Feed Conversion Ratio, and Why Investors Should Care About It

A 50 kg bag of broiler starter costs between GH₵400 and GH₵410 at GAPFA member prices. A broiler eats roughly 4.2 kg of feed from the day it arrives to the day it leaves for market, so one bag covers a little under 12 birds. Across a 1,000-bird batch, the feed bill comes to about 84 bags.

Whether that bill turns into profit depends on a number most first-time investors never ask about. It is called the feed conversion ratio, and it tells you how efficiently the birds turned feed into meat. This article explains how to work it out, what it means in cedis, and what it should change about the way you read a farm's reports before you put money into a batch.

What the ratio measures, and what it does not

The feed conversion ratio is the feed a flock needs to add one kilogram of live weight. You divide the kilograms of feed by the kilograms of live bird sold. A ratio of 1.8 means the flock ate 1.8 kg of feed for every kilogram of live meat, and a lower figure is better because the same feed produced more meat.

The ratio tells you nothing about price, and nothing about how many birds reached market. A farm can post a good-looking ratio on the birds that survived while losing a fifth of the chicks it placed. That is why the ratio has to be read next to mortality, weights and sale prices, never on its own.

Two figures from our planning sheet do most of the work. A typical bird eats about 4.2 kg of feed from day-old to market. It reaches market at roughly 2.3 to 2.55 kg live, usually somewhere between six and seven weeks in. Those two numbers are enough to derive an illustrative ratio. The ratio on any real batch should come from that batch's own feed and weight records, not from a rounded figure in an article.

If you are still asking whether the numbers work at all, our broiler profitability guide sets out the wider picture. This piece stays with one question: how well does the feed turn into weight?

The arithmetic, using our own batch figures

Take the two ends of the live-weight range. A bird that finishes at 2.3 kg from 4.2 kg of feed works out to a ratio of about 1.83. A bird that finishes at 2.55 kg from the same feed works out to about 1.65. Neither figure is a promise. Both are simple divisions of the planning numbers, and a real house will land somewhere in or around that band.

The table turns the same figures into cedis. It treats the whole feed programme as one price, which is a simplification, because starter, grower and finisher feeds are not priced the same. Read the feed line as a guide rather than a quote.

Two things stand out. First, feed makes up about half the cost of a bird, and a little more at the list price. Add the day-old chick at GH₵20 and roughly GH₵12 a bird for brooding heat, litter, vaccines, labour and utilities, and the total sits near GH₵66 to GH₵72 per placed chick at these prices. Once mortality is taken into account, the cost per bird that reaches market rises, and the break-even figure in our planning sits between GH₵70 and GH₵81 a bird.

Second, the ratio and the feed price work on the same bill from two sides. A better ratio cuts the feed needed for each kilogram of meat. A cheaper bag cuts the cost of every kilogram of feed. A farm that manages both is in a much stronger position than one that manages only one.

What a single point of ratio is worth in bags

Feed arrives in bags, so it helps to think in bags. A 1,000-bird batch eats roughly 4,200 kg of feed, which is 84 bags of 50 kg. If those birds reach 2.55 kg rather than 2.3 kg on that same feed, the house produces about 250 kg more live meat without buying a single extra bag.

Bags also need to be kept well. Feed stored in a damp or hot store loses quality, and spilled or chewed feed is still counted as feed used. Waste never becomes weight, so it pushes the ratio up without anyone noticing. Ask how feed is stored at the farm and how the store is checked, not only what a bag costs.

Now consider price. The gap between the GAPFA member price and the De Heus list price is more than GH₵40 a bag. Across 84 bags, that is over GH₵3,400 on a 1,000-bird batch before anything else changes. The figure is illustrative, but it shows why an investor who never asks about feed prices is leaving a real question unanswered, and why a farm that explains its feed buying deserves a closer look.

Feed prices also move with the season and the wider market. A price that looks fine in a quiet month can feel very different when demand rises or when the ingredients behind the feed cost more. An investor does not need to forecast those moves. You need to know how exposed a batch is to them, and how the farm reports its feed buying when prices change.

