Commercial Poultry Farming in Odisha

By Dr. Purna Chandra Mahapatra: Commercial Poultry farming in Odisha dates back to the days of barter economy. People of all thirteen undivided districts across the state were growing various poultry birds for their utilities. Later on the birds were used for various services and gaming activities by the farmers and others.

The inception of block concept in India after independence/ republic saw a dynamic progress in stage-1 and 2- block periods. With the partnership of UNICEF and WHO small units of 100-layer units in the nomenclature of ANP( Applied Nutrition Project) units started functioning in many block head quarters’ veterinary dispensaries under the guidance of Dr. J. N .Panda and Dr. Macdalle. These units were equipped with small hatchery units to supply poultry growers. Besides, hatch able eggs were sold from these units to facilitate farmers for hatching the chick at their own houses. The hens like White leghorn, RIR and ducks of Indian Runner and Khaki Campbell were available from these ANP units in units of maximum 200-250 per annum. The laying capacities of these birds were also limited to 180 eggs during a laying year.

Commercial poultry (layer) farming literally started in Odisha after the Hyline bird farm was established in Dhenkanal during 1970 by Dr. B. Mishra. These birds had a laying capacity of more than 220 eggs per laying year. Besides, Hyline chicks were well adopted in our environmental condition. During that period chicks from Contai hatchery also came to Odisha. The farmers in the neighboring districts of West Bengal started to grow those birds in small units of 100-500.These birds were also had the capacity of laying 220-eggs in a laying year. During this period various Districts and Regional Poultry Farms of the State Government and The Central Poultry Development Organisation ( CPDO was established in 1959 at Bhubaneswar) of Government of India started functioning and produced WLH and RIR day-old chicks and ducks for the benefit of our farmers. Under the co-ordination of ICAR, poultry research projects in Odisha Veterinary College, Bhubaneswar started marketing culled Indian Rock and Cornish broiler birds for table purpose.

In the mean time OPOLFED was established under co-operative act in 1976. Small poultry units with capacity of 200-500 layer units started to come up in various districts. Till 1986 OPOLFED farmers had a close population in and around Athgarh.

Kalinga Hatchery Pvt Ltd was incorporated on 16.12.1978 under Companies Act, with Sudhanshu Sekhar Das as its Managing Director. The unit near Bhubaneswar supplied broiler chicks to Odisha market for nearly 15-years.
The National Egg Co-ordination Council (NEEC) started functioning from May 1982 under the pioneer ship of Venkateshwar Hatcheries to safe guard the interest of poultry farmers. The egg price in most parts of Odisha is determined by the NECC rate at Vijayawada, as there is no branch office of NECC in Odisha.

The Regional Centre of Central Avian Research Institute (CARI) started functioning from Choudwar, Cuttack since 20.07.1992. Later on it was shifted to Bhubaneswar after its foundation stone was laid in 1998. CARI has the distinction of giving Giriraj and Cari-Gold chicks to the market suitable for backyard poultry farming of poor people.
The measure breakthrough in poultry farming was achieved in Odisha with the establishment of Shree Neelachal Poultry near Jatni during 1986.

The farm had a capacity of brooding 8,800 day old chicks and housing 40,000 layer birds in cage system on any given time. The unit used BV-300 day old chicks for the poultry farm which were received from Venkateshwar Hatcheries, Visakhapatnam. The success of this unit transpired and encouraged many poultry farmers to go for large sized poultry farms of even 1,00,000 layers in and around undivided Puri, Balasore, Ganjam, Cuttack, Dhenkanal and Sambalpur districts.. Broiler units with capacity of disposing 500 chicks per week also started coming up. During those period eggs from Andhra Pradesh to the tune of 4-5 truckloads of eggs and each truck carrying 80,000 to 1,00,000 eggs were coming to Odisha on alternate days. Large poultry farms were established in most of the districts of our state till date.

Later on Singh Breeders, Eastern Hatcheries Pvt.Ltd, Suguna Poultry Ltd established their hatchery units to cater layer and broiler chicks. Few small broiler hatcheries also came up in various districts to meet the local demand. Some are non-existent now. The practices of custom growing of broilers initiated by some broiler houses are giving good result to small farmers.

