Surprisingly, it turns out to be quite profitable cow business – breeding and sales() for various purposes brings good income. You can raise livestock, specializing in meat production, or you can raise it for dairy products. The first is a little cheaper than the second, but both options are quite profitable. Moreover, a cow business will not require serious investments.
Cow breeding as a business
First of all, you need to know that without special knowledge and skills, breeding cows is a very risky business. First, it is worth studying the types, characteristics of each type of cattle, as well as the rules for breeding cows. Moreover, you definitely need to create a business plan for breeding cows in order to understand exactly how your business should develop.
At the stage of studying information about breeding cows, you should thoroughly study the following questions:
Once these questions have been studied, you can begin to draw up a business plan for breeding cows. The document must include the following actions to open an enterprise:
Purchase or lease of land for the construction of a complex for breeding cows;
construction of a cowshed;
purchase of young animals in accordance with the goals of the cow business.
The barn itself must be at least 30x6 m for 30 heads of cattle. And it’s better for him to be in the countryside. Ideally, there will be agricultural land or enterprises nearby where manure can be sold, saving on logistics. To breed cows, it is necessary to build a separate heated room.
Business on cows and formalities
In order to register a cow business, when registering an enterprise you must indicate OKVED 01.2, which gives permission for animal husbandry. It is better to choose a simplified tax system. must assume the construction of a barn away from enterprises of a similar nature.
Sales points include:
Wholesale companies or private resellers;
retail outlets in nearby settlements;
the nearest big markets.
Business price - necessary investments
To start, you will need about 700 thousand rubles, which will be spent on:
construction of the complex (170 thousand);
purchase of heads (5 cows, 12 bulls - more than 400 thousand in total);
purchase of feed for the year (60 thousand).
Another 20 thousand will have to be spent on wages for two workers. In addition, you will have to purchase special equipment, for example, milking machines.
Income will be generated from the sale of meat and milk wholesale and retail. When raising 30 heads, you can sell approximately 2 thousand liters of milk, as well as 300 kg of meat. On average, each type of product can bring in income of 700 thousand rubles.
In a year, about 60 thousand rubles will be spent on food, 240 thousand on salaries, plus expenses for rent and utilities. As a result, the business can pay for itself in about two years. In the future, it can be developed by first expanding sales markets and increasing the number of livestock.
Generally, cow breeding business for the purpose of obtaining and selling milk or meat is always a popular activity.
Farming is a profitable type of business, which, however, is very risky and requires high costs. Let's look at the main industries farm and the features of their implementation, as well as the reasons for such rapid development of livestock farming in Russia.
Farm business development
Farm business in Russia, in particular livestock farming, has become increasingly popular and developed over the years thanks to the following factors:
- the presence of government programs that, if farmers comply with certain conditions, in order to support newly created farms and national producers, provide subsidies, tax breaks, grants, initial capital, and allocate land for farming;
- rising food prices, which increases farm profits;
- food products produced by farms, namely meat, milk, eggs, cheese, honey, cottage cheese, are always in demand in the markets and have their own customer base, as they provide the basic needs of consumers;
- restriction of access to the market for products of foreign suppliers and manufacturers - national producers, in turn, do not experience such restrictions;
- a wide range of economic activities, the emergence and development of new species (for example, ostrich breeding farms);
- the products of the national manufacturer inspire confidence among consumers and are in demand;
- the opportunity to obtain a permanent customer base and markets for products.
Thus, farming business is a profitable and promising activity, which is rapidly developing and, at certain costs, can bring significant income that will fully recoup the invested funds and time spent.
Farming sectors
Farming is divided into 2 main sectors:
- agriculture (growing various types grain crops: rice, wheat, barley, etc.);
- livestock farming
Animal breeding as a business includes the following sub-sectors:
- pig breeding;
- cattle breeding (cattle breeding);
- sheep breeding;
- poultry farming;
- bee breeding;
- horse breeding;
- ostrich breeding;
- reindeer husbandry;
- rabbit breeding;
- fur farming and others.
Pig farming, poultry farming, sheep farming and cattle breeding have received the greatest development.
Cattle breeding meets the population's needs for milk and meat; beef and veal are of high quality and high cost.
Poultry farming provides the market with meat and eggs, and poultry meat (turkeys, chickens, ducks, turkeys) is more in demand than beef and pork due to the lower cost of meat and the absence of difficulties in breeding birds on farms. Chicken is the most popular meat in markets; chicken breeding is a promising and profitable activity.
