Cattle Feed Business Plan

Hello friends, we are here with a new topic called "Cattle Feed Business Plan". A livestock feed production business is a profitable business if it is located in an area where considerable numbers of livestock farms exist. Animal feed referred to a food item that is consumed by domestic animals. Livestock farmers are always looking for formulated food that is somewhat necessary for the proper growth and nourishment of livestock. In this article we also covered the below topics about cattle feed business;

• Animal feed making business
• How to set up a cattle feed processing plant
• Cattle feed business profitable or not
• How profitable is the cattle feed production business

A Step-by-Step Guide to Cattle Feed Business Plan

The animal feed industry deals with food given to animals in cattle, poultry animals, and aquaculture sectors as part of animal husbandry. The feed industry enjoys economies of scale and if you are starting for animal feed production business, you want a thoroughly analyzed plan to earn you an advantage for a good initial market share.

• Cattle Feed Market Report - Industry Coverage
• By Ingredients - Grains, Brans, Others
• By Additives - Vitamins, Antibiotics, Others
• By End-user - Feed, Fodder, others

Cattle feed encompasses various types of forages like grass, legumes, silage which is mainly used as dairy cattle feed along with soy, grain, and other elements. Cattle feed is an edible and rich source of nutrients for growing, milk-producing, and pregnant cattle. Then, the maximum share of cattle feed production is held by the southern parts of India. So, the cattle feed production business is profitable.

Farmers face several challenges when caring for cattle, including providing more feed to them. Then, they have to order bulk supplies and distribute feed evenly among many cattle. The global cattle feed market is intended to supplant the older model and farmers have a chance to keep their cattle healthy. The developing world is pushing up demand in several ways.

Cattle Feed Formulation

To setting up a cattle feed processing plant or starting cattle feed manufacturing business you have to make a complete business plan, make a customized feed mill layout design. The cattle feed market has been segmented based on feed ingredients like corn, soybean meal, wheat, oilseeds, and other ingredients.

The formulation of cattle feed mainly depends on the several of cattle, milk yield, and dairy ration, etc. While formulating the cattle feed, the availability of the basic raw materials must be kept in mind.

“Cattle feed” means any ground, pelleted, mixture feed, balanced for nutrients intended for the cattle feeding;

(i) Calf starter meal from the age of approximately 8 weeks and up to approximately 26 weeks and calf growth meal from the age of about 26 weeks and up to approximately 108 weeks;

(ii) Compounded cattle feed for cattle and buffaloes from the age of approximately above 108 weeks;

(iii) Proprietary feeds developed through the purpose of increasing productivity and reducing the cost of milk production, which include bypass protein feed, and mineral salt lick, etc.

(vi) Straw-based feed, manufactured by using food crops byproducts along with other feed ingredients.

Setup Cattle Feed Processing Plant

Setting up cattle feed processing units can take benefits of this trend to make money easily. It doesn’t need a huge budget. There are two most important points to be considered when setting up a livestock feed production mill or starting livestock feed manufacturing, one is the feeding ingredients, you best have the unique formula, the second is the advanced feed processing equipment and technology.

Good cattle feed formula - Decide what nutrients a specific animal needs, gain weight, and stay healthy. Come up with a breakdown of livestock feed formulation based on livestock variety and additives like vitamins, amino acids, enzymes, minerals, then decide what to produce, for example, if it is cattle feed, will consider it be beef cattle feed or dairy feed?

Purchase the Cattle Feed Ingredients - Based on the cattle feed formula you have decided to use, and get the ingredients.

• Maize, cassava grits, and corn ingredients are popular for energy
• Get wheat wastes for proteins and some carbohydrates
• Bone meals, fish, oyster shells, palm kernel for oils, salts, and minerals

The machinery you need is determined by the feed you want to produce. Some of the essential cattle feed processing equipment are grinder, mixer, pelleting machine, freezer, weight scale, packaging bags, etc., are important to complete cattle feed production factory.