Tips for profitable commercial poultry farming:
1. The entrepreneur of to-day has no fear for failure.

2. The average life span of medium sized poultry units as well as most of the animal husbandry and pisciculture units is five years. Hence, there should be judicious use of equity of promoter and others. So, less costly but cost effective fixed assets are to be created in the farms. More emphasis is to be given on Current Assets so as to get maximum returns on investment during the first five years of the project. The salvage value of the fixed assets in poultry farms are similar to that of brackish water prawn culture and dairy farms which amounts to minimum or nil after 5-6 years, although its calculated at a higher rate for refinance purpose. Hence, efforts are to be made to repay the borrowed equity within 4-years from the date of first maximum laying. For technical calculation and evaluation of this projected cash flow the bench mark IRR ( Internal Rate of Return) of higher than 20% is advisable.
3. The chicks received from hatcheries are not clones. They do not inherit genetically identical qualitative and quantitative characters from their parent stocks, although phenotypically, all the chicks look alike. Brown layer strains like BV-380 layers are also available in the market.
4. The hen takes approximately 26-hours for an egg to be formed and layed. Thus, getting an egg from each bird every day is not possible.
5. Producers begin to photo stimulate and manipulate the diet around 18 weeks of age in order to support egg production. Minor nutrients have also been manipulated such that calcium levels in the diet are approximately five to seven times greater than phosphorus levels. When a flock (group of hens) first enters egg production, the rate of egg lay will be around 10 to 20 percent. This means that 10 to 20 percent of the hens are laying eggs at 18 to 22 weeks of age. The flock quickly reaches peak egg production (90 plus percent) around 30 to 32 weeks of age. Post-peak egg production (after 30 to 32 weeks of age) continually decreases to approximately fifty percent around 60 to 70 weeks of age. At this point an economic decision must be made by the producer; fifty percent production is near the “break-even” point for egg producers (e.g., 90 % of feed cost = market price of eggs). When the flock reaches 50 percent production, producers commonly decide to molt the flock in order to achieve a higher level of egg production. As a rule of thumb, it takes approximately 10 weeks from the beginning of a molting program to be back at 50 percent production following the molt. Post-molt egg production will increase such that peak egg production reaches about 80 percent. Peak production following a molt is short-lived. The forced molting is commonly dictated by the current egg prices and the availability of replacement pullets. After the flock vacates the layer house, the house is stripped of all organic matter and sanitized before another flock enters the house.
6. The profit in poultry farming comes from minimum wastage of poultry feed, least mortality due to cannibalism and death by predators, timely disposal of culled birds and continuous meeting to the market need. Hence, it is advisable to grow poultry in cage system, where not only the costly feed is used by the bird for converting its energy towards egg or body weight but also it prevents cannibalism and death due to predators. The cost of cages can be compensated within a span of 4-years over deep litter system of rearing. The cost of feed wasted in deep litter system and the amount of return not received from the birds died due to cannibalism and predators can approximately calculated by the entrepreneurs to arrive at their choice. The problem in poultry is also the choice of the farmers.
7. The traders from farm gate like to procure eggs or birds for table purpose as per their convenience. Mostly, the eggs are collected in multiple cartoons of 180-eggs each and birds of 100kgs. Hence, the entrepreneur(s) of the locality need to have their flock size, accordingly. Besides, the last 10-calender years have seen an artificial glut/ scarcity of eggs and birds for a fortnight during each quarter of the year made by the traders to dominate wholesale markets. The entrepreneur(s) are to be prepared for that.

8. Traders mostly want to get a steady and regular supply of eggs and meat birds from the locality of the farms round the year. So, large or small farms need to have separate partitioned brooder and grower houses to grow broilers from 12-weeks onwards in the vacant houses. It will add to the bottom line of the farm and can keep the traders in touch for a considerable longer period. Because, at the end the farmers need middle man/agency (wholesale traders) to dispose their finished product with an assured amount of return.