This is my latest guest post published at Africabusinesscommunities.com.
Category Archives: Entrepreneurship
Top 10 Ingredients Used in Livestock Feed
A Key To Livestock Farming Success
Many livestock farmers out here frequently start out with little knowledge of animal nutrition. And yet some successfully manage their businesses with profit for reasonable periods of time. Seasoned extension specialists and farm business support experts have variously made this observation over the years.
The above shows just how much potential exists to do even better, if such farmers were to improve their level of know-how.
In Tough Times, Farmers With Know-How Rule
And if there was ever a time for such farmers to step up their game, it’s now. Hard times are forcing businesses to re-invent themselves. With tough times persisting, farm business owners with better know-how, are the ones who stand a better chance of surviving – and even prospering.
Their sound knowledge equips them to develop more efficient farm management processes. And that includes formulating least cost rations – as against lowest priced rations.
A Least Cost Ration Should Not Be Confused With a Lowest-Priced Ration
They sound alike. But that’s where the similarity ends. The least cost ration is what any smart farmer, who wants his/her commercial farm animals to flourish, will strive to prepare for them. And s/he will understand that such a ration is unlikely to be the cheapest to make.
Not-so-smart (or penny wise…) farmers tend to fall into the trap of going for lowest priced rations. That mistake ultimately costs them via poor performance of their farm animals.
Every farmer who wishes to make the most of formulating rations for his/her animals needs to understand what a least cost ration is, and why that is what s/he should aim for.
A least cost ration is the lowest cost formula that contains all the nutritional ingredients needed for optimal performance of the animals to be fed with it.
The lowest priced feed formula is usually NOT one that will produce optimal performance, since performance depends not only on price but also on efficiency of utilization.
Summary
It therefore goes without saying that to get the best performance from your farm animals in a commercial livestock farming situation, you must aim to produce least cost rations.
That will enable you supply an optimal mix of balanced nutrients to your livestock at the least possible cost – ensuring you can maximize your production output, without spending excessively on feeding.
Understanding this not-so-subtle difference explained above, can determine whether or not your livestock farm business fails or succeeds.
A Marketing Secret You Need To Know
Browse the new WordPress version of my 6 year old Farm Business Support Service website.
Click here to visit the new site
Note that it’s still being updated, and some links will take you back to the old site.
FEEDBACK: If you have any ideas, suggestions or comments about the new site, send them to me via info at cbstudio.biz
Thanks in advance 
THE MARKETING SECRET YOU NEED TO KNOW
Marketing is like throwing mud at a barn wall. After a while, some of it begins to stick.
I got the above phrase from reading an excellent bestselling book titled “Startup Entrepreneur”, written by James R. Cook.
It was a bible of sorts for me in my first few startup years. I told anyone I met about how great the book was.
One day, someone visited me, and some hours after he’d left, I could no longer find it…LOL!
But I must have read it 10 times or so. As a result, even though I no longer had the print copy, I could literally recite passages from it by heart.
On the morning of Thursday 30th August 2012, I got a call from a lady official of the Ministry of Agriculture, who told me she had read some of my Farm Business Ideas articles on the web.
We met later that same day, to discuss work they are trying to do, to support farm business owners out here.
It was a very useful session, and she gave me great details about a World Bank assisted project they’re implementing to support farm owners with grants and capacity building resources.
I’m preparing a special report that will be made freely available online on this great opportunity for farmers.
Update: Click here to view the report published via a blog post last November.
My main reason for mentioning the above however, is really to point out
how VERY powerful intelligent web marketing can be, for getting yourself noticed, if diligently applied.
Too many business owners out here fail to understand that marketing requires diligent commitment and patience – and that smart use of the Internet can equip you to keep at it, cost-effectively, to get the results you want, in multiple folds :-))
Make sure you choose a vocation that you have a passion for. It is the key to your success in life.
5 Proven Ways to Boost Farm Profits Without Raising Prices
My latest (above titled) guest post is now live at http://africabusinesscommunities.com/features/5-proven-ways-to-boost-farm-profits-without-raising-prices.html
NEW PAGE: Tayo’s Guest Posts
I’m a multipreneur, and SD Nuggets is designed to be a multi-disciplinary blog. So, expect to see links on the new Tayo’s Guest Posts page to my guest posts published on blogs in different niches.
If you run a high profile blog, website or print publication, and would like me to write for you, get in touch via my Writing Service page.
