This is the intensified feeding of animals to obtain the greatest quantity of highquality meat. Cattle, swine, sheep, poultry, and rabbits are fattened. The quality of the meat and the economic indexes of the fattening of livestock depend on the species, breed, sex, age, health, and fatness of the animal, as well as on type and intensiveness of feeding and on maintenance conditions. Animals that are fattened include the entire healthy population to be slaughtered for meat.
Ruminant animals’ productivity in Nigeria is low. Livestock slaughtered are generally old and produce over a period with a variable nutritional history, yielding tougher meat than desirable. Currently, nutrition is so poor that feed finishers only invest in mature animals.
Much of the local feed finishing enterprise activity is of poor quality and only remains viable because of the high price of meat. Professional butchers in towns such as Kano and other cities, are unwilling to buy village livestock because of the poor meat quality, and source grass-fed animals from more remote areas. Red meat sector stakeholders ranked the lack of quality feed finished animals as the greatest of 15 constraints to industry competitiveness.
Wholly funded by DFID, the target market for the GEMS1 component is the meat and leather industry. It addresses major government and market failures in the system, thus bringing about systemic change; improving the incomes of the poor, especially women and the young.
GEMS 1 has come up with an intensive feed finishing (FF) technique that covers several components including the use of least cost ruminant feed supplement, roughages, water and veterinary services together with appropriate housing and tethering.
The new technique is aimed at radicating subsistence culture of animal fattening or production to commercially viable venture. This is achieved by reducing time of fattening, crushing crop waste into ruminant feed thereby increasing feed availability and increasing feed intake by the animal, which enhances growth and increases the number of cycle per year to fattening animal.
The modern feed finishing techniques enables the farmer to feed-finish small ruminants to maturity within 40 – 50 days, while for large ruminants, within 80 – 90 days.
Opportunities In Fattening Business As A livestock Fattener Dealer: You can make good return on investment as a dealer of livestock fattener because of the demand in the market as a result of the need for farmers to make profit from rearing livestock and have healthy, fattened animals for slaughter and skins for local and international market.
Livestock Fattening: The introduction of fattener livestock rearing has become interesting and attractive, not just for the old people and northern farmers only but for the growing youths who now see Agric as a business.
With the modern feed finishing techniques, which enable a farmer to feed-finish small ruminants to maturity within 40 – 50 days, with that of large ruminants within 80 – 90 days, the farming business has become more lucrative than the old system that is discouraging.
Meat Packaging: This is a business that is taking a good shape as a result of the demand for fresh healthy meat, the growing population of the middle class and springing up of shopping malls all over the cities.
Nealing On Livestock: You can make your money as an agribusiness entrepreneur dealing on fattened livestock that are fresh and healthy.
The demands are high, you don’t need to own a farm, all you need to do is to create the market and the farmers are there. Finally with the improvement on the livestock value chain and support of GSM 1and 11, this is an Agribusiness to venture into with sure return on investment with over 100 per cent.
Source: Leadership News