Importance of Nutrients for Cattle

By using well-balanced nutrients for cattle can maximize profits. An animal’s diet must have the essential nutrients in appropriate amounts and ratios. The nutrients for cattle that are basic to good cattle nutrition, and use well-balanced feeds succeed in supplying these nutrients. Though, to better understand how feeds are used, it is important to understand the digestion process in animals.

Cattle need proper nutrient feed for maintaining good health and better milk yield. Some essential feed ingredients are a good nutrient supplement to cattle for promoting growth. Some of the important cattle feed ingredients include corn, wheat, soya bean, and other grains. Grains are mainly considered as the best cattle feed as it has high nutritional content such as proteins, minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, and fiber, etc. Normally, wheat is a digestible source of nutrients added to cattle feed ingredients for maintaining a proper digestion process.

Proper intake of these cattle feed ingredients helps in maintaining health and promotes a high yield of milk. Also, these ingredients help in the physical development of the cattle.

Cattle feed ingredients and nutrition

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• Corn - Energy Ingredient
• Wheat - Selenium, vitamin content
• Soya bean - protein source
• Rice barn - Source of carbohydrate
• Oat Hulls - Source of fiber

Compound Cattle Feed

Compound cattle feed is a mixture of several concentrate feed ingredients in suitable proportion. The commonly used feed ingredients in compound cattle feed are grains, brans, protein meals or cakes, agro-industrial by-products, minerals, and vitamins.

In India there are only two types of compound cattle feeds are manufactured for adult animals. National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) promotes the use of different compound feeds like calf starter, calf growth meal, feed for high yielding animals, feed for low yielding animals, buffalo feed, and feed for dry pregnant animals, etc.

How compound cattle feed is manufactured?

Firstly, feed ingredients are taken in a batch mixer from the raw material storage godown. After mixing, all raw materials are ground to a uniform particle size of about 3 mm. The ground material is further mixed. Materials used in feed formulation in smaller quantities like vitamins, minerals, urea, calcite powder, and common salt, etc., are mixed in a ribbon mixer using proper diluents and stored in one of the storage bins.

Ground material and molasses are mixed in a twin-screw type mixer. Usually, molasses are added by 10% in cattle feed, if the cost is very high, some sweetening agent could be used in place of molasses. Molasses feed is mixed with the dry steam before pelleting. The temperature level of steamed feed is in the range of 75-80°C. Though, steamed feed is converted to pellets by passing it through a cylindrical die and then press roller. Generally, an 8 mm die is used for the production of pelleted feed.

Raw Materials for Cattle Feed Manufacturing

The important raw materials for cattle feed are Wheat bran, Groundnut extraction (or cake), Rice bran extraction or cottonseed bran, Maize, Cottonseed, Molasses, Salt, Calcium carbonate, Mineral mixture, and Vitamin mix, etc.

Cattle feed contains grains, brans, cakes, mineral mixtures, and vitamins as a protein source, energy, minerals, and vitamins. Also, additives loaded with vitamins, minerals, acidifiers, antibiotics, amino acids, enzymes, and antioxidants boost the cattle yielding capacity.

Investment for Animal Feed Production Business

The animal feed production business demands two types of capital investment and they are of the following;

• Firstly, Fixed Capital
• Secondly, Working Capital

The above types of Animal Feed Production Business can be explained in the below;

Fixed Capital – It is defined as a one-time investment that consists of fixed money and no need to invest again and again

Working Capital - Working Capital includes the following;

• Firstly, Employees
• Secondly, Daily expenses
• Thirdly, Raw material
• Lastly, Transportation.

Factors for Starting Cattle Feed Production Business Plan

1. The Target market

Analyze the potential of your selected production line thoroughly.

2. A Detailed Market Research

Do market research on the cattle in your local area; and if you are planning to sell your plan to investors, you have to explain the uniqueness of a specific plan as compared to existing players. Select the most attractive segment in the area with your revenue projections by establishing your basic achievable market share.

