How to open your own hunting farm. Russian hunting and business

Diversity of opinions about what hunting should be like in Russia. wide - from the ideas of free access to the lands for everyone to the requirements for hunting users to justify the prices for licenses. But no one asks the question about the volume of investment. I propose to discuss the question “How to make Russian hunting a business?”

EXPERIENCE OF A HUNTING OWNER

Reports on successful farms in Europe, America and Africa have been published many times. You always have to envy the conditions in which hunts take place and the trophies that are obtained there. All this is the result of serious investments and a business approach to organizing activities.

In this article, under the term “business” I propose to consider classic scheme: investments, return period of investments, return on fixed capital, profitability of the current activities of the enterprise. It is from such positions that it is necessary to diagnose the state of Russian hunting as a sector of the economy.

Why is this necessary? The process of transition from the Soviet economy to a market economy and competitiveness has not yet been completed. Different sectors of the economy have changed and are changing with at different speeds. A number of industries have long been formed and become competitive on a global scale (IT, communications, grain production, and so on), some are in the process of transition (housing and communal services, transport, etc.), and some have not yet begun the transformation. This is exactly the case with hunting as a branch of the economy. The whole point of the discussion today is how to make hunting cheap and accessible to everyone. There is no other way to pose this question anywhere in the world. The answer to this can only be given by the state, which will bear all the costs, but we have already been through this...

If an industry becomes attractive for business, investments flow there, competition arises, and a “price-quality of services” ratio is established that suits both the consumer and the investor. The number of quality offers is growing sharply, brands are being created and reputation is improving. The consumer only benefits from this. An unlimited number of examples of such transformation can be given. Soviet devastation is changing to a civilized market of services. Let us at least remember Soviet stores...

UNLOFITABILITY OF RUSSIAN HUNTING MANAGEMENTS

The thesis about the unprofitability of hunting farms is constantly heard. Nobody even argues with this. Everyone has come to terms with this and considers it a fact.

Currently, there are several thousand hunting farms in Russia. I don’t know the exact figure, but the estimate from above shows that there are at least 10,000 of them. Of these, tens of times fewer provide services to third-party hunters. What's the matter? The owner of the farm has two options - keep it for his own hunting or create an enterprise providing hunting services. Elementary calculations show that the first way is several times cheaper than the second. Investing in infrastructure for commercial hunting (guest facilities, staff, transportation, roads, animal feeding) without a clear plan for return on investment is economic madness. This is the answer to the question of what other farms do - they work for the owner, these are 3-5 hunts a year and the requirements for infrastructure, number of personnel, etc. are completely different. Financing such a “toy” does not require large investments - 1–2 million rubles. When you get tired of it, they will resell it to another hunting enthusiast.

Our hunting farm “Dnepr-Holm” has existed for a little less than three years. It was created on the site of the former municipal unitary enterprise, which “died of exhaustion.” The territory of 50 thousand hectares was a “scorched desert”, since no biotechnical work was carried out, there was no protection of the territory in principle, and poachers felt at ease. I think this situation is typical for the emergence of most private hunting enterprises in Russia.

When building the hunting farm, the task was set to provide services for organizing hunting. The staff was selected from among local residents. The first two years were spent on developing the territory: roads, clearings, fields, towers, salt licks. Was purchased different equipment(more than 20 units), hunting was organized, a personnel motivation system was introduced, which taught people to earn money and not wait for handouts.

For me, this time was spent on understanding the mechanisms of functioning of the hunting farm, on understanding systemic problems associated with hunting in our climatic conditions, with the quality of work of “local specialists”, with the peculiarities of the mentality of the Russian hunter.

Farms that today provide commercial hunting services cannot, from a conventional point of view, be called business enterprises. Either they receive subsidies from their owners on an ongoing basis, or their revenue is only enough to cover current expenses, and there is no talk of a return on investment. Some farms still use Soviet infrastructure and investments from the same time in breeding animals on their farms. Someone is lucky, and all the animals from the area come towards them and they can beat them “as much as you like.” Such examples can be given, but these are exceptions, a happy coincidence, and not business.

