Challenges in poultry farming: You need to be prepared

As a poultry farmer you will face several challenges in poultry farming. Two main challenges in poultry farming that you need to watch out for are poultry disease outbreaks and produce contamination.

A poultry disease outbreak in your farm will result to high mortality or the loss of an entire flock. If you have produce contamination, you will surely incur loss of produce and depending on severity, irrecoverable financial losses.

8 Challenges in poultry farming

Biosecurity challenges

Biosecurity in poultry farming refers to measures that you should apply to ensure optimal flock health and safety. There are certain aspects that consist biosecurity in poultry farming that you need to get right from the start. These are:

• Coop hygiene
• Proper poultry waste disposal
• Controlled access to coops
• Feed and water quality
• Active measures against disease, pests and parasites

To begin with, implement respective measures to ensure that your poultry feed and water of high quality and free of toxins. Additionally, administer vaccines and medicines obtained from certified agrovets. You should administered these as prescribed.

Coop hygiene and security is an important aspect of poultry biosecurity. In the least, you should ensure that your coop provides sufficient safety, hygiene and air circulation. Furthermore, you should control access to the coop to prevent the introduction of disease or other ailment to your birds.

Implement a poultry housing system that protects your chicken from pests and parasites. Ensure that it is properly cleaned and fumigated before habitation by a new flock.

Last but not least, have a quarantine space where sick birds isolated from the flock can be kept. Isolation is an important disease control aspect and helps contain and prevent disease outbreak in a flock.

Disease outbreak

This is the biggest challenge that you need to mitigate for in poultry farming. In case of a poultry disease outbreak, you can have high mortality or the loss of a flock in a matter of days.

You can find lots of personal stories on social media, by poultry farmers who have lost most, if not all birds in a flock for various reasons.

If you are just getting started in poultry farming, get some introductory knowledge of the dos and don’ts. You can obtain this from local farmer training and demo events. Furthermore, you can find a ton of them online. Visit a local farm and learn the basics of poultry farming and the care required in the business.

Recently, there have been many cases of poultry culling in entire farms as a result of bird flu outbreaks.

You should apply active and passive disease prevention measures, than seek to treat diseased birds. Implement your flock schedule as prescribed by your flock supplier, in administering vaccines and other treatments. Additionally, obtain poultry medicines from certified agrovets.

Cannibalism and egg eating

Poultry birds, depending on the poultry housing system they are housed in, can prey on each other or their eggs.

Overcrowding is one reasons why your chicken may prey on each other. Malnutrition, underfeeding or low quality feed, among other reasons, can result to cannibalism and egg eating in your flocks.

Your coop should be built accordingly to comfortably accommodate all birds and allow sufficient movement. Ensure that your flock’s feed is sufficient and of high quality. Consult certified poultry veterinarian if your birds are preying on each other or eating their eggs.

Take effective measures including beak trimming your birds, if necessary, to minimize cannibalism and egg eating. Your ffailure to address these problems can result to death and loss of produce.

Produce contamination

You’ve heard of poultry produce being recalled as a result of some contamination. Be aware that Salmonella is one of the most known poultry produce contaminant that results in total produce recalls.

If you do not apply effective produce handling measures, produce contamination you are likely to incur huge financial losses and even farm closures by authorities.

To be on the safe side, ensure that produce from your farm – eggs and meat – are handled according to all applicable health and regulatory guidelines. Moreover, keep in mind that produce contamination can result in disease and even human death. Proper handling of your farm’s produce should therefore be of utmost importance.

Moreover, obtain all health and regulatory requirements applicable to poultry farming from respective authorities. Additionally, implementing these should ensure that your farm and produce handling is as stated. In that case, your farm should be in a position to pass health and other inspections. Furthermore, it should be at a minimum risk of produce contamination, if any.

Poultry records

Keeping poultry records is an important aspect of your poultry farm. Flock records enable you to track and understand your flocks’ performance over time.

Implementing ineffective flock record keeping or the lack thereof will result to poor awareness of your actual farm’s performance. You will find yourself relying on guesswork since you do not have the records to practice data-based poultry farming.

As a rule of thumb, take use of effective and efficient poultry farm record management apps or software. Take note to find software well suited to your farm irrespective of size. In addition, select an app depending on the aspects of your farm you need to track.

Environmental protection

The so called factory poultry farms are synonymous with environmental pollution. For instance, runoff waste and open air reservoirs of poultry waste can result to environmental pollution and damage.

Additionally, poultry waste disposed off as such can find its way back to your flocks, if you do not handle it accordingly. This in turn can result to your flocks becoming diseased.

To be safe, implement poultry waste handling and disposal as stated in applicable laws and regulations. In addition to ensuring that environment surrounding your farm is clean, this should also mean that you are not at risk of receiving fines or farm closures from respective environmental protection agencies.

Ethical challenges

Animal welfare and consumer laws are always evolving and you should do your best to keep up. Moreover, take note that consumers are becoming more vocal and demanding poultry produce from farms that raise meet set ethical standards.

Ethical farming standards and animal welfare regulations differ from country to country. Firstly, learn and apply poultry farming regulations applicable to your region and country.

The last thing you want is to do all the heavy lifting only to bring your produce to market and find no buyers. In the worst case scenario, you will be barred from selling your produce or find your farm’s produce boycotted.

As a rule of thumb, ensure that people working in your poultry farm are informed of applicable animal welfare and ethics regulations.

Labor challenges

If you employ farmhands in your poultry farm you are apt to encounter your own share of labor challenges. Essentially, labor challenges revolve around farmhands’ working conditions and compensation.

If you apply unconducive working conditions in your farm, you are likely to have poor outcomes in poultry welfare and yield. Consequently, you will face financial losses and poor farm outcomes.

At the outset, implement favorable suitable working conditions and compensation for optimal farm performance. In addition, ensure that working conditions and compensation align with respective laws and regulations. Finally, apply labor laws applicable in your region and country.

Key takeways

• There several challenges in poultry farming
• Your failure to mitigate for challenges in poultry farming can result to huge losses
• Poultry disease outbreak and produce contamination are the main challenges you may experience as a poultry farmer
• Apply effective biosecurity measures to mitigate and prevent disease outbreak
• Follow applicable poultry farming regulations to minimize financial losses
• Consult with certified poultry vets and other regulatory bodies if necessary