3. Equipment and Personnel

The cattle feed production business investment will focus on the business equipment. Also, you could invest in customized equipment for your needs which will call for more investment, use expert advice on the feed plant machinery you need before budgeting.

4. Location

A location for the cattle feed production business plan is closest to the customers. Also, you want your site to be as close to your suppliers as possible, the further you move from your customers the higher your distribution cost and advertising cost.

5. Raw Materials and Suppliers

It is very important to plan for bulk buying in harvest seasons for plant-based materials for the best prices, in your business plan; you want to explain the material source and possible suppliers after your market evaluation.

6. Feed Formula

Low-quality feeds in any market will push you out of business or can cause legal hurdles for your startup business.

Fodder for Cattle

• A fodder can feed a vast variety of livestock for milk production. Depending on feed costs of hay and grain, fodder can produce a higher quality feed for less money than traditional systems.
• Good silage is yellow-brown color, with a characteristic acid fruity smell, and then just exudes moisture when squeezed.
• Jowar and maize are the best crops appropriate for ensiling. All non-leguminous fodder crops except turnip and rape.
• Hybrid Napier, Sudan grass, Berseem, Oats cow pia, millets are also suitable crops. They have to be wilted for 3 to 4 to increase dry matter to around 35% before ensiling. The crop is chaffed 2 to 4 cm in length and packed airtight in a trench silo.
• Normally, the forage crop from 0.3 ha in a circular silo 3 meters diameter, and 2.5 meters depth are enough to feed 5 animals by 20 kg/day for 150 days.
• Increasing the pure legume tonnage sugar content adds about 2 to 3 gallons of molasses and water each for 1 ton of green forage. The airtight pit stacked with fodder would be ready in 90 days with a pH of 5.8 and a lactic acid % of about 0.1.
• Excess of butyric acid formation would lead to more proteolysis thereby reducing the digestibility and also intake of silage by cattle. The best quality silage has a pH of 4.2, lactic acid 10.5%, and Butyric acid 0%.

Steps for Starting a Cattle Feed Production Business

You can start a cattle feed business with a small amount of capital also but you need to follow some basic steps before getting started.

The cattle feed industry is a major ingredient of the animal feed industry. The cattle feed manufactures are using increasingly modern methods to incorporate best practices. The cattle feed industry has got high growth potential, given that India is the world’s leading milk producer and production. The demand outlook will need dairy companies to step up production and get higher animal yields on the back of superior feed and nutrition.

Step 1) Do a Market Research

Firstly, you need to do thorough research on your local market. At first, you must identify the demand of the livestock farmers in your area and then select a particular category of animal feed with which you will continue further. The other important aspect is to look at competitors who are formulating the same type of animal feed. By considering their strengths and faults in the businesses, you can prepare a solid strategy to stake up against them. Then, you can talk to other business owners who are not in competition with you or doing business in another region.

Step 2) Prepare a Comprehensive Business Plan

Then, you should craft an effective business plan to get success in this venture. You want to consider every aspect involved in the business like your business objective and the scale of business operations, start-up expenses, financial and marketing plan, etc. As you have already decided the category of livestock for which you want to provide feed, you want to study the food necessities of the group of animals for which you desire to produce.

Step 3) Feed Formulation

There is a specific formula of cattle feed for each type of animal and you have to identify the right one for the feeds you are going to produce. If it is not properly formed by mixing the raw materials in an exact ratio, you will lose customers as they would not get expected results after using this feed. To find out the right cattle feed formulation, you should gain knowledge of the dietary needs of the animals you want to manufacture.