Climatic and biological features the territory of Russia, as well as its fertility, are not favorable biological diversity and the growth of animal populations. We have few species of animals that can be hunted on a large scale; the size of their populations is, as a rule, small, and the number of licenses for each hunting area is measured in units, rarely in dozens (except for wild boar). Our soil fertility is low, we harsh winters, high snow cover, high mortality of animals in winter. But this is our land, and we need to learn how to work and build a business on it.

ECONOMY OF MODERN HUNTING

Frequent discussions about the high price of commercial hunting are absolutely meaningless - the price covers only part of the real cost of hunting and maintaining a hunting farm. In fact, the owner pays extra to “his” farm for each hunt conducted; almost every hunt is subsidized. And where is the business here?

A little about the economics of hunting in the wild.

On our farm, thanks to the system of income and expense budgets, it is very clear how expensive hunting in the wild is. Main expense items: staff salaries - 40%, transport maintenance - 40%, biotechnical measures - 15%, other expenses - 5%.

As for transport, in Russian conditions it makes sense to operate the most advanced types of equipment - UAZs, Burans, STELS ATVs and others. The reason is that everything breaks in the hands of men. Unlike expensive imported ones, they can repair these machines themselves using a “sledgehammer and chisel.” All attempts I know to use expensive ATVs, snowmobiles and the like have been unsuccessful - our people simply do not know how to handle equipment carefully.

There is no point in building or repairing roads in the lands; you can only clean them. I started with repairs, but all the work went down the drain - timber trucks drove through the mud and destroyed everything. Therefore, we bought the TTM tracked transporter, although the cost of its operation is enormous.

The equipment is used year-round: detours, salt licks, fertilizing, cutting aspens, and so on. The volume of biotechnical work is enormous, so the equipment is operated intensively and consumes a lot of fuel. In our household, monthly expenses for fuel and spare parts are 60 thousand and 40 thousand rubles, respectively. I gave these expenses as an example - they are not visible to visiting hunters. Just to cover them, you need to shoot 10 yearling wild boars every month, based on the average price for a yearling of 10 thousand rubles, and 120 per year. In our conditions, it is not yet possible to get so many wild boars.

Income from elk hunting is small, since, based on the current price of hunting with all services of 55 thousand rubles and the usual number of licenses of 5–10 pieces, their total financial contribution is 275–550 thousand rubles.

Income from hunting feathers and small animals does not provide significant financial income.

All that remains is the income from the hunting base. But when used only on weekends, they do not significantly cover the costs of maintenance and repairs. If the base provides services not only to hunters, then this is a different type of business that has nothing to do with hunting. It makes no sense to consider a situation where income from the base subsidizes hunting.

The above calculations show that the farm has very few sources of income from hunting in the wild without violating the law.

The experience of foreign farms shows that the main share of revenue comes from the services provided for organizing hunting and the cost of trophies, and only then – the cost of meat (shooting of non-trophy animals). The meat of the shot trophy does not belong to the hunter, it must be paid for separately!

In our country, we have a peculiar attitude towards hunting. Most hunters go hunting for meat, not trophies. There is nothing like this anywhere in the world. Our common poor Soviet past still holds us tenaciously in its embrace. The cost of hunting is viewed through the prism of the cost of a kilogram of domestic animal meat on store shelves. This is the essence of our problems. Society looks at hunting through the eyes of a poacher, who sees a certain amount of meat in any animal. Trophy qualities, the process of hunting as art and ritual are on the periphery of consciousness; Usually all hunters require meat shooting on the first day of hunting. Hunting farms are assessed from the point of view of shooting speed; no additional services in the field of hunting are in demand.

Based on this, we can conclude that it is pointless to talk about the selection of trophy animals and targeted hunting for them. The lack of a hunting culture and focus on meat production makes this profitable area impossible for hunting in the wild.

This approach is a death sentence for the current hunting management system. Under these conditions, investing in the development of hunting services and creating offers on the market makes no sense. The industry is doomed to stagnation, attempts to achieve profitability of farms result in additional pressure on fauna, which will degenerate and disappear faster.

In Russian conditions, any hunting enterprise that provides commercial services without an enclosure and tries to support itself, of course, provides overpressure to nature.

WHAT TO DO?