Understanding Feed Ingredients Used For Livestock Feed Formulation
Feeding is one critical element that determines how well poultry or any other farm animals perform. It impacts not only on growth rates, but also on the disease resistance of the birds(though protection is also afforded the birds through vaccination/medication regimes). To put it another way, it has been acknowledged that ‘Diet is an important component of the environment under all climatic conditions. The potential of the bird cannot be attained if the environment, and notably the diet, is substandard.
This article is based on excerpts from Tayo’s Practical Livestock Feed Formulation Handbook which is available as an ebook athttp://www.lulu.com/sdaproducts.
It was orginally published as a static HTML page on 29th October 2009
Poultry farming, though potentially lucrative, can be fairly risky if a farmer is not diligent.
Some farmers have recorded severe losses by way of disease outbreaks or dismal productivity resulting from poor feeding among other things.
Apart from the hygiene condition of the environment where poultry are kept, the types of feeds – and manner of feeding – that the birds are subjected to can prove quite critical in determining the ultimate output achieved by a farmer whether in terms of eggs laid, or bird sizes/weight at point of sale. Someone once made an interesting observation to me about practicing poultry producers here in Nigeria.
He pointed out many of these farmers lack formal training in poultry management. However, despite this seemingly serious inadequacy, they successfully feed/manage their birds for profit – which is why they remain in business even today!
Now if that is possible, imagine how much better off they would be in terms of farm productivity (and profits) if they developed a better knowledge/understanding of poultry feedstuffs and ration formulation/compounding!!
Feeding is one critical element that determines how well poultry or any other farm animals perform
It impacts not only on growth rates, but also on the disease resistance of the birds (though protection is also afforded the birds through vaccination/medication regimes).
To put it another way, it has been acknowledged that ‘Diet is an important component of the environment under all climatic conditions. The potential of the bird cannot be attained if the environment, and notably the diet, is substandard.
This is why an understanding of feed ingredients, their composition, and use in ration formulation is CRUCIAL.
Estimates have shown that feeds represent 70 – 75% of the total cost of livestock production – especially poultry and piggery production. Ration formulation is a technique that enhances adaptation of local feed stuffs in compounding rations. It takes into consideration 2 basic concepts:
a. The specific nutrient requirement of different animals.
b. The ingredients of the feed itself.
There is also some specific requirement dependent on the type of animal in question: whether it is monogastric or ruminant. A ruminant animal is one that brings back food from its stomach and chews it again, and which is able to digest cellulose (a complex carbohydrate) with the aid of microorganisms, which live in its intestines e.g. Cow and sheep. A monogastric is one that can is incapable of digesting complex carbohydrates e.g. poultry etc.
Nutrients are chemical substances found in food materials (feeds), which are required for the growth, maintenance, production and health of animals. A balanced ration is one that supplies these nutrients in the right amounts and proportions relative to each other. When rations are well balanced, a smaller quantity is required for most economic efficiency, while greater amounts of a poorly balanced ration will be required to meet the specific production purposes in livestock. These greater amounts constitute expensive wastes, which could have been saved if the rations had been well balanced in the first place.
Poorly balanced rations depress appetite in animals leading to poor performance, and high susceptibility to infection and disease. In carrying out ration formulation, we study the daily nutrient requirements of different animals, and compare with the composition of available feed ingredients. We then manipulate the latter to meet the needs for satisfactory productivity either in terms of meat, milk or egg production.
Four (4) Major Groups of Feed Ingredients For Ration Formulation
3.1FEED INGREDIENTS
Feed ingredients are basically grouped as follows:
3.1.1ENERGY SOURCES (CARBOHYDRATES)
The energy in poultry diets is derived mainly from cereals. Typically, maize, millet, sorghum, rice and wheat are locally available/used in compounding poultry rations. Others include Guinea Corn as well as non-cereals like Cassava and Sweet Potatoes. Incidentally, it has been reported that non-cereal carbohydrates like Cassava can be used for up to 5- – 60% of growers’ and layers’ diets without detrimental effects on the performance of the birds.
Studies have also shown that sweet potatoes and cassava have better metabolisable energy values than coco yam, and yam, when they are included in chick diets. The downside to their use is however the need for some processing as well as their relatively lower protein content.
