Breeding turkeys is a fairly profitable business, gradually this poultry industry is gaining momentum in our country. To achieve tangible success in breeding this peculiar bird, it is necessary to clearly understand all the features of this complex business, where to start it and what to pay special attention to.

Turkeys are beautiful and large flightless birds that love freedom and large areas for walking, while domestic breeds of birds are calmer and slower than their wild relatives.

In the process of domestication of turkeys, many new breeds were bred, among which the white broad-breasted and North Caucasian bronze ones attract attention. They can be characterized by rapid growth, high egg production and rapid meat gain. White breeds need certain conditions of keeping and high quality feed.

How to start a turkey breeding business

It should start by examining the relevance of products in your area, for which you can go around the nearby markets and shops and find out how much poultry meat is sold in them in one day. Then, after deciding to open a poultry farm, you need to register as an individual entrepreneur and choose a tax payment system.

For residents of the southern regions, keeping turkeys in the air, in a covered area, is suitable, since individuals can calmly withstand a drop in temperature to -15 ° C, although it is best to equip them with warm rooms for the winter, and in summer, transfer them to open cages with a canopy from the rain.

The livestock is divided according to the age principle: at the age of up to a month, no more than 15 individuals are kept in one cage, at the age of two months - up to 10, at an older age - no more than 5 birds. When kept in cages, a temperature of up to + 35 ° C is suitable for chicks, with a free one - up to + 28 ° C, for adult turkeys + 17 ° C is enough.

An important condition for the successful keeping of turkeys is the observance of the following conditions:

• inadmissibility of contact between adult turkeys and chicks;
• good lighting of the room and the absence of excess moisture;
• constant ventilation of the room;
• arrangement of a place for walking;
• clean water with a temperature of about + 26 ° С;
• thorough cleaning of cages and walking areas:
• high-quality varied feed.

In the diet of turkeys, proper nutrition is of great importance, therefore, their daily diet should include:

• flour feed;
• mixtures of cereals;
• grain, roots, fresh grass;
• vitamins and other supplements containing useful substances.

The business has three areas:

• breeding and raising chicks for sale;
• sale of eggs;
• growing poultry for slaughter and selling carcasses.

It is most profitable to grow poultry for the purpose of selling carcasses.

To obtain a large number of eggs per male, 6-7 females are needed, which begin to lay at the eighth month of life, provided that the room temperature is acceptable. If all norms are observed, one female gives up to 200 eggs per year.

When breeding turkeys for meat, you need to know that the female is gaining weight of 13 kg, and the male is up to 20 kg at the age of about 23 weeks. After cutting the carcass, the meat yield is up to 65% of the live weight of the poultry.

For the successful cultivation of turkeys, the following requirements must be met:

• the room must be equipped with all communications and heaters;
• automatic supply of water and quality feed;
• exclusion from the diet of any additives to accelerate growth;
• regular cleaning of cages;
• involvement of a competent veterinarian.

Acquisition of young turkeys for starting a business

There are three classes of individuals (in kilograms):

• light: females up to 7, males - 9;
• medium: females up to 8, males - 16;
• heavy: females up to 14, males - 30.

For the breeding of turkeys, the choice of middle-class poultry is recommended, since the rearing of heavy individuals is profitable on an industrial scale, and light poultry is reared only for their own consumption.

The purchase of young animals is carried out from individuals or on poultry farms, while from private owners you can choose the desired breed. But you can buy sick chickens, and there is not much choice on the farms, and the quality of the young is quite low due to the mass production.

The best option for breeding turkeys for entrepreneurship is still specially organized enterprises or private companies focused on raising turkey chicks. This will provide an opportunity to provide yourself with a quality certificate and a veterinary agreement, which will be required when selling products and starting a business.

Young growth care

Young turkeys are more hardy than chicks of other birds and have a higher survival rate. The main thing in caring for them is to provide a dry and warm room with a temperature of at least + 36 ° C and constant lighting at first.

At the first stage, individuals are fed 8 times a day, while the diet includes dry small cereals mixed with chopped boiled eggs. Up to the age of one month, turkeys continue to be given small cereals with herbs or fed with a special compound feed, which already contains vitamins and components for growth. The chicks are kept in the same cage with the hen for up to one and a half to two months, after which they are deposited and transferred to adult feeding.

Eating adult turkeys

A successful breeding business depends a lot on the right feed. On private farms, turkeys are given dry sprouted grain, as well as mixtures of various consistencies. Beginning in spring, individuals should graze in open areas, as their diet is based on greens. The feeding regimen during the ripening period is 4-5 times a day, the rest of the time it will be enough and 3 times... For greater tenderness of meat, the amount of juicy feed increases and the amount of dry grain decreases.

Farm equipping is an important stage of business

For their cultivation, a standard set of equipment is purchased, which includes automatic drinkers, feeders, crates, incubators, heating devices and lighting, thermometers. It is advisable to purchase fully mechanized equipment, however, it is very expensive, so not every farmer can allocate funds for it.

When drawing up a business plan, one should take into account not only the cost of equipment, but also include in losses the natural mortality of chicks, which can be up to 15% of the initial amount.

To maintain a farm and conduct business on turkeys, a breeder needs to hire a livestock specialist, a sales specialist, a competent manager and driver. To assess the profitability of the enterprise, an analysis of expenses and incomes should be performed, which includes the price for renting premises, payments to utilities. The cost of equipment and its installation, as well as the cost of feed and medicine, the cost of paperwork.

The profitability of a turkey farming business is 60-80%, although some particularly successful entrepreneurs achieve even 100%.

As can be seen from the experience of many turkey farm owners, breeding poultry as an enterprise is quite profitable, given that the market for the consumption of such meat is growing steadily.

It should be clearly understood that business attracts close attention of various government agencies that are called upon to monitor the quality of food products. Its implementation requires the appropriate documents from the veterinary services, which will provide you with the sale of your products without problems and the possibility of further business development.

From all of the above, we can conclude that raising and breeding birds for eggs, meat, or in order to get young animals for sale is a fairly profitable, but very troublesome business that requires a lot of effort and some initial capital. In addition, there are certain risks beyond the control of the business owner. These include the possibility of mass disease in livestock, which leads to huge losses. Therefore, chicks should be purchased only from trusted breeders who have no complaints and negative reviews, feed the turkeys with high-quality food, and have an experienced veterinarian on staff.