There seems to be only one way out - creation large number enclosures for semi-free keeping of animals. In our climatic conditions, this is the only way to have large populations of game animals without depending on state rules hunting and the number of licenses received, conduct hunting all year round, breed trophy animals. This is an opportunity to build a business in the hunting industry. This will remove the colossal pressure from wild world and allow animal populations to begin to recover. Of course, hunting in the wild will continue, traditional hunts for us will continue, but hunting farms will no longer see hunting wild animals as the only source of their existence. Perhaps it is worth introducing a legislative requirement that the hunting user is obliged to create an enclosure after a certain period of time.

In my opinion, this is the only opportunity to develop hunting as a business without destroying nature.

Our farm has developed a business development plan for the next three years. Due to intensive biotechnical measures, the number of main commercial species animals increases every year. The number of licenses received from the state is constantly increasing. But this is not only the result of intensive animal reproduction. Our farm is the only one in the region that conducts commercial hunting. The remaining five farms work only for their owners and are partly reproduction areas for us, since we attract animals from all over the area. Using the model of the operation of the farm, it can be seen that only with a doubling of revenue from hunting (in two to three years we will reach this figure) will the farm reach an unsustainable return on investment running costs. If all the farms in the region start working like this, then nature will not withstand the load...

We found an alternative approach for the development of a hunting farm - creating an open-air cage, forming a population of various types of game animals. This will allow hunting to be carried out year-round, evenly loading the infrastructure and ensuring a constant flow of revenue. Intensive use of an enclosure can give a financial result significantly higher than hunting in the wild.

WHAT SHOULD THE AVIARY BE?

The traditional Russian approach to enclosures is a fenced area, inside which people somehow live various types animals. No additional zones are provided except for the queen cell. No breeding work is expected. The real effectiveness of such an enclosure is low, since animals interfere with each other, degenerate, can kill other individuals, and so on. In the world, animal breeding in enclosures has long been developed and is a normal business both in agriculture(breeding for meat), and in the hunting industry (breeding animals for shooting and raising trophy specimens). Exists large number specialized literature, which describes the models and technologies for operating such farms. But if in Europe or New Zealand enclosures are a means of obtaining outstanding trophies, then for Russia this is the only “recipe” for hunting.

ECONOMY OF THE AVIARY

Creating an aviary requires large investments. First of all, this is the purchase of land and installation of a fence. Old, partially overgrown farmland is best suited for purchasing land. The forest fund in Russia can only be rented, so its inclusion in the enclosure area always carries a certain risk. The fence could be built from anything, but it is better to use proven technological solutions, accepted all over the world. We are talking primarily about a mesh with a fixed node, which is already sold in Russia.

In 2012, on our farm, an enclosure with an area of 110 hectares was built, the length of the fence is almost 6 kilometers. We made the enclosure thoroughly: we used the best materials (special English mesh for enclosures, thick-walled drill pipes as pillars), deepened the pillars into the ground one and a half meters and concreted them. The cost of materials and installation of 1 kilometer of fence is more than a million rubles. The prospect for the development of the enclosure is the possibility of adding additional zones in the future. The territory that is available to us allows us to create a system of enclosures with a total area of 400 hectares. The economy of the enclosure is determined by the number and composition of animals. Here, each farm can choose its own path and offer its own set of hunts throughout the year. You can bet on the number of animals and shoot them in “royal” driven hunts, you can bet on growing unique trophies, but this takes years. You can come up with something unique for our conditions and be the only one on the market.

Wild boar is of little interest, since it has a fairly large wild population and the price is low. In addition, the risk is great - African swine fever can reduce the population in the enclosure, which has been created for several years, to zero.

Elk - no fence can hold him. Only wild population.

Deer (various species), fallow deer - live well in enclosures.

Mouflon lives, but requires additional hoof care. Roe deer - only small groups, but there is experience in rearing. Exotics (ostriches, bison, etc.) - you can try...

