WHAT WOULD BE THE IDEAL BUDGET ESTIMATE TO START A GRASSCUTTER FARMING BUSINESS FOR AN INTENDING FARMER LIKE ME?
There are 6 major expenses you will make when you want to start your Grasscutter Farming business…
1. Expenses on acquiring knowledge on how to breed them.
There is no particular figure attached to this it depends on the quality & quantity of knowledge you seek to acquire. These can range from data/money used to download research papers, ebooks, videos, online trainings & attend offline trainings. Find out what type of knowledge you need and what it costs then prepare a budget for it.
2. Expenses on building an appropriate housing for them.
If you are building concrete cages, most professional builders charge between N4,000 & N7,000 to build one concrete cage. You provide the materials & they build, but before building, you must have your pen ready. A pen is the building that houses the cages.
If you are going to use an Iron cage, your budget for a 4 decker cage should be between N50,000 & 150,000. My welder does this for N95,000. If you chose to start with a wooden cage, you’ll need to negotiate with a carpenter but it should be cheaper than iron cages
3. Expenses on breeding stock.
A weaners colony of Grasscutter which is 2-3 months old goes for between N90,000 to N120,000 (I sell N110,000). If you want medium & large sizes then that costs more money. Simply multiply the cost by the number of colonies you want to start with.
4. Expenses on Farm implements.
These include things like trough for deinking & feeding and costs between N500 & N1,000 each. Weighing scale, brooms, shovel, matchete, first aid box, transport boxes etc. You can budget N20,000 for these.
5. Expenses on Supplementary feed.
The same way that Catfish, Poultry, pigs etc have their own supplementary feed, that is the same way that Grasscutters have theirs, but often times you will have to make them at home. In page 34 of the book Grasscutter Farming secrets I listed all the things you need to make pelletized feed for your Grasscutters, these include ingredients like corn, wheat offal, rice bran, soybean, bone meal etc.
6. Expenses on Farm hand (Optional).
If you are starting a small farm, then you might need a farm hand but if you’re starting a commercial Grasscutter farm abeg get a farm hand. Don’t be the player and also the goalkeeper, e dey spoil things sometimes. Depending on your agreement with him & the number of animals, you can budget between N10,000 & N50,000 per hand per month.
There you have it…
I hope this helps.