Poultry is a collective term for all avian species nutritionally and economically useful to man. The most important poultry species remains the domestic fowl, not only because its universal availability but also because it provides important highly relished human foods. The other domesticated avian species classed under poultry include turkey, duck, guinea fowl, quail, goose and pigeon.
Poultry production in sub- tropical countries like Egypt is essentially divided into extensive, semi-intensive and intensive production systems. The extensive system involves the rearing of small numbers of local and started exotic breeds in rural villages. The birds are allowed to roam and fend for themselves with little or no supplementation of their feed. Minimal inputs in the form of housing and disease control are utilized. Intensive production on the other hand involves commercial production of high performance exotic breeds of chicken. This system is resource driven and requires the operator to be in control of the housing, nutritional and health needs of the birds. The semi-intensive is mid-way between the two systems mentioned above both in terms of application and benefits.
Poultry production in Egypt has increased tremendously in the last few decades. Over this period, successive governments encouraged the development of large-scale modern poultry enterprises. Poultry production is attractive because birds are able to adapt easily, have high economic value, rapid generation time and a high rate of productivity that can result in the production of meat within eight weeks and first egg within eighteen weeks of the first chick being hatched. Furthermore, poultry is an important source of animal protein, income, employment, industrial raw materials, manure, financial security etc. Poultry production has indeed become a leader in the livestock industry both in advanced management and technology, factors needed for profitable intensive productions.
Since the opportunities and quick profit derivable from the enterprise makes it an all comers affair, poultry production in Egypt has lead to the development of an unplanned and unregulated industry with numerous attendant problems. The most visible of these problems is high rate of collapse of poultry enterprises because of technical and entrepreneurial inadequacies of operators. It is therefore important that those venturing into intensive poultry production should understand the basic principles of the science and socio-economics of the business.
THE PRINCIPLES OF PROFITABLE POULTRY PRODUCTION: The poultry operator should be guided by the requirements of the industry in his operational environment. Since poultry is a highly specialized business, there are several economic factors that should be considered, especially profit margin. The profit margin in poultry could be so delicate that any failure to maintain economic standards would result in heavy losses. If the enterprise is carried out under good system of management, if the stock is good and diet properly balanced, the major factor that could determine this profit margin is the absence or presence of disease. Because the profit margin is delicate, the size of the business is very important. The implication of this is that there is confinement of large number of birds in a limited space. This confinement is related to disease outbreak and nature of disease dissemination.
The aim of the profit-minded operator should therefore be, intensive housing, carried out with a view to economize space and achieve optimal production. Second to this is the maximal exploitation of labor and full utilization of available time for maximum yield.
INTENSIVE MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY: The successes of poultry business lies on this system of production. As mentioned earlier, this system is resource driven and requires the operator to be in control of the housing, nutritional and health needs of the birds. In Nigeria, deep litter and battery cages are the most popular rearing systems in intensive productions with the former being adapted to rearing of broiler and egg production, while the latter is essentially an egg production technique. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.
HOUSING MANAGEMENT: Tropical poultry houses are usually open-sided and low walled to allow for maximal ventilation. Such houses are also supposed to provide the birds with an equable temperature with limited diurnal fluctuations. In warm humid sub-tropical environments, humidity of the air is high and air movement usually low. There is therefore the need to take these into consideration while designing and constructing poultry houses and pens.
The roof is the most important part of a poultry house. It should effectively intercept solar radiation and prevent the birds from being exposed to direct solar radiation. In Egypt, most intensive poultry houses are roofed with corrugated iron sheets. Non-insulated corrugated iron roofs transmit considerable proportion of incoming solar radiation into the poultry house and thus constitute an insidious cause of poor production. Poor conductors like aluminum and asbestos sheets are better roofing materials.
Where land is available for large-scale business, buildings should be sited at higher grounds to prevent flooding of buildings during rainy season. Pens should be 12m apart to reduce cross infections and permit proper ventilation. Brooder pens should be located away from other pens. Poultry houses should be oriented east to west in line with prevailing winds. The best floor material is concrete since it helps to eliminate vermin.
BROODING: The main objective of brooding is to produce healthy chicks with optimum growth rate and to keep mortalities at about 5%. This is realized when the genetic quality of the chick is good, there is absence of genetic defects and chick diseases, chicks are transported under optimal conditions and there is insurance scheme to absorb heavy losses. The operator should seek and understand the husbandry techniques needed for this stage of production, which usually include, insulation of the pen, floor spacing, brooders and brooder guards, water and waterers, feeds and feeders. At this stage, attention should also be on ventilation, light, litter, bio-security, vaccination and preventive medications. During this period, chicks require maximum individual attention by trained personnel. The brooding period lasts 5 weeks for broilers and 8 weeks for pullets and cockerels.
REARING PERIOD: In layer production outfits, the production goal of this stage is to produce lean healthy hens reaching sexual maturity at about 20 weeks of age. This is achieved by adjusting feed quality, intake and lighting programs. Mortality should be kept at 12% or below during this period. To achieve these, optimal requirements for housing of growers, floor space, feeding and water management, lighting, vermin and parasites controls, bio-security, vaccination and preventive medications must be met by the operator. It is also important that vices such as tendency to stamped with sudden noise, cannibalism and sex reversal be eliminated from the flock at this period. The rearing house should always be different from the one used for brooding.
LAYING PERIOD: Breed, lighting and nutrition are the most important production factors influencing sexual maturity in pullets. Light strains of pullets attain sexual maturity earlier than heavy strains. Movement of birds to their laying quarters should usually not exceed 20 weeks of age. Again, optimal management conditions of housing, floor spacing, lighting, feeding and watering, nesting, egg collection, litter, parasites control, bio-security, vaccination and preventive medications should be rigorously followed. Poor growing pullets and runts should never be transferred to the laying house. Laying birds are usually culled at 72weeks of age (after first year in lay). Before this period, it is important to promptly detect and cull those birds that have poor capacity to lay. This again requires expertise and should be a routine.
EGG COLLECTION AND GRADING: Eggs should be colleted 3 to4 times a day. In order to maximize profit, eggs should be graded before sales since bigger eggs attract higher price. National standards for marketing of whole shell egg are currently being developed by Nigerian Standard Organization. The operator should also has a basic understanding of production terms like Hen Day Production (%) and Hen Housed Production since these are production and profitability indices.
REARING OF MEAT POULTRY: The economic benefits of broiler production in developing countries of the world are enormous. It is a profitable business. A broiler has short maturity time, requires limited land area and is an efficient feed converter. In choosing broiler stock, important economic traits such as robustness, excellent growth rate, high feed conversion efficiency, good carcass yield, high environmental adaptability, low mortality and livability should be emphasized. Again, management practices similar to those observed in pullet production should be followed. It is however important to note that strict adherence to correct feed quality and feeding regime and provision of adequate water are paramount to profitable broiler production.
LABOR: For optimal economic production, one laborer can care for 1000 layers or broilers depending on the degree of automation of farm operations.
BUSINESS SENSE: Human beings were created to be profitable on earth. The engine that drives business is profit! The poultry operator and all his agents should therefore harness all available resources towards the single goal of optimizing legitimate profit. Many poultry enterprises have failed just because the operator was more interested in investing on his prestige and other trivialities than on profit. The man who steals from his own business will eventually pass on the habit to his workers. When a problem is encountered at any segment of production, consult an expert immediately. Follow good advice and finally do not cut corners. It never pays. Good luck and happy farming!