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

Another big difficulty in building a hunting farm as a business is the lack of qualified personnel. The hunting farm must be managed as an ordinary enterprise. If we consider a farm as a business, then it is necessary to implement a number of absolutely standard procedures: developing a business plan, creating business processes, drawing up budgets for income and expenses, maintaining records, developing job descriptions and so on. Finding local specialists familiar with these concepts is impossible, given the geography of the farms. People still live without this and sincerely do not understand why it is needed. If you hire only local residents, the management system will be based on “community-tribal” relations, as is customary in the outback. Everyone is friends, everyone covers for each other... For them, an investor is a “big white stupid man” who is not a sin to deceive.

In our farm, these issues are resolved as follows: the parent company not only finances the farm, but also provides patronage in all areas of organizational support: financial management, human resources department, legal department, IT service. Everywhere there are employees who supervise the hunting area, train and advise staff, and monitor ongoing work.

A new director has come to our farm. This event was preceded by a month and a half search for candidates for this position. Ads were placed on HeadHunter and SuperJob. There were many applicants, but their resumes and series of meetings were terrifying at the level of their competence.

Now, with the arrival of a new non-local director, the farm is undergoing a serious reorganization. Naturally, a stranger cannot fit into “community-tribal” relations. They were “dismantled” and new rules were established. For myself, I concluded that the staff should not be associated with the local community. It's easier and cheaper!

CONCLUSION

In this article, I tried to present my subjective point of view on the economics of the hunting industry and ways out of the current situation in the Russian hunting industry. This article was written at the request of the magazine's editor-in-chief.

-> Entertainment and hotel business, tourism, catering, beauty, health, medicine

Tourist hunting - for some it's relaxation, for others it's work.

The business I want to describe brings in approximately $3000-3500 per month. This is a really working type of extreme tourism business.

Let me explain in order.

One of my friends is an avid hunter. He has all the hunting equipment, a typical hunting dog (I don’t remember the breed, but it’s a “hunting” breed). Every weekend he went hunting. He always came with loot.

And his daughter (a smart girl, works as a manager in Moscow) advised him one interesting business: take people hunting, not experienced in this, but burning with an irresistible desire to hunt. Naturally, for money.

My daughter agreed with two Moscow travel agencies that they would supply clients. For this they will receive their 10%.

Now, every Friday, groups of people come from Moscow (400 km), on average 3 people (sometimes 2 or 4, but less often) and spend the weekend hunting. He leaves them to live at his dacha, where there is also a Russian bathhouse (for variety, otherwise Muscovites are accustomed to Finnish saunas).

I don’t know exactly the schedule of these events, but clients are always satisfied. And friends / comrades / acquaintances / co-workers / relatives are advised to go hunting to the Ivanovo region. They will certainly share their phone number. The so-called effect is triggered. "word of mouth".

Now financial side question:

Price hunting weekend- $1000. It doesn’t matter whether 1 person comes or a group of 4 people (this is the maximum). They must pay the travel company 100 immediately in the office, and the rest in cash on the spot.

But it happens (in lately more and more often) that people who have already been on such a hunt come, or those who come on friendly advice. Here, of course, 100% payment, i.e. a thousand greenbacks into the hunter’s pocket.

“Tourists” bring food with them (or buy it at a nearby store), but the owner provides such products as potatoes, carrots, pasta and everything like that himself. Often the prey is prepared and eaten here, as the logical conclusion of the hunt.

In general, as I already wrote, in this business you can make $3000-3500 a month, working (or rather relaxing, because you can’t call the thing you love work) only on weekends.

It is important that this business marked the beginning of several other businesses for this hunter. In the process of informal conversation, he gets to know people, and situations are often identified that lead to new business projects.

And one more thing: guns, cartridges, items of clothing (sometimes shoes) are provided by hunter. True, I don’t know how things stand with licenses. After all, hunting permits are needed. Perhaps this is being tactfully kept silent, or perhaps everything is completely legal.

Organizing a hunting farm is a specific matter, requiring special knowledge, considerable capital, organizational skills, and a certain amount of altruism. That's why this business Suitable for those who have long been familiar with this area and see themselves only in it.

Rent of land for farming

The first thing a business plan must solve is to find land for a hunting business. Total area depends on your financial capabilities and the expected scope of your activities. It is believed that the minimum area could be an area of 10 thousand hectares.

