to he bank because there is always a high demand for the crop. The demand has exceeded supply in recent time, reason why the price of the crop has now gone from about N150,000 per ton to over N300,000 per ton at the time of writing this report.

Due to the economic situation in Nigeria food is super expensive and everyone is trying hard to fend for their families.

Regardless of how hard we get these foods, insects like weevils wreak havøcs from reducing the quality of our food or totally making it unconsumable.

In the farming community, we have a way of preserving our food especially rice, flour, yam flour and other powdered food.

It's simple

- You need BAY leaves

- That bay leaf you put in your jollof or goat meat stew

- Drop a few bay leaves inside your rice

- Drop it in your powdered food stuff like Flour etc

- Even if you have those weevils in your food already don't worry, just put bay leaves there

- All those insects either find their way out of your food or they drop ∆ead

It's a simple way of ensuring continuous quality of your food and keeping it safe.

Send to your families and friends, food is expensive we can't lose the ones we manage to buy.