Pig farming is a rapidly developing type of economic activity. Pork is the second most popular meat in markets, after chicken; this meat is cheaper than beef and has high quality, nutritional value and calorie content.
Sheep farming requires a large amount of pasture for its development and provides markets not only with meat and milk, but also with wool.
Pig breeding as a business
Before you start pig farming, you should keep in mind that although this is a highly profitable activity, it, like any type of farming activity, requires a lot of effort, time and significant financial costs to achieve results.
Basic rules to follow if you decide to start pig farming
1. Decide on the location of the farm, taking into account: established standards for proximity to populated areas, the minimum required area of the farm, distance from water sources.
2. Prepare necessary documents for the signature of the administration. Find out under what conditions you can receive government subsidies, benefits, etc.
3. Study the market structure, namely the supply and demand of pork meat and lard in the markets in your region. As a rule, the greatest demand is for lean and lean pork, lard with a layer of meat (loin).
4. Prepare a business plan that, when calculating financial expenses, will show the effectiveness of pig farming and possible profits. Financial expenses include the following:
- buying pigs;
- construction or rental of premises;
- purchase of inventory and equipment;
- staff salaries;
- stern;
- payment for veterinarian services, vaccinations, etc.
The plan also needs to assess the possible risks of the enterprise and indicate the stages of project implementation with actions at each stage.
5. Build pigsties, sheds, purchase the necessary tools and equipment, feed.
6. Hire qualified personnel (animal technician, laborers, pig breeders, etc.).
7. Much attention should be given to the selection of pig breeds. There are pig breeds specially bred for production:
- meat;
- meat and lard;
- meat and bacon;
- bacon;
- lard
The meat and bacon producing breeds are in greatest demand because meat brings in more income than lard. Females and males must be purchased from different suppliers to prevent genetic mutations in the offspring.
8. Be sure to periodically disinfect pigsties and equipment, destroy rodents, ensure regular vaccinations and examinations of offspring and adults by a veterinarian.
But you shouldn’t expect instant results, because a pig farm pays for itself in about 2-3 years. A combination of growing potatoes, corn, etc. is also successful. with raising pigs, because feed costs in this case are reduced; Organizing your own production of meat and sausage products and lard is also profitable (for example, you can organize a meat and lard smokehouse).
Poultry farming as a business
Poultry breeding as a business, especially chickens and turkeys, requires lower financial costs than, for example, pig farming, since birds are less demanding, but brings a stable income because poultry meat is very popular due to its low cost, dietary content, and low calorie content.
Before you start poultry farming, draw up a business plan that will help you calculate the possible profit and the period within which it will be received, as well as financial costs (for the purchase of young animals, feed, vaccinations, rent of territory, construction of premises, equipment, etc.) , existing risks.
How to become a poultry farmer from scratch?
Let's look at the main factors that need to be taken into account if you decide to start breeding birds.
1. The choice of breed depends on the focus of your farm. Chicken breeds are:
- for meat production (Cornish, red whitetails);
- for the production of eggs (Leghorn, Russian White, Pavlovsk, Minor);
- for the production of eggs and meat (Loman Brown, Moscow black, Kuchinsky).
It is most profitable to purchase breeds of chickens that are adapted for the production of both eggs and meat.
2. Having your own garden reduces the cost of bird feed; in the spring and summer, chickens can and should be grazed in the garden.
3. To obtain high-quality homemade meat, you should special attention turn it into bird food. So, in addition to feed, the diet of chickens should include: dandelions, nettles, carrots, pumpkin, potatoes, beets and other vegetables and herbs.
4. Rooms for chickens should be equipped with everything necessary: feeders, drinkers, thermometers, instruments for measuring room humidity. Each breed has its own characteristics. Thus, egg-bearing breeds require ventilation, specially equipped perches, free space, good lighting (the room should be illuminated from 6 am to 9 pm, poor lighting is stressful for the bird and its egg production decreases or stops altogether) and thermal insulation.
5. Purchasing and equipping an incubator will help save on young animals; eggs laid by a laying hen are placed in an incubator, which must be equipped with a thermometer. If the incubator is the simplest and not automatic, the eggs are turned over manually (3 times a day). From 60 eggs placed in an incubator, you can get 45 or more chickens.
6. Purchased young animals should be vaccinated and given antibiotics to prevent possible diseases.
7. Regular disinfection of the premises should be carried out; if a disease is suspected, sick birds that are subject to slaughter should be isolated, a veterinarian should be invited to make a final diagnosis, and vaccination should be carried out.
Bird breeding is a profitable, and most importantly simple and affordable activity that does not require the construction of special premises or the lease of a large area of land.