Most often, forest areas are leased for this business. There are two types of lands - hunting and ordinary lands. Depending on what area you have to deal with, it depends documentation your case and other nuances.

Hunting grounds

These include the territory that is included in the general state or regional register as land intended for the extraction of hunting resources.

To obtain the right to use this land for hunting, you must take the following steps:

register an individual entrepreneur or legal entity;
select the desired plot that belongs to such land, rent it;
obtain a license for long-term use of the site’s wildlife.

This is quite enough to start a business. There is another option for organizing a hunting farm - purchasing land as your own. But registering it as private property costs much more, and it is not easy to do.

Registration of a license

But it is precisely the last point that usually causes certain concerns among entrepreneurs. To obtain this type of license, you must submit an appropriate application to the administration of the region or region. The document contains the following information:

information about the applicant;
type of intended use of the fauna;
a list of animal objects that are supposed to be used;
area and boundaries of the territory of use;
the period for which you want to set the time of use.

Those entrepreneurs who have already used this territory under certain conditions or are the owners of forest or land lands and have personnel to service them have a greater chance of obtaining a license.

The license gives the right to hunt on the territory, for which, in fact, the business is started. Without it, you will only be able to carry out hunting activities. That is, take care of increasing the animal population, protecting them, organizing recreation on the farm territory without shooting animals. The maximum you can build a business on is selling hunting goods.

Rent of ordinary land

The organization of hunting on ordinary lands is slightly different from the design of hunting grounds. In this case, the business plan also includes three stages of business registration.

registration of an individual entrepreneur or legal entity;
selection and purchase (rent) of land;
submission of documents for the auction to conclude a hunting agreement with the State Hunting Inspectorate.

Only if you win this auction will you have the right to enter into an agreement with the specified inspection and formalize the accession of your land to the register of hunting grounds. Please note that without such an accession, hunting on your property will be regarded as poaching.

However, when planning to buy land for hunting, you need to keep in mind some nuances Russian legislation. In any region, lands are divided into assigned and publicly accessible. The first ones are private hunting grounds, which are rented out to third parties for hunting. Actually, this is why you write your business plan. And the latter are under the jurisdiction of the state. They can be hunted by anyone with an appropriate license. Law “On hunting and conservation of hunting resources and on amendments to certain legislative acts Russian Federation" establishes that these public lands should be at least 20%. Auctions are announced only if there is more publicly available land than this figure, which is a rather rare case.

Permitting documentation

When opening a hunting property, you need to understand how it functions and what rules apply to hunting on its territory. First of all, you need to know that any hunter who wishes to go hunting or fishing on the territory of your hunting property must have a personal hunting and fishing license. It is issued by local executive authorities. And you must always check it.

The document is unlimited and has a standard template. Each dog with which it is planned to hunt must be included in it. In addition, each such animal must be issued a certificate of registration with the supervisory authorities.

To have the right to hunt, the hunter must have a personal license or, as it is also called, a permit. It is issued for the shooting of a specific animal or bird for a certain period of time in a specific territory. When its validity period expires, the document is returned to the authority that issued it. Marks are also placed there about how many and what animals were shot.

It is these permits that should be issued by the hunting enterprise when it is registered as a legal entity or individual entrepreneur. You must obtain the forms of these documents from local authorities, fill them out and issue them yourself. To receive the forms, you must submit an appropriate application indicating your personal data, the resources of your hunting area, what types of hunting will be carried out there, and how many forms you need. Please note that if protected species of birds or animals live on your territory, a special license is issued for them.

Another mandatory document, the receipt of which must be included in the business plan, is a permit to store and carry a hunting weapon. firearms. It is issued by internal affairs bodies.

The practical side of the matter

Until now, we have talked exclusively about the formal and licensing side of the matter. But the business plan must also include the development of the concept of your enterprise. Here no one limits your imagination. Some offer highly comfortable holidays, erecting modern cottages with all amenities on the territory. Others rely on extreme sports enthusiasts and limit themselves to trailers, offering conditions that are as camp as possible. This affects both the financial plan of the enterprise and the list of services offered.

Basic services

Whatever type of vacation is included in the concept plan of your hunting property, it must have at least a standard set of services. These include:

nutrition;
accommodation;
huntsman services;
processing of trophies.