Mortality is the ratio's quiet partner

A bird that dies in week three has already eaten its share of feed, and that cost stays on the bill. This is the main way mortality distorts a ratio. A report that shows a tidy ratio on the birds sold may be hiding feed that went into birds that were lost.

Our planning assumes a well-managed batch loses about 3 to 5 percent of its birds. Poor management or disease can push that to 10 to 20 percent. At 20 percent, the losses can erase the whole cycle's profit, and no clever feed figure will rescue it.

So when a farm sends you a figure, ask for the mortality beside it, and ask whether the feed line covers the birds that died. A ratio with no mortality line next to it is only half a report.

A farm that reports mortality honestly will also say what caused it. Heat stress, disease, a weak batch of chicks and a slow start can all look identical in a single percentage. A short written explanation for each loss tells you far more than a bare number, and it is a fair thing to expect from any operator you are considering.

Prices change what the ratio is worth

The ratio tells you what each kilogram of feed produced. The sale price tells you what those kilograms are worth. In a quiet month, a bird sold at around GH₵75 to GH₵80 leaves a thin margin, while birds sold into the Christmas, Easter or Eid peaks can fetch GH₵100 or more. The timing of a batch changes the profit as much as the ratio does.

That is why a batch plan should show the sale date next to the feed programme. A batch that reaches market in the weeks before a festive peak is a different proposition from one that sells into a flat month. Ask when the birds are expected to be ready, what price the plan assumes, and whether the batch still makes sense at the quiet-month price.

Watch the timing of inputs as well. Feed bought ahead of a price rise protects the margin only if it is stored properly, and a batch placed late in the year may reach market at a time when every other producer is selling too. Ask the farm how it plans placements around the calendar, and whether that plan changes when the market does.

The two levers interact. A batch with a good ratio sold into a quiet month can still earn less than an average batch sold at a festive peak, which is why neither number should be read alone. Ask for both, and ask how the plan handles a batch that finishes later than expected.

Reading the Thursday report like an investor

Partners receive a report every Thursday with a photo, the weight, the feed used and the mortality for the week. That is enough to work out a running ratio yourself, which is a better habit than trusting a single summary at the end. Divide the feed used so far by the estimated live weight of the flock at that point. The flock weight is the average bird weight multiplied by the number of birds still alive. Track the figure each week.

Expect the running figure to look untidy in the first week or two. Chicks eat little while they are small, and a handful of birds weighed on a quiet morning can skew the picture. The number settles as the flock grows and the samples become more representative. Judge the ratio across the cycle, not on any single Thursday.

Your sums will be close rather than exact, because weights are sampled from a few birds and not every bird is weighed. The trend still tells you a great deal. Watch the direction. If the ratio drifts upward while the weights stall, the birds are eating without growing, and that is worth a phone call. Common causes include disease, heat stress, feed that has been stored badly, or a drop in health that shows up first in the mortality column.

The point is not to second-guess every week. It is to know from the paperwork when something has changed, so you can ask about it at the time rather than at payout. A farm that welcomes that kind of scrutiny is a farm you can reasonably trust with capital.

Before you commit to any batch

Ask for the feed programme, the live-weight target, the mortality assumption and the expected sale timing. Check that each of those figures appears in the written profit-share agreement, and be clear about how the ratio will be reported each week. A contract that sets these things out plainly gives you what you need to decide, and it is far more useful than any promised return. Our contract broiler guide covers what a sound agreement should contain.

The most useful thing a farm can show you is its last cycle. A farm that can put the previous batch's ratio, mortality and weights side by side has done its sums in public. One that cannot is asking you to take a planning figure on trust, and a planning figure is not the same thing as a result.

Our batch partnership is built around these same figures. It starts from a minimum of 500 birds, with 1,000 recommended, and the capital comes back before any profit is split as agreed. A cycle runs about eight weeks from placement to payout, including clean-out. Look at the numbers first, then decide whether a batch fits money you can set aside for that long.

Review the batch partnership terms

For the cash side of the same question, read how to find break-even in a poultry cash flow.