Information information!

I have recently been working very hard to finalise my business plan on my ideal business – farming.  For anyone who has read my blog, it is easy to tell what animals I want to rear. My main challenge has been financial forecast as there seems to be no portal with current pricing of animal feeds etc.

I have since discovered of Dorep.org but they don’t have pricing on their website. I don’t understand why someone would invest in a website but not give the pricing on their website? After all this is a government organisation aimed at eradicating poverty.

Anyway, I have now gone round the problem and established a few things and pricing on Dorep. A Dorep Cock cost no less than KES 1,500.

Firstly, to join Dorep you would need to be in a group of at least 15 other farmers. I am not in any group but once I have joined I will share more information on the INS and outs of the organisation

Secondly, the organisation as per present provdes a ready market for the members produces. For instance, if you buy chicks from them, in about 8 weeks you would be able to sell the chicken meat to them. The Dorep chicken is a hybrid of broiler and layers – meaning that is slaughtered at 8 weeks it is broiler meat but if you hold onto the chicken for 5 to 6 months is starts laying eggs. I don’t know how many eggs they lay in their lifetime as well.

Thirdly, fertilised Dorep eggs cost in between 20 and 30 shillings each. A day old chick costs 65 shillings each

Fourthly, the Dorep chicken suffer from fewer diseases than the western breeds we have. However, I would still get all the medication needed to minimises death, for each dead chick translates to a lost of approximately KES 900. see the fifth point below

Fifthly, Dorep org buys the chicken meat at KES 230 a kilo, a chicken can weigh up to 5 kilos making KES 1150  a chicken. Thus the loss above

Sixthly, based on daily feeds of 150 grams per adult chicken and the price of KES 3,400 per bag of 70 kilo feeds, for 8 weeks a chicken feeds on KES 357. this figure doesn’t include labour, water, medication, interest on loans you may have and other overheads. But the profit margin is pretty good from where I sit. You just need to not make any shortcuts to realise the figures.

Finally, Kenya has the highest middle class population in our region. Meaning there is always going to be a need for food.

Just some statistics I have worked out that I thought someone might find use of.  Please note that these are the prices I discovered at a point in time and that are the bases of my calculations. So if the prices have moved the figures above won’t stand. In the long term, this is a very viable venture, but there is the need of an outlay to ensure that the correct structures are erected and correct feeds sourced.

The main advantage of the Dorep breed is that they taste somewhat Kienyeji without losing your teeth. It is also possible to hatch your own chicks after you’ve bought the initial stock, you just need to rotate the Cocks to avoid inbreeding which would compromise your stock.

Hope someone finds this info useful.