1.0 Introduction
Poultry farms are farms that raise chickens, duck, turkeys and other birds for meat or egg production. in the must, poultry farming involved raising chickens in the back yard for daily egg production and family consumption. However, poultry farming today is a huge business that is split into several operations including hatcheries, pullet farms for meat product, or farms for egg producton. This paper will focus on poultry farms raising chickens.
Chickens originated from jngle fowl I South Easten Asia around 3200Bc (Dr. faran personal communicsation 2009) chickens were domesticated and spread to China, India Africa, pacific Island and Europe. They were primarily raise for human consumption. In addition, their feathers were used for making cushions, litter for fertilizer and in some societies chickens were used in lock fighting as a source of entertainment.
As the human population increase, the poultry industries continue ot grow to meet the demand for poultry products in world markets. The importance of poultry farms lies in the quality of product that are provided to humans. Broiler farms provides meat that supplies the human body with high quality proteins, layer farms provide egg rich in proteins and vitamins, especially the fat soluble vitamin (A.D.E and K) poultry farms are fast-paced operations that can expanded easily ot meet the ever-growign demand (Dr. M. Ferran, personal communication 2009).
Chickens are fast growing animals. in the past, it took about 4 months to produce a two kilogram chicken. However a two-kilogram chicken can be produce in 42 days (Dr. M. Ferran, personal communication 2009). Due to this fact, a better understanding of husbanding practices, and use of new technologies, poultry farms can be profitable enterprise. Each operations in he poultry business has become a huge business by itself. Some farms specialize in producing eggs for market consumption, or for hatching chicks for the purpose of meat production. Other business are focused on feed preparation or on using the wastes of poultry farms for compost production and fertilizing farm lands. If managed and marketed well, all segments of the poultry business can be profitable.
1.1 Objectives of Study
This study will examine the feasibility of broiler producing farms in Lebanon. A rental for will be used as a representative case study for other poultry producers. Sensitivity analysis will use to determine potential profitability when input cost and point of sale values are varied.