Different types of oils usable in supplying energy in poultry rations include palm oil, melon-seed oil, groundnut oil, and palm-kernel oil. Others sources are Lard (a firm white substance made from the melted fat of pigs and used in cooking) and Molasses (a thick, dark sweet liquid obtained from sugar while it is being refined – though this has been found to be a poor substitute for maize in chick diets).
There are also other by-products like biscuit crumbs, broken wheat (wheat offal), broken rice (rice bran) etc. Apart from supplying energy, they are also required for body heat maintenance. Carbohydrate deficiency in the diet will cause poor growth rates in chicks.
Some industrial by-products that are locally utilized for supplying energy in feed formulation in Nigeria include wheat offal, rice husk, dried brewer’s grain and cocoa husk. Other by products include yam peels and cassava peels.
3.1.2PROTEIN SOURCES
a.Plant origin: GroundNut Cake(GNC), Soya Bean Meal(SBM), Cotton Seed Cake, Whole Soya Beans, Palm Kernel Cake (PKC), Rubber Seed Meal (RSM), Sunflower Seed Cake.
b.Animal origin: Blood Meal; Meat Meal, Fish Meal (FM), Brewer’s Dried Grain (BDG) i.e. Spent Grains, yeast, hydrolysed feather meal, chicken offal etc
It is note worthy that proteins of animal origin have higher protein content between 80 – 85% and a higher quantity of the most limiting amino acids (AA) i.e. have higher Methionine and Lysine content than those of plant origin. Protein is used for synthesis of body tissues making it useful in growth, body repairs and egg formation processes. Its deficiency can lead to poor growth/feathering and development of vice habits among the birds.
It is pertinent to note here that the component parts of proteins i.e. Amino Acids (AAs) – rather than protein itself – are of greatest nutritional importance to poultry feeding. About 20 AAs exist – some can be synthesized readily and sufficiently in the fowl’s body (Non-Essential AAs) and some cannot (Essential AAs).
Table 3.1.2 below gives a summary of all the Amino Acids:
ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS
Arginine
Cystine
Histidine
Isoleucine
Leucine
Lysine
Methionine
Phenylalanine
Threonine
Tryptophan
Tyrosine
Valine
NON-ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS
Alanine
Aspartate
Glycine
Hydroxproline
Proline
Serine
Balancing Amino-Acids in Rations
It has been said that in order to achieve reasonable amino acid balance, the amino acid content of a ration should be calculated or analysed. Based on the analysis, Fish Meal for instance, has been found (like other intact proteins) to be rich in all amino acids, and as such can be used to rectify amino acid deficiency. Also, it offers the additional benefit of furnishing minerals, vitamins, and possibly essential fatty acids.
Synthetic amino acids make it possible to achieve good amino acid balance in compounded feeds, without resorting to the use of animal proteins. However it is fairly common practice for synthetic amino acids (e.g. feed grade methionine) to be used in combination with intact proteins – especially since the former tend to be expensive.
3.1.3 MINERAL SOURCES
Minerals enable skeletal tissue development and maintenance in poultry. They also make up a good proportion of the egg and help physiological functions. Mineral sources that are available locally are oyster shell, seashells and limestone as sources of Calcium (Ca) while bone meal or defluorinated rock phosphate serve as sources of Phosphorous (P).
A gradual rise over the years in the price of bone meal has resulted from the reduction in the number of cattle slaughtered, and a consequent increase in bone consumption by humans – due to prices of meat rapidly becoming unaffordable to the majority of the population.
The foregoing situation resulted in attempts to explore the use of other sources such as Rock phosphate. Available results caution that in using this source, the attention should be paid to dangers posed by its fluoride content. Other sources of minerals include fertilizers e.g. single phosphate and super phosphate. Deficiency of mineral salts in diets can reduce egg production, and has been suspected to predispose birds to cannibalism.
3.1.4. VITAMIN SOURCES
The discovery of vitamins made intensive poultry farming possible. This is a situation where birds are successfully kept for long periods without access to pasture or direct sunlight. Vitamins are organic compounds not synthesized in the body, but required in small amounts. They function mostly as co-enzymes or regulators of metabolism.
The sources of vitamins available locally include some plant sources e.g. Alfalfa, Luru (dried leaves of Adansonia digitata) and Eupatorium, which are sources of carotene and palm oil. Vitamins are given in synthetic form, which is often preferred to the natural sources, due to the former’s standard quality, and proven effectiveness.