Tips for Feeding Dairy Cattle

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• Concentrate should be fed individually based on production requirements.
• Be consistent in your feeding - Both time of day and feed quantity is critical to feeding the cattle. Always feed your cattle every day or within 30 minutes of the target time. Consistency is simple but valuable. By providing consistent access to clean, fresh water at all times is also critical. Water drives feed intake, so making sure animals are drinking is important, especially in hot summer months.
• To keep cattle well-fed and happy during the winter, there are some options. The easiest, but most expensive option is to switch to a feed with increased nutrients.
• Another option is to find methods to feed cattle while limiting waste. Instead, deposit hay in a hay feeder and make sure there are enough feeders for all cattle to feed at once.
• Regularity in feeding must be followed. Concentrate mixture can be fed before milking and half in the morning and the other half in the evening before the two milking timings.
• Over-feeding concentrates can result in off feed and indigestion. The abrupt change in the feed should be avoided.
• Long and thick-stemmed fodders such as Napier can be chopped and fed.
• Highly moist and tender grasses can be wilted or mixed with straw before feeding.
• Silage and other feeds, which can impart flavor to milk, maybe fed after milking. The concentrated mixture in the form of mash can be moistened with water and fed immediately. Pellets can be fed as such.
• All feeds should be stored properly in well-ventilated and dry places. Mouldy or otherwise damaged feed must not be fed. The optimum concentrate roughage ratio on a dry matter basis must be 60:40 for high-yielding animals.

Market Potential and Marketing of Your Cattle Feed

Because of the intensive cattle development program which has already been taken on hand by the State Government, the success of these development projects depends mainly on the availability of well-balanced cattle feed. Cattle feed envisages the future scope for the development of this industry. The demands for milk and meat is increasing in most of the world and therefore the farmers are now more concerned over the health and yield of the cattle which is serving the global cattle feed market development.

There are many ways you can adopt for marketing of cattle feed;

• Supply stores - introduce your cattle feed to supply stores and let them act as a middleman
• Direct sales representatives - search for the sale representatives for feed product
• Establish your distribution outlet
• Sell Online

By establishing cattle feed processing plant and start cattle feed-making business can be huge potential to get profits in the feed business.

Importance of Cattle Feed in Milk Production

• Generally, cattle feed formed by the Milk Unions is a balanced source of essential nutrients required for body maintenance and development in milk production.
• Cattle feed is manufactured by using good quality grains, oil cakes, common salt, minerals, brans, molasses, and vitamins.
• Also, it is cheaper and highly palatable to the animals.

Recommendations for Feeding Cattle Feed

Cattle feed mainly contains protein, energy, minerals, and vitamins required for the growth, maintenance, and animal milk production. Also, it is useful to feed extra cattle feed to pregnant animals for proper development.

Milk production as well as the fat content of milk increases reproductive efficiency. Milking cattle should be fed about 2 kg of compound feed for body maintenance and also 400 g to cows for every liter of milk produced.

Packing, Marking, and Labeling Cattle Feed

(1) Every holder of a registration certificate shall comply with the below requirements;

• Cattle feed can be packed in clean and plain jute or paper bags, in such quantities as may be specified by the Registering Authority. Though, the mouth of each bag should be machine-stitched;
• Mineral mixture shall be packed in moisture-proof sound and also clean bags, free from causal agents of infectious diseases in such quantities as may be specified by the Registering Authority;
• Every bag in which cattle feed is packed bear the registration number, name and business address and manufacturer trade name, net weight in kg at the packing time, and the maximum retail price;
• Every bag in which cattle feed is packed shall indicate the type.

(2) Each bag in which cattle feed is packed shall have a printed leaflet, format of which shall be approved by the Registering Authority, and this indicating batch number, date of manufacture, address of the manufacturer, feed ingredients used in manufacturing cattle feed, vitamins, feed supplements added with their proportions and other particulars as may be stipulated by the Expert Committee.

(3) The leaflet shall contain a declaration about the non-use of certain mineral salts as stipulated by the Expert Committee.

(4) The labels or marks shall not contain any statement, claim, design, or device which is false or misleading in any particulars concerning the cattle feed and also mineral mixture contained in a package or the value of such feed;

(5) No person shall manufacture Proprietary cattle feed without the prior written approval of the Registering Authority.