iGallus Limited

From scratch. Building a modern poultry breeding farm in Africa.

"Plan purposefully. Prepare. Proceed Positively. Pursue persistently." - William A. Ward.

Part 1

Planning.

Take the key elements of a modern poultry breeding farm and apply to the plan. Some of these key elements are:

1) Bio-security and correct farm layout.

2) Orientation of houses according to topography, climate, water supply and road access.

3) Site which is available for the development.

4) Controlled environment housing and automated systems.

Bio-security and farm layout

Design the farm layout with correct spacing between quarantine, rearing and production sections. Take into account prevailing winds in dry season and main road access. Have main entrances to each section with shower blocks and vehicle disinfection. Divide each section into sites with correct spacing and individual bio-security amenities such as showers and fumigation rooms.

Orientation of poultry houses

Despite the use of controlled environment housing still try and orientate housing according to severe weather patterns and sun direction. Take care of designing access roads to the sites with regard to passing poultry houses. Take into account flooding and water drainage from houses.

Availability of suitable land

Taking into account the previous points, to establish a large poultry breeding complex would require a large piece of land often over 200 hectares. Large parcels of land such as this are becoming more and more difficult to source in Africa. Often farm layouts need to be changed or even more than one parcel of land used long distances away. Whatever the case bio - security must be well designed.

Controlled environment and automated systems

Plan with the future in mind. Modern poultry hybrid breeds require optimum environments to produce the best results. Keeping temperatures within the houses stable and providing enough air to the chickens is a key factor as well as quality feed and water. A stumbling block to using controlled environment housing can be erratic power supply. Take measures when planning to account for this by setting up back up power generation and also measures in case this too fails.

Use automated mechanical systems that reduce staff numbers. The use of computer operated automatic systems should be kept to a minimum as they are often difficult to understand and break due to power surges. Simple on off mechanical automation will suffice.

I have only covered a very few items that need to be considered when planning a poultry breeding farm.

I will continue with the series of articles next week.

Thanks for reading!

Please contact me jeremy@igallus.com or visit www.igallus.com for more information.