This article is based on excerpts from Tayo’s Practical Livestock Feed Formulation Handbook which is available as an ebook athttp://www.lulu.com/sdaproducts. Visit Tayo’s Self-Development Nuggets™ blog to find out how you can get your FREE copy of his new Practical Guide to Important Feed Ingredients (with high resolution pictures, prices, nutrients, uses etc).
Ideas for Exploring Low Cost Feed Ingredients, When You Have No Laboratory On Your Farm
This article is a follow up to my earlier report titled “Reducing Catfish Feeding Costs (A Secret Weapon). At the end of that piece, I indicated my intention to address objections I anticipated would arise about the workability of the ideas advocated in it.
In case you have not read the first write-up, click here to do so, to understand where I’m coming from and how we got here. In that preceding paper, I discussed research findings (by African scientists under African settings) of viable low cost alternatives to expensive, and increasingly less available key ingredients – like maize, fish meal etc – for catfish feed production.(To get a full PDF version, with clickable links to referenced research papers and useful websites, send email to info at cbstudio dot biz.)
This Article Is Based On Real Life Case Studies
Nothing is better than real life proof to back the workability of new ideas proposed for adoption. Indeed, in our society, social pressures make people unwilling to invest effort in “testing” research findings. They want ready-to-use ideas. My understanding of this mental attitude in many farm business owners out here, informed my decision to provide this case-study based follow up.
In this article, I narrate 2 real-life Nigerian “Success Stories” – that demonstrate how resourcefulness, creative thinking, a little persistence, and a willingness to adapt, can help anyone overcome unfavorable or unexpected circumstances.
I also go further, to offer suggestions based on the success stories that you can use, to achieve your goal of adopting low cost alternative ingredients for making the rations you feed your catfish, in order to record substantial savings.
Don’t Try To Kill A Fly With A Hammer
Sometimes it pays to keep things simple. Most of the farm businesses in our society fall in the category of small or medium (even micro). Yet, they produce most of the farm produce consumed in this country. It goes without saying that they will not have the resources to run their own analytical laboratories.
But that does not mean they cannot successfully carry out trials using the identified alternative feed ingredients. We must learn to think out of the box.
And who says you have to build your own labs? What stops you from forming an alliance with a company that has interests to sponsor your efforts, for instance?
What’s more, a lot can be done before the need to test and analyze becomes necessary.
We must learn to operate the way developed societies do. Our farmers need to explore opportunities to collaborate with companies and institutions with a vested interest in utilization of their output. Need specific ideas? Call me.
Two Case Studies You Can Relate To
I have seen Nigerian based operations successfully do what I propose you do. In both cases you are about to read, I had the unique privilege of being an insider, working as an a actively involved employee.
I am hoping you can take away enough to help you implement an action plan for your farm business, to successfully adopt one or more lower cost alternative feed ingredients.
a. Wines Made From 100% Pawpaw Pulp in Matori, Lagos.
Early in 1994, I worked for 6 months as a trainee Sales Coordinator in a medium-sized wine manufacturing company in Matori area of Lagos. Pawpaw fruits were processed – via simple brewing, fermentation, and aging – into a popular range of fruit-based wines distributed (by GB Ollivant) across the country.
All we had in the small factory was a simple laboratory used to check key quality parameters at a basic level like color, sugar level etc. Uninhabited expanses of interstate land heavily populated with wild pawpaw plants, provided a seemingly endless supply of the factory’s major input.
The enterprising owner also wisely got people to collect and supply the fruits to his factory for a fee.
Now, get this: At the gate, we would negotiate a lower price based on over ripe pawpaw fruit in the pickup supply truck. The suppliers had no way of knowing that the over ripe ones were the ones we preferred for our process.
But since they knew no one would buy that from them anyway, they were glad to still earn income for supplying what would be considered “spoiled” fruit elsewhere. As a result, they always left happily, to return with another supply few days later. It’s not surprising that almost 2 decades after, this company is still going strong!
b. Switching From 20% To 80% Sorghum – With Massive Cost Reductions (Lessons from Guinness Nigeria)
As a young brewer in Guinness Nigeria Plc, I had the unique opportunity of participating in the amazing series of events (between 1995 and 1997) that led the company to gradually replace expensive and less available maize, with much cheaper (and more available) sorghum in the brewing process.
