Writing a Poultry Business Plan for a Ghana Farm

Write it for yourself before the bank reads it

A business plan is not a document for the bank. The bank will read it once. You will read it every month for the life of the farm, usually with a pencil in hand. If the plan cannot tell you what to do this week, it is not finished, however nicely it is bound.

Most farmers write the plan after the money has been spent, usually to satisfy a lender. That order is backwards. When you write it first, you find the holes early: the feed you forgot, the week you have no cash, the buyer you have only spoken to once. Those holes are cheap to fix on paper and expensive to fix with a batch of birds in the house.

Keep the plan short enough to read in twenty minutes. Ten pages with clear numbers beats forty pages of general hope. We have written this from the hatchery side of the counter, so you can see who we are before you decide what to ask us for.

The plan on one page, section by section

A good plan has the same parts whether the farm has 100 birds or 10,000. The table below shows what each part should answer, with an example entry from the 500-bird Sasso plan used later in this article. Every entry is an example, so replace it with your own.

Write the summary last. It is easy to write confidently about a plan you have only half built, and the summary is the first place the gaps show up.

Describe the farm in plain words

Start with a paragraph a neighbour could understand. What do you keep, where is it, and what do you sell? "We raise Sasso birds in a 500-bird house on rented land in Kasoa and sell them live to chop bars and caterers" says more than "an integrated agro-enterprise focused on value-chain development."

Say which bird you chose and why. Sasso is a slower-growing bird that many buyers prefer for flavour and texture, and it suits a free-range set-up better than a fast broiler. If you have chosen Sasso because a buyer asked for it, say so. Lenders trust a plan that starts from real demand.

Our Sasso day-old chick page sets out what the breed needs. Your description should match it: a Sasso plan that assumes broiler growth rates will look wrong to anyone who has raised the bird.

Who buys, how many, and at what price

Name your buyers. A market section that says "the Ghanaian poultry market is large" is not a market section. A section that says "three chop bars in our area take about 15 birds a week each, and a caterer orders 30 birds before each festival" is one a lender can check.

Write down the price you have agreed, or the price you expect, and the basis for it. Price per live bird, or price per kilo, and whether the buyer collects. If you have not spoken to any buyers yet, say so, and put a date next to the task of finding them.

Festive demand deserves its own line. Christmas, Easter and Eid lift demand, and so do funerals and weddings. Show the weeks you expect to sell into the peak, and say what happens if the birds arrive late. Our pricing guide sets out how to set those festive prices without losing regular buyers. If you are a caterer or a business that wants a standing supply, the partnership page is the right first step.

The production numbers behind every bird

This section is where a plan either holds up or falls apart. Write the numbers you will use for each cycle and explain where each one came from.

• Chicks placed. The number and the breed, with the price per chick and the date they arrive.
• Mortality. A realistic figure, not the best batch you have ever had. We use 6% in the example.
• Feed. Kilograms per bird across the cycle, and the price per kilo you have quoted.
• Sale weight and age. The weight your buyer pays for, and the week you expect to reach it.
• Cycles a year. Allow for cleaning, rest and the gap between batches. Three cycles a year is a sensible planning figure for Sasso in most parts of Ghana.

In the example, 500 Sasso chicks at GH₵13 each come to GH₵6,500, which is ten boxes of 50 at our box price of GH₵650. Feed at 4.5 kg per bird across the cycle is 2,250 kg, and at an example price of GH₵8.00 per kilo that is GH₵18,000. Feed is the biggest line in the plan, and a lender will look at it first.

Start-up costs and running costs, kept apart

Split the money into two groups. One-off costs are things you buy once and use for years: the house, the feeders and drinkers, the brooder, and backup power. Running costs are the things that go out with each batch: chicks, feed, vaccines, litter, fuel and wages.

Keeping them apart matters because it tells you which costs you can recover from one batch and which take several. Our profitability overview uses the same split between one-off and running costs. It also stops you from quoting a house cost as if it were a feed cost, which is the mistake lenders notice first.

Every line in that table is an example. Get written quotes for the one-off items and check your feed price on the day you buy. Our day-old chick prices page is the place to check the chick line, and the brooder set-up guide lists what the one-off heat and housing items need to do. A plan built on last year's prices is a story, not a budget.

