General Description
Muja’s Poultry Farm is a farming enterprise located in Houston, Texas. The farm raises domesticated birds in order to harvest them for meat, eggs, and feathers to be used in other types of production (Mountney 119). The farm’s stock consists of chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys. The farm utilizes a free-range type of handling the poultry, with four large separate dens for poultry of each kind to traverse through during the day, with shelters and cages present to house them during nighttime (Flanders and Gillespie 49).
The food utilized in Muja’s poultry farm contains enhancements and medicaments that improve the birds’ health and resistance to disease, and are approved by the FDA (Mountney 120). The farm contains 10,000 birds and has a free-range of 10 hectares of land. Out of these birds, approximately 7,000 are chickens, with 1,000 ducks, geese, and turkeys each.
Location
The farm is located in Houston, Texas, TX, zip code range 77001-77299. Traditionally, Texas has always been well-developed farmland for the production of agriculture, crops, poultry, and animals used in food processing (Flanders & Gillespie 71). The state has a well-developed farming infrastructure, with plenty of suppliers of materials, foodstuffs, machinery, and other equipment required to successfully run a chicken farm.
The close proximity to Houston, which is the largest city in Texas, allows for shortened logistical chains, closer traveling times to and from the distribution market, and a relatively easy connection to all of the suppliers already operating from that area. Lastly, the choice of the location was dictated by the fact that the local government offers support to Texan farmers, and there are two large food companies operating in the area, namely Tyson and Swift Foods (“US Poultry Industry”).
The Population and Demographic Profile of the Location
The total population of Houston is about 2,400,000 million people, with the male and female population being relatively even (“Houston City” ). The average median age is 32 years, meaning that there is a good chance of finding capable able-bodied workers to employ on the farm. White population constitutes the largest subgroup with over 1 million individuals, with Hispanics a close second, just under 1 million (“Houston City”). Blacks the largest minority group, capping at about 400,000 people (“Houston City”).
The rest is split between various other minorities, such as Asians, Hawaiians, and Indians. There’s a total of over 800,000 individual households, with family sizes varying between 2,64 and 3,33 people (“Houston City”). Since Muja’s Poultry Farm produces meat and eggs, all of Houston’s and greater Texan population constitutes potential customers for the farm. Due to the relative cheapness of the product and the average price for a chick in Texas being at 1,34 USD, farm products are readily available to all population groups regardless of their income (“US Poultry Industry”).
Potential Competition
Houston area and Texas, in general, have plenty of poultry farms that produce the same range of products as Muja’s enterprise. Out of 248,416 active farming holds, over 2,500 farms are dedicated to the growth and production of poultry, which constitutes a significant amount of competition (“Texas AG stats”). At the same time, the majority of poultry farms are selling their products to one or several large customers in the area, namely Tyson and Swift Foods (“US Poultry Industry”).
Therefore, the need to oust the competition is lessened, as there is always the option to sell in bulk to these buyers. The average price for a dozen eggs in Texas is 2,58$, dropping down to 1,50$ when selling in bulk (“US Poultry Industry”). The majority of the competitors are small egg farms with a total headcount between 5,000 to 10,000 birds. Unlike Muja’s Poultry Farm, they tend to focus on a single array of production, be that meat or eggs and do not provide the same variety that Muja does.
Works Cited
Flanders, Frank, and James R. Gillespie. Modern livestock & poultry production. Cengage Learning, 2015.
“Houston City, Texas.” Census.gov, 2018.
Mountney, Vivian E. Poultry products technology. Routledge, 2017.
“Texas AG stats.” Texas Agriculture, 2017.
“US Poultry Industry 2019-2023.” Report Linker, 2019. Web.