This became necessary due to the government’s ban on wheat importation. Apart from brewing plant (and process) modifications, the main thing done was to conduct a series of “trials”. Increased amounts of sorghum were added to the brews, to replace Maize, and the final product tested, with steps being taken to identify needed changes. Eventually they got it right. And the savings were enormous.
What You Can Do
Both case studies prove it can be done. You could argue that you do not have the resources Guinness did. I would counter that the owner of the wine company started as a very small one-man operation in his office, based on this approach.
And that’s one way to go about this. Look for ingredients that are not likely to be in demand for use by too many other interests, and work them into the preparation of your catfish feed. The research findings discussed in my first paper offer a useful starting point.
What is crucial is your mental attitude – you have to be willing to give it a try, with an open mind. The alternative is to complain and wait – probably futilely – for the government or some other group to come up with a solution. That’s not happened in decades. You can take your destiny into your own hands.
Here Are A Few Suggestions:
1. Explore Strategic Partnerships: Approach private sector companies that own labs for possible use of their facilities. Explore ways to offer win-win relationship e.g. assure them of preferential supply at special rate. You’ll be amazed what people assured of useful benefits will agree to. I say this from personal experience.
2. Collaborate With Others: Consider exploring the use of the alternative ingredients as a group. You can do this alone, or work at it with a group of fellow farmers. Get together with like minded farm business owners and discuss ways to conduct real-life pilot scale trials on your farms.
As a farm business owner you are an authority at what you do. It is YOU who should be telling the rest of the world – including the researchers from the academia – what works for your animals and your farm.
Your willingness to conduct pilot trials will equip you to better advise them about what you need from them to make their research findings work better for you.
3. Approach Farm Service Centers: Going by what I see the Lagos state government doing out here, this could be a wise thing to do.
Getting support from the Farm Service Centre located along Oko-Oba road, towards pursuing this strategy could make it easier to make 1 and 2 (above) happen. The government operated centre could facilitate the process.
Considering that there are already efforts being made by government to develop alternatives to traditional ingredients, this may not be a far fetched idea.
4. Liaise With Research Publishers: You can also reach out to the researchers who published the findings mentioned in my first paper which led to this.
In many of the papers (which I linked to in the PDF version of my paper), the corresponding author’s contact email is usually supplied right at the top. These people did the research because they want to help farmers succeed better.
I believe they’ll be excited to work with you, in implementing the findings on your farm. It would be a win-win for you, and them. And the country – or indeed the continent – as a whole would benefit!
Need Help?
Get in touch if you’d like to get more specific details of how you can go about putting the ideas offered in this paper (and the one I wrote preceding it) to use it.
Good luck!
The Customer Will NOT Always Be Right: Don’t Be A Victim Of Entrepreneur Abuse™!
(This article was originally published on a static HTML page on my (spontaneousdevelopment.com) website in March 2006 – from where I’ve now moved it to THIS blog platform)
I do not know what your experiences so far in business have been, but mine and those of a surprising number of others I have read – this year alone – tell me that the market in which we look for clients and prospects is awash with all kinds of characters. I have as a result adopted a philosophy that contradicts what the popular saying “The customer is always right” suggests. My purpose for writing this article is to: a). Help entrepreneurs who read my writing learn how to protect themselves from exploitation while trying to meet clients’ needs (b). Help those who patronise entrepreneurs learn how NOT to behave if they are to avoid being guilty of Entrepreneur Abuse™. Read this article to learn more about Entrepreneur Abuse™, and why you may need to distance yourself from a client/customer who practices it. Continue reading
6 Proven Strategies To Prevent Scope Creep
Author note: My original intention was to get this piece published as a guest post elsewhere. And I did send it out to three different blogs (from 4th August 2012). The first replied that it was not a good fit for his blog audience. The second replied they were no longer accepting “writers”. I was still waiting to hear from the third, when I decided it would be better to host it on my own blog. I hope you find it useful, and look forward to any comments you might have. – Tayo K. Solagbade – 12th August 2012
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Has this ever happened to you as a service provider? That dreadful situation in which you find yourself having to continue working on a project – without getting paid – long after you should have been done with it…because you want to “satisfy” your client?
A Sitepoint.com Buildmobile article I recently read titled 4 Ways To Avoid Scope Creep And Still Please Your Clients, discussed aspects of this thorny issue of scope creep quite well. It also reminded me of a number of similarly themed articles I’ve written in the past, such as: Continue reading