Introduction
Poultry farming is one of the most fitting and profitable business models for Texas. The state has all the necessary prerequisites encouraging such activities. The business memorandum provided below describes Muja’s Poultry Farm as well as its products and services, business location, equipment, and the documents required for launching the venture. It also features a short biography of the general manager, vouching for his experience and competence.
Products and Services
The farm offers a variety of products associated with poultry, which includes meat, eggs, and feathers. These come from four main types of domesticated birds produced on the farm, namely chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys (“US Poultry Industry”). The farm also offers wholesale of live specimens of bird to interested parties, including individual purchasers and other poultry producers in need of expanding their headcount.
Short Biography of the Key Manager
The general manager of the farm is Ahmed Muja, who is also the owner of the enterprise. He is a third-generation Arab-American, whose family has lived in Texas ever since settling down. He grew up on his father’s farm and thus had the first-hand experience of managing a poultry enterprise. His main duties as a general manager include overseeing the production process, conducting meetings, and deals with customers and suppliers, representing the company in the market environment, and managing any potential disputes between junior managers and employees (Halley and Soffe 100). Due to a relatively small number of employees involved, his duties cross into areas normally covered by dedicated positions in larger farms and companies (Pini 30).
Business Location
The business location of the farm is in Houston, Texas. Houston’s zip code range is 77001-77299. Texas is a large farming state with enough workforce as well as land suitable for agriculture as well as poultry and animal production (Flanders and Gillespie 71; “Houston City”). Historically, it had a well-developed infrastructure that provides the local business with everything they need, including food, materials, and livestock (“Texas AG Stats”).
Machinery is imported from industrial states or from abroad (Mountney 120). Houston has a large market for that kind of endeavor. The farm itself represents a one-story building surrounded by 4 open field pastures, each dedicated to raising a specific kind of poultry. The largest pasture is for the chickens, and the smaller ones of equal size are given to ducks, geese, and turkeys (Tufarelli et al. 81).
Basic Equipment Needed
Basic equipment required to run an open-pasture farm includes poultry housing, incubators, feeders, heaters, and water pots (Barbut 49). Egg-laying nests are required to increase egg production and make it easier to collect the produce. Fencing is a must in open-land farms, as it would protect the poultry from wandering off, and would also keep the predators at bay (Barbut 50). Coops, caging, and flooring are necessary to keep chickens safe during the nighttime (Barbut 50). Finally, food and medicine are necessary to maintain a healthy stock (Barbut 55).
Licenses and Permits
Running a poultry farm in the US, especially in Texas, requires specific documents to be filled out. General legal permits required include certificates of incorporation, a business license, a business plan, an insurance policy, a poultry farm business permit, a tax ID, and an animal care standards certificate (Tarr 28). The majority of these documents can be found in the unified documentation center in Houston (Tarr 30). However, the poultry farm business permit and animal care standards certificate will require a visit to the respective instances, followed by an inspector visit to your farming location (Tarr 31).
Works Cited
Barbut, Shai. Poultry Products Processing: An Industry Guide. CRC Press, 2016.
Flanders, Frank, and James R. Gillespie. Modern Livestock & Poultry Production. Cengage Learning, 2015.
“Houston City, Texas.” Census.gov, 2018. Web.
Mountney, Vivian E. Poultry Products Technology. Routledge, 2017.
Pini, Barbara. Masculinities and Management in Agricultural Organizations Worldwide. Routledge, 2017.
Tarr, Michaela, et al. Texas Direct Farm Business Guide, 2013. Web.
“Texas Ag Stats.” Texas Department of Agriculture, 2017. Web.
Toosey, R. D. “Arable Crops.” Primrose McConnell’s The Agricultural Notebook, edited by R. John Halley, and Richard J. Soffe, 18th ed., Elsevier, 2016, pp. 90-176.
Tufarelli, Vincenzo, et al. “Feeding Forage in Poultry: A Promising Alternative for the Future of Production Systems.” Agriculture, vol. 8, no. 3, 2018, pp. 81-91.
“US Poultry Industry 2019-2023.” Report Linker, n.d. Web.