Do you want to know the legal requirements you need to start a poultry farm? If YES, here is a checklist of Poultry farm licenses, permits & insurance.
Having provided you with a:
- Industry Overview
- Market Research and Feasibility
- Poultry Farm Business Plan
- Marketing Plan
- Licenses and Permits
- Cost of Starting a Poultry Farm
- Poultry Business Name ideas
- Marketing ideas
We will consider what it takes to get operating license and permit for your poultry business including insurance coverage and intellectual property protection.
Starting a Poultry Farm – Licenses, Permits & Insurance
1. Choose the Most Suitable Legal Entity (LLC, C Corp, S Corp)
- Best legal entity to use for this type of business
One important decision that entrepreneurs have to make is in choosing a legal entity for their business. Businesses in the poultry industry usually have the choice of running three kinds of legal entity, sole proprietorship, cooperative and Limited Liability Company (LLC). Most people who usually run a poultry farm business usually do so under a sole proprietorship.
The sole proprietorship is usually easy to run and ensures that the entrepreneur is in complete managerial control of his or her business. Cooperatives are for value added businesses that usually have more than one owner, especially when farmers band together to start the poultry business. The Limited Liability Company (LLC) offer liability protection to the owners of the business and is also flexible tax wise.
Whatever legal entity you feel you should start with, will be best if you seek the counsel of an attorney who will guide you and let you know the pros and cons attached to each structure, enabling you to choose the best for you and your business.
2. Discuss with an Agent to Know the Best Insurance Policies for You
As this is a business that involves livestock, it is very important that you insure the business especially against, outbreak of diseases – such as salmonella – and other risks that might occur in your poultry farm. The risks such as the outbreak of a disease could wipe out all the birds in your poultry farm. This is why you would need the guidance of insurance professionals to help you with choosing the right insurance options that will protect you and your business.
Listed below are the basic insurance policies you would need to consider, if you intend to start your poultry farm business in the United States of America;
- Pollution Liability Coverage
- Animal Cruelty Protection
- Equipment Breakdown Coverage
- General Liability
- Poultry farm Insurance
- Workers’ Compensation
3. Protect your Intellectual Property With Trademark, Copyrights, Patents
If you are considering going into the poultry farm business, then you should be rest assured in knowing that you might not need the hassles of applying for intellectual property protection. You might apply for protection if you are into poultry equipment, feeds or vaccines.
However, if you intend on just going into hatchery, rearing and selling of birds and eggs, you would not need to bother with intellectual property protection as most in this field do not. However, you might consider protecting your name and brand if it ever comes to the fact that you have become a household name.
4. Get the Necessary Professional Certification
Depending on the kind of poultry farm business you start in the United States, you might or might not need to get a certification. If you would be handling feeds and vaccines, it might be necessary for you to be certified, but if you would just be rearing birds and selling eggs, then you would need experience more than anything.
This doesn’t mean that just anyone can start the poultry farming business, especially as you would need to belong in an association whose job as well as that of relevant government agencies is to ensure that you abide by sanitary regulations, and run your poultry farm according to standard best practices. This is so because, lack of proper monitoring could cause a hazard break out that would not only affect your farm and birds but others farms as well.
5. Get the Necessary Legal Documents You Need to Operate
Starting and running a poultry business in the united states of America usually involves a lot of regulations and paperwork. Listed below are some of the basic legal documents that you would need if you intend to run your poultry farm business successfully;
- Certificate of incorporation
- Business License
- Business Plan
- Insurance Policy
- Poultry Farm Business Permit
- Tax ID
- Animal Care Standards