If, in addition to hunting, you also offer fishing, you must add the following “fishing” conditions to the services described above:

rental of fishing equipment;
rental of water transport.

Processing trophies involves the following manipulations with the carcass:

cutting;
gutting;
cleaning;
freezing/curing/smoking/salting, etc.

You can also organize cooperation with taxidermists and offer to create stuffed animals from caught or shot animals. But this already belongs to the category additional services.

Additional services

These mainly include those that help improve the service. Their type depends solely on the type of your farm. These include the following:

clay pigeon shooting or shooting range;
barbecue or picnic area;
transfer;
pool;
bath or sauna;
various games;
babysitting services and children's playground;
boat trips on various watercraft;
excursions and walks around the territory;
massage;
laundry;
Internet and more.

But expanding the range of services is justified if the territory is in your possession. Investing in leased land is too risky.

Staff

Plan staffing table also directly depends on the scale of your enterprise. If you organize as much as possible natural conditions for hunting, you just need to hire a manager, a cook and a huntsman. The wider the range of services, the more staff will be needed. A pool needs a cleaner, cottages need cleaners, bathhouses and saunas need bath attendants and washers, and so on.

Additional sources of income

To optimize your business, you can include in your plan the opening of a hunting and fishing goods store. But in this case, you also need to do scrupulous work. If your plan includes the sale of hunting weapons, you need permission from the department of internal affairs, local authorities, as well as the appropriate license, which costs 150 thousand rubles. In addition, the premises must be brought exactly in accordance with the requirements of the relevant legislation. This includes security, safes, alarms, etc. About 5 thousand dollars should be allocated for the purchase of various goods, and at least another 8 thousand for the purchase of inventory. In total, this idea will cost about 3 million rubles.

Main financial part

When organizing this business, you need to understand that the investments in it will be different, depending on how large-scale the enterprise you are starting. And the larger they are, the longer the return period will be. Therefore, a hunting farm can be organized for the sake of doing what you love, or with the attraction of large volumes of third-party investments with an eye to a long period of their return.

Main expense items

The spending plan consists of one-time and fixed costs. The first includes landscaping the territory, building houses and infrastructure. Later, you will regularly have to allocate funds for:

staff salaries;
settlement, breeding and resettlement of various animals and fish in water bodies.

When building a hunting base from scratch, the cost plan will include the following items:

Laying communications. If they already exist, you will save a lot on the construction of the complex. But often you have to lay them yourself.
Complex design. At this stage, it is important to involve specialists who will take into account the nature of the landscape, soil, groundwater flow, climatic features and so on. As a rule, the farm includes the construction of houses for clients, for staff, a common room with a kitchen, a dining room, as well as a separate building for an administrative building, a parking area or garages.
Construction. In this case, the volume of investment must be calculated not only from the cost building materials and the services of builders, but also the remoteness of your farm from the places where construction materials are purchased. The cost of delivery depends on the distance of the trip.
Advertising. Without it, no one will know about your wonderful farm and the services that are offered here. At first you will need a lot of funds. In the future, the amount of expenses can be reduced, and new clients will be brought to you by word of mouth.

Important point

It is advisable to include in the expense item about a thousand dollars intended for the elimination of unnecessary roads, equipment of the main entrance and installation of a checkpoint on it. It is advisable that only a road with a guarded entrance leads to your farm. This will reduce the risk of poaching on your territory. But it is important to dig up these roads legally.

Income items

The main sources of income for your business are payments for services and trophies obtained. Each farm sets its own prices and payment methods. As a rule, separate tariffs are established for access to the hunting territory, huntsman services, the carcass of a hunted animal or the weight of fish, as well as their processing. Another source of income is the issuance of vouchers, the cost of which ranges from 300 to 1,000 rubles.

Additional income can be received from sales of a specialized store, accommodation on the base, and the use of its additional services.

Features of your business

Many entrepreneurs are involved in this area. In order for customers to come back to you again, it is important to find some kind of feature for your business. For example, you can organize fishing competitions or offer to make stuffed animals from shot game or birds. It is important to find exactly what customers will come to you for.