Birds can also be raised in old barns, which just need to be equipped with everything necessary; a personal plot or vegetable garden will suffice. Chicken breeding is the most popular type of poultry farming; chickens are unpretentious in feeding and care, have high egg production and proper care provide valuable and in-demand meat.
Cattle breeding
So, what does it take to become a cattle farmer? Before you start breeding yourself, draw up a detailed business plan, which should include:
- planned production volumes;
- production part (costs for purchasing feed);
- marketing part (advertising, product prices);
- organizational part (information about suppliers, buyers, staff);
- risk assessment;
- financial part (sources of financial support, planned income).
- breeding young animals for sale;
- meat supply;
- milk supply;
- supply of meat and milk;
- processing of animal skins;
- production of dairy products (cheese, sour cream, cottage cheese);
- production of meat products (sausage products).
The next stage will be to go through all the authorities, prepare documentation and obtain permits (for construction on sites, etc.).
One of the most important aspects of organizing livestock breeding as a business is purchase of livestock. Things to consider:
- selection and purchase is best done with the participation of an experienced veterinarian or livestock breeder;
- basic meat breeds cows: Hereford, Charolais, Limousin, Salers, Kalmyk, Kazakh white-headed and others. Dairy breeds: black-and-white, red steppe, Yaroslavl, Kholmogory;
- a healthy dairy cow that will produce large number milk, has a barrel-shaped belly, a long head, small horns, strong muscles, special attention should be paid to the udder of the cow. The cow's udder should be large, the skin should be elastic, and the udder should be cup-shaped. Cows with round udders will produce little milk. When purchasing, be sure to milk the cow, and no hardening should be felt in the udder; it should be soft and pliable. A healthy cow has a clear look, no cough, a firm and light gait, a narrow hindquarters and a sagging back are considered faults;
- read the animal's documents and vaccination record.
Cows must be provided with pastures, feed must be purchased, hay must be stored for the winter, regular disinfection of barns and vaccinations is mandatory, and it is also necessary to equip premises for slaughterhouses.
Beef and veal are expensive and high-quality meats that are in demand among consumers. To increase income from livestock breeding, it is necessary to organize the processing of meat and milk and produce cheese, cottage cheese, kefir, sausages, sour cream, fermented baked milk, etc. for sale.
How to become a successful farmer?
In order to become a successful farmer, you should take into account that farming does not involve immediate profit; it requires significant financial costs. Livestock farming is one of the most risky types of business, since there is always a risk of epidemics and natural disasters that can lead to animal pestilence, farm losses and bankruptcy of farmers.
Please note that production quality products– this is only the first stage. The second stage is its implementation. You can find sales markets, or you can open your own stores, which will generate income, but will also require additional costs for renting premises, personnel, equipment, etc.
Farming in Russia receives government support and brings high income to businessmen, but also requires large investments and time, as well as compiling detailed business plan. The main branches of livestock farming in Russia and around the world are pig farming, poultry farming and cattle breeding, as their products are always in high demand, both in national and foreign markets.
Breeding cows to produce milk is profitable and profitable business in Russia, because it can bring impressive profits to the farmer and the opportunity to use natural, environmentally friendly products for personal purposes. For larger production, farmers can choose the most dairy breeds of cows.
The dairy industry is one of essential elements in modern animal husbandry. While in the structure of the Russian meat market, beef accounts for only about 15% of total consumption, cow's milk and its processed products account for more than 90% of the dairy market. Thus, the demand for this type of product is high enough for dairy farming to be of some interest to investors and entrepreneurs. Well, among those villagers who do not want to move to the city and are determined to stay in native land, raising cows for milk is becoming a popular type of business.
Dairy market in Russia
According to statistics, the average consumption of milk and dairy products in our country is about 250 kg per person. This is an average of about 700 g per day, which on the one hand is quite a lot, but on the other hand, our fellow citizens do not reach medical standards for the volume of milk consumption by about 30%. This is due not only to the lack of habit of drinking milk among residents of large cities, but also to the general shortage of this product on the domestic market.
According to the Ministry's calculations agriculture Even with such a low level of consumption, Russia's level of self-sufficiency in milk and dairy products is slightly more than 80%. Moreover, to achieve a minimum level of food security, this indicator must at least exceed 90%.