The cash-flow low point is the number that matters

Profit for the year is a useful figure for the farm's history. It is not the figure that tells you whether you can keep going. For that, you need the cash-flow low point, which is the lowest balance you will reach before the money starts coming back.

In the example, the house, the brooder and the backup power are paid before the chicks arrive. The chicks follow in week zero. Feed is bought every week for about twelve weeks. Nothing is sold until the birds reach about 2.0 kg, which takes most of that time. So the balance has to cover roughly GH₵55,100 before the first sale. Put another way, you need the full amount in hand by the sale week, not just the house money on day one.

Now the sale. In the example, 470 birds survive the 6% mortality, and at an example price of GH₵95 each they bring in GH₵44,650. The running costs and the contingency for that cycle total GH₵33,900, so the cycle itself leaves GH₵10,750. The one-off items of GH₵21,200 are not yet covered. After one cycle, you are still GH₵10,450 short on the house and equipment. If the second cycle repeats the first, the margin of GH₵10,750 covers that gap and leaves about GH₵300. That is the honest picture: the farm pays for its equipment over two cycles, and only if the numbers hold.

How much to ask for, and what you bring yourself

The funding ask is the total you need until the business pays for itself, less what you can bring. In the example, the first-cycle total is GH₵55,100. If you put in GH₵20,000 from your own savings, the ask is GH₵35,100.

Lenders want to see your own share in the plan. It shows that you are carrying part of the risk, and it reduces the amount they have to lend. Show where the money comes from, whether it is savings, the sale of an asset, or family money. If it is borrowed from a relative, say so and write down the terms.

Our guide to loans and funding explains which lenders ask for what. Do not inflate the ask to cover a shortfall you have not planned for. A lender who finds an unexplained extra GH₵5,000 will question every other line. Ask for what the plan needs, and put the contingency in the plan so it is visible.

Risks, and what you will do about each

Every risk needs two things beside it: what you will do to reduce it, and what you will do if it happens anyway. A risk without a response is only a worry.

• Disease. Vaccinate on the schedule your vet gives you, control visitors and keep a footbath at the door. If an outbreak hits, call the vet the same day and hold the sale date until they advise.
• Price. Agree sales with buyers before the birds are ready, and keep the contingency in the plan so one soft week does not force a fire sale.
• Weather. Plan for harmattan dust and cold nights in December to February, and for wet litter in the rains. Note the extra litter cost in the plan. A budget for starting a poultry farm shows how these seasonal costs sit alongside the rest.
• Power. Budget for diesel during dumsor, and keep the backup power line in the one-off costs.

Our housing designs guide covers how the house itself reduces several of these risks, which is worth knowing before you finalise the refit cost.

Milestones that tell you the plan is on track

A plan without milestones is a wish. Pick three or four numbers you will check at set points, and write down what you will do if one is off.

For the example, you might check mortality by week two, feed used by week six and the first sale by week fourteen. If mortality is above 6% in week two, check the brooder temperature, water and litter before you do anything else. If the sale slips past week fourteen, go back to the buyers and agree a new date before the feed bill grows.

Use the same record sheet for every batch, and compare each figure with the plan. Our record keeping guide gives a layout you can copy. When the second batch is on paper, update the plan, because the real numbers from the first batch are always better than the estimates you started with.

Checklist before the plan leaves your desk

Read through this list before you show the plan to anyone.

1. Does the summary match the numbers in the rest of the plan?
2. Are one-off and running costs in separate tables?
3. Does the cash-flow forecast show the full amount needed until the first sale?
4. Is every price backed by a written quote, a price list or a stated assumption?
5. Have you named at least two buyers and the volume each will take?
6. Is your own contribution on the page, with a source?
7. Does every risk have a response beside it?
8. Have you set milestones with dates and the action for each?

Mistakes that make a plan useless

Using one feed price for the whole year. Feed moves with the cedi and with the season, and a plan that ignores that is only correct for one month.

Counting the chicks but forgetting the boxes, the transport to collect them and the drinkers they need on the first day. Small items add up in the first week, when the cash is tightest.

Leaving out your own time. You may not pay yourself in the first year, but a plan should say so. A lender who finds that you have quietly assumed free labour will assume the rest of the numbers are soft too.

Writing the plan once and never opening it again. The plan is a tool for the next batch, and it should change after every batch. When you are ready to order the chicks the plan calls for, use the order form or WhatsApp +233 24 915 1503 with the quantity and the week you need them.

Questions farmers ask