Poultry Feed Sales in Nepal: Selling to the Flock Cycle, Farm Credit and Feed Batches

A poultry farmer does not buy feed the way a shop buys biscuits. A broiler farmer buys for one batch of birds at a time, over several weeks, and usually pays when that batch is sold. A layer farmer buys steadily and pays from egg income. Either way, the farmer's cash arrives on the flock's schedule, not on the feed company's. That single fact shapes everything in feed distribution in Nepal: when officers visit, how much credit a dealer extends, how much stock sits in each godown, and how quickly a quality complaint can turn into lost farms. This guide is organised around the flock cycle and shows how a feed mill or dealer can run sales, stock and credit around it in gamitrack.

The chain: mill, dealer, farm

Link	Role	What it needs from you
Feed mill or brand	Produces feed, sets prices and schemes	Clean dealer orders, stock visibility, collections
Dealer or sub-dealer	Holds stock near farm areas, gives credit to farms	Steady supply, fair schemes, support on recovery
Farm (broiler, layer, breeder)	Buys feed, chicks and medicines, sells birds or eggs	Right feed at the right stage, credit until sale
Technical or sales officer	Visits farms and dealers	A clear route, a list of farms by flock stage

Most of the money risk sits between the dealer and the farm, but it is the mill that feels it when dealers cannot pay.

Selling to the flock cycle

Broiler farms

A broiler batch moves through stages, typically starter, grower and finisher feed, over a few weeks. Each stage is a different product, and the farm needs the next stage before the current one runs out. After the birds are sold, the farm is cleaned and empty for a while before the next placement.

For an officer, this means a farm's needs are predictable once you know the placement date. A useful visit plan is:

• Before placement. Confirm the next batch, the expected bird count and the starter feed order.
• Mid-batch. Check grower feed stock on the farm and book the next order.
• Near sale. Confirm the finisher order and the expected sale date, which is also the expected payment date.
• After sale. Collect the payment and ask about the next placement.

Layer farms

Layer farms buy steadily and are paid from egg sales, which move with egg prices. Their risk is different: when egg prices fall, payments slow down across many farms at once. Watch aging for layer farms as a group.

Farm credit tied to the batch

Credit is the hardest part of the feed trade, because the farmer's ability to pay depends on bird prices, mortality and the date the trader collects the birds, none of which the feed company controls.

In gamitrack, each farm or dealer is a party with its own payment due days, counted from dispatch. Set those due days to match the batch length for broiler farms, so an account becomes overdue only when the batch should have been sold. Payments by cash, eSewa, Khalti, Fonepay, bank or cheque are recorded against the party and allocated oldest-first, and the party statement shows which feed bills are still open.

A weekly collection plan lists the farms and dealers that should pay this week, usually those whose batches have just been sold, and compares planned against actual. Advances from farms or dealers are recorded as advances and applied to later invoices.

A practical rule: before a farm places a new batch on credit, check that the last batch's feed is paid, or that a clear plan exists for it. Rolling one unpaid batch into the next is how small dues become large ones.

Feed stock and batches at the mill and dealer

Feed has a shelf life and is sensitive to damp storage, especially during the monsoon. In gamitrack:

• Each feed type and bag size is a SKU, with weight in kg.
• The mill and each depot are branches; transfers between them are recorded as stock movements.
• Each production run is received as a batch with a best-before date, so older stock can be dispatched first.
• Low-stock alerts warn when a depot is short of a fast-moving stage, such as broiler starter in a placement-heavy month.

Dealers who buy from you submit a monthly stock report showing expected and actual closing stock. A large variance is worth a visit: it can mean sales you did not see, damaged bags, or stock moved to another area.

When a farm complains: tracing to a feed batch (hypothetical)

Suppose a dealer reports that two farms are unhappy with feed from a recent delivery. With batch records, the mill can:

1. Look up which batch was dispatched to that dealer.
2. List every other dealer and branch that received the same batch.
3. Ask officers to visit the affected farms, photograph the bags and note the batch reference.
4. If bags should come back, record the return with a reason such as damaged or quality complaint, approve it into a branch with a credit note, and review it.
5. Decide whether to hold the rest of the batch in the godown while it is checked.

gamitrack does not test feed or judge the cause. It shows who received what, which keeps the investigation fast and fair. This scenario is illustrative.

The officer's week

Feed officers often cover wide areas with farms off the main road. A route in gamitrack is an ordered list of farms and dealers. The officer starts the day in the app; each visit is checked against the farm's geofence with a photo. Visits outside the geofence, too short or without a photo are flagged for the manager, and a daily integrity score summarises each officer's day. Where signal is weak, the location trail is stored on the phone and synced later, but visits, orders and payments need a connection to save.

A checklist for each farm visit:

• Confirm flock type, current stage and expected sale or placement date.
• Check the feed bags on hand and their batch.
• Book the next stage's order, or note why not.
• Record any payment received.
• Take a photo of the shed or the feed store.

Officers can have monthly targets in kg or amount, and dealers quarterly or annual targets. Field expenses such as fuel can be claimed in the app and approved by the manager.

Schemes for dealers

Feed companies often run dealer schemes tied to volume. Set schemes with tiered rewards on dealer sales, credited to the dealer's ledger once approved. Keep the terms simple and announced in advance, and review each scheme afterwards to see whether it moved real sales or only moved stock from one month to the next.

Your first 30 days

• Week 1. Enter feed types and bag sizes as SKUs with kg weights; set up the mill and depots as branches; receive current stock as batches.
• Week 2. Add your largest dealer and its farms as parties with payment due days that match the batch length.
• Week 3. Build officer routes and start GPS-verified farm visits with photos.
• Week 4. Run the first weekly collection plan and review aging by dealer and by farm.

Start with one dealer network and expand once the habits are in place.

Related reading: veterinary medicine distribution, eggs and poultry products distribution and primary and secondary sales with dealers. Industry page: agro inputs.

To try this with your dealers and farms, see the plans on our pricing page or contact us.