If we look at the general state of dairy production, the situation does not look positive at all. At the end of 2015, gross milk production at enterprises of all types (including private households with a cow) amounted to 30.78 million tons, which almost exactly repeats the result of the previous 2014. At the same time, as noted in the Ministry of Agriculture, milk production at livestock farms increased by 2.4%, or by 350 thousand tons (up to 14.7 million tons), but in private farmsteads of villagers, which account for about half of dairy production in the country, a decline of 474.5 thousand tons was recorded. Thus, the long-term trend towards increasing the share of industrial milk producers in total output continues.
Another trend affecting big picture in the industry, in 2015 there was an increase in milk yield per cow. Thus, in large livestock complexes, one cow produced an average of 5233 kg of milk, which is 336 kg, or 6.9% more than in 2014.
After the closure of the Russian market for most European producers in 2014, the production of dairy products in Russia increased significantly in 2015. In particular, they began to produce 21% more cheese than in 2014 (414 thousand tons), cheese products - by 18% (121 thousand tons), cottage cheese and curd products - by 6% (728 thousand tons). Production also increased, although not as significantly, butter- by 3% (258.9 thousand tons). And only producers of milk powder and cream reduced production volumes: 111.7 thousand tons of this product, that is, 14% less than in 2014.
Problems of the dairy farming industry
As can be concluded based on the statistics given above, the Russian village is gradually losing its status as a leading milk producer, and the market is gradually passing into the hands of livestock enterprises, that is, business. However, the increase in milk production in cattle breeding farms is proceeding at a rather slow pace, sometimes not keeping pace with the rate of decline in production indicators in rural areas. After the ban on the import of Ukrainian and European cheeses, milk and butter, it was expected that Russian producers would begin to increase volumes at a very high pace, but this did not happen. While cheese and butter makers actually showed an increase of tens of percent, milk production increased by only 2.5%.
The main reason for this, as before, remains the rather low profitability of production itself in the dairy industry. Entrepreneurs are much more willing to invest money in expanding existing and opening new poultry and pig farms, where profitability is 17% and 20%, respectively. Against this background, breeding dairy cows, which provides only 6-8% profitability (and even then taking into account government subsidies), does not look at all attractive.
However, low profitability is only half the problem. The other half is the increased cost of the start-up investment to expand or launch a cattle business. After the government stopped subsidizing the purchase of breeding stock abroad in 2015, hoping to stimulate the growth of the domestic market for breeding animals, domestic cattle breeders found themselves in a situation where Russian breeding plants are not yet able to produce sufficient volumes of high-quality cattle, and somewhere to get it all equally necessary. So you still have to buy animals abroad, but only more expensive (devaluation plus the abolition of subsidies).
In addition to rising prices for livestock, start-up costs for the construction of buildings for livestock enterprises and equipment for them have also increased. This is due to inflation and devaluation, which significantly affected the cost of building materials and equipment.
All these factors together have significantly delayed the payback period for investments in large-scale milk production. Instead of the previous 10-12 years, the payback period has reached 15 years, which is too long for domestic business.
Dairy cow breeds
Despite all the difficulties described above, dairy farming does not cease to be interesting direction for businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones. The key difference between mini-farms and large livestock complexes is their flexibility and easy adaptability to current circumstances. If all large livestock centers are like two peas in a pod, since they are made according to the same patterns, then the family farming business always adapts to local conditions, which is why two mini-farms will always be very different.
For example, if a farm has only two to three dozen cows, it is not necessary to keep them all year round in the paddock. If there are free, unoccupied meadows in the area (something, but there is enough space in Russia for everyone), in the warm season the animals can be kept free grazing. And this is just one of many ways to reduce costs and speed up the return on investment.
However, in any case, breeding cows for milk as a business will be successful only if you breed highly productive purebred animals from the very beginning. Fortunately, for small farms it is possible to purchase a batch of such cows even at domestic breeding plants.
Today, the following breeds are most popular among professional farmers:
Breeding cows for milk as a business
Cattle breeding business, like any other type of entrepreneurial activity, first requires careful, lengthy preparation and only then decisive but deliberate actions. If you plan to launch a small farm with several dozen animals, then the entrepreneur himself will have to assume the bulk of the responsibilities for business planning and production management. And for this you need to carefully study theoretical part issue and it is highly advisable to familiarize yourself with the practices adopted at existing enterprises.
In general, preparation for starting your own dairy farm should include the following steps:
Having dealt with the preparatory part, you can begin to draw up a business plan. From this moment on, the organization of a dairy business is no longer fundamentally different from any other production activity: counting starting and current expenses, drawing up a forecast of income, preliminary calculation of production costs. If all the numbers in the business plan come together as desired, you can proceed directly to creating a business: start building barns, purchasing equipment, registering a business, hiring staff, purchasing livestock, organizing the production process.