Understanding the Economics of Feed Intake, Weight Gain, and Time-Frame in Rearing Broilers Birds.

Weight Gain and Time-Frame in Rearing Broilers Birds.

You are in agribusiness to make a profit particularly poultry farming (broilers or meat bird). Going into broiler production your cardinal focus should be how to make a profit within the shortest possible time. While maximizing and utilizing the available resources to your advantage.

In order to achieve a marketable and profitable price for your meat birds. The following factors will certainly contribute to your overall success:

Source of your birds
Good Breed and parent stock
Getting it right at the brooding stage
Quality feed
Preventing disease that affects weight gain i.e. coccidiosis and necrotic enteritis.
Avoiding feed wastages
Good management
Good deep litter management
Effectively managing heat stress
General disease prevention and control
Good housing system
Passion

There is actually no point keeping your meat birds longer than necessary 8 weeks is the ideal period and time frame to maximize your profit all things being equal.

As long as the above-listed conditions are met, your birds will attain the desired size and weight.

Nothing gives a broiler farmer greater joy than seeing his birds looking neat, sizeable, good-looking with the desired weight.

It gives you more confidence to bargain a good price for each kilogram weight.

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Brooding Day Old Chicks and the General Management.

Coccidiosis Disease of the Lazy Farmer

Understanding the Cause of Poultry Diseases and What to Do If Your Chickens Are Sick

Gaining weight within a Stipulated Time-Frame Equals Good Profit Margin

Many newbie farmers have a wrong notion that the longer you keep your broiler birds the bigger and heavier. I think this assertion is wrong.

Broiler birds are genetically modified to gain weight within the shortest period of time approximately 8 weeks is the ideal time frame.

Keeping birds longer than this in my opinion might not yield the desired profit. Except maybe your intentions for raising broilers is not for commercial or profit-making.

Feeds account for more than 70% of the total cost of production which makes broiler production capital intensive.

This is the more reason why broilers are to be disposed of immediately after reaching the desired weight within 8 weeks.

Recommended for you:

Broiler Farming, How to engage in profitable production.

Necrotic Enteritis: How to Treat and Prevent This Disease from Wreaking Havoc to Your Birds

9 Reasons Why You Have Poor and Stunted Growth in Broiler Chickens

Good Feeding Pattern That Will Encourage Fast Weight Gain within the Stipulated Time Frame

Broilers reared under intensive deep litter system of poultry farming should be given well-formulated commercially prepared feed.

Broilers should be fed starter crumbles with protein content as high as 22% for the first 1- 4 weeks. From 4 weeks you should allow for a few hours of empty feeder trough to boost and improve their appetite, and proper feed digestion.

Grower feeds with reduce protein content may be introduced from 4 -6 weeks, then finisher feeds with high energy from 7 weeks to slaughter.

Personally, I don’t like using grower feed for my broilers I just skip it, I change from starter to finisher. Over the years you discover what works best for you.

The bottom line is to achieve the desired weight gain within the stipulated time frame.

Keeping broilers (meat birds) longer than necessary will definitely affect the profit margin of the poultry farmer.

Recommended for you:

How to Effectively Manage Heat stress in Broiler Chicken

How to Achieve Optimal Poultry Production with Good Deep Litter Management practice

Diary of Two Broiler Chicken Farmers in My Neighborhood

Broiler weekly feed intake chart and weight/growth chart

Age per week	Feed Consumed in (kg) per bird	Cumulative Feed Consumed(kg)	Average Body Weight Per Bird (kg)	Average Body Weight Gain Per Bird(kg)
1	0.165	0.165	0.182	0.182
2	0.380	0.545	0.467	0.285
3	0.640	1.185	0.940	0.473
4	0.946	2.131	1.522	0.582
5	1.214	3.345	2.189	0.667
6	1.434	4.779	2.853	0.664
7	1.601	6.380	3.505	0.652
8	1.701	8.081	4.112	0.607
9	1.754	9.835	4.650	0.538
10	1.825	11.660	4.751	0.101