Fix the duty before you name a supplier
A broiler quotation is only a price for a duty. If the duty is unstated, each supplier picks their own, and the cheapest bid is usually the one that assumed the mildest design day.
- Birds placed per house, number of houses in this phase, and cycles per year
- Target final live weight and the stocking density in kg/m² you will be held to
- Design summer dry-bulb and wet-bulb temperature, and the winter design minimum
- Target tunnel air speed at bird level and minimum ventilation rate per bird
- House internal length, width, ceiling height and target insulation U-value
- Altitude, grid voltage and phases, and expected outage duration
The nine packages every broiler bid must price separately
Ask for a package-level breakdown even when you intend to award one contract. A single lump sum makes it impossible to see which supplier under-specified which system.
- Structure, insulation and doors
- Tunnel and minimum ventilation, with fan model, quantity and airflow at 25 Pa
- Cooling — pad area and thickness or fogging line pressure and nozzle count
- Heating and brooding, with kW installed and fuel type
- Feeding: pan or chain lines, silo volume, auger capacity
- Drinking: nipple line length, flow rate, filtration and medicator
- Dimmable lighting to the light programme you intend to run
- Climate controller, sensors, alarms and remote access
- Electrical distribution, standby power and cabling scope
Supplier questions that separate real capability from a catalogue
Once the numbers are comparable, capability questions decide the shortlist. Ask all bidders the same set and record the answers next to the price.
- Are fan airflow figures stated at working static pressure or at free air?
- Which reference houses of similar size exist in a climate like yours, and may they be contacted?
- Who performs installation — the supplier, a nominated contractor, or the buyer under supervision?
- What is the service response time in your country, and is it contractual or aspirational?
- Which spare parts are stocked locally, and what is the lead time for the rest?
- What is the warranty start event, and what voids it?
RFQ readiness before you send anything
A broiler RFQ is ready when a supplier could quote it without calling you for missing information. If they have to call, they will guess instead.
Broiler bid comparability check
| Item | Comparable when | Not comparable when |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity | Birds placed per house is identical across bids | A range is quoted, or density differs |
| Ventilation | Airflow stated at 25 Pa for the same target air speed | Free-air airflow, or unstated air speed |
| Cooling | Pad area sized for your design wet-bulb | Pad area fixed by house length only |
| Heating | Installed kW against your winter design minimum | kW carried over from a temperate reference |
| Installation | Same scope: erection, supervision days, commissioning | One supplies only, another installs |
| Delivery | Same Incoterm and same delivery point | Ex-works compared against delivered |
| Spares | Priced first-year list attached | Availability stated without prices |
Comparable means every bidder priced the same duty, the same design conditions and the same delivery point. Where a column is blank in a real offer, treat it as excluded until the supplier confirms otherwise in writing.
Broiler RFQ readiness checklist
- Birds placed, final weight and stocking density written down
- Design dry-bulb, wet-bulb and winter minimum attached to the RFQ
- House dimensions and insulation target fixed
- Target tunnel air speed and minimum ventilation rate stated
- Water quality analysis available for the drinking package
- Grid reliability and standby power requirement stated
- Incoterm, delivery point and required on-site date stated
- Installation, supervision and commissioning scope defined
- Warranty period, start event and spare-parts requirement stated
Lifecycle cost
Lifecycle cost drivers in broiler equipment bids
A broiler house is re-stocked seven or more times a year, so small per-cycle differences in energy draw and downtime compound into real money long before the equipment is paid off. Once bids are scope-normalised, restate them as lifecycle cost before discussing price.
Cost drivers that outlast the purchase price
- Fan energy: tunnel fans run for long summer hours — airflow at working static pressure, not free air, sets both fan count and installed kW.
- Heating fuel: brooding heat dominates winter operating cost; installed kW and fuel type move it more than brand does.
- Cooling running cost: pad and fogging pumps add load, and under-sized pad area extends fan hours on every hot day.
- Controller generation: sensor drift and crude minimum-ventilation control surface as fuel and electricity spend, not as a line item.
- Downtime exposure: a stopped feed auger or drinker line mid-cycle costs birds, not just a part.
- Lead time: a slower offer delays the first placement — cost it per bird place per week.
Request these inputs from every bidder
- Connected load per house (kW) and expected annual kWh per bird place at your design dry-bulb and wet-bulb
- Installed heating kW, fuel type and expected fuel use per winter cycle at your winter design minimum
- Recommended annual maintenance budget, as % of equipment value or an absolute figure
- A priced first-year and steady-state spare-parts list (fans, motors, belts, sensors, nipples)
- Ex-works and delivered lead time in weeks, with the milestone each date is measured from
- Expected service life and replacement interval for fans, pads, heaters and the controller
Worked example — hypothetical figures, calculator arithmetic
| Metric | Bid A | Bid B |
|---|---|---|
| Quoted CAPEX | 396,000 | 352,000 |
| Energy (10 yr) | 115,200 | 148,800 |
| Maintenance + spares (10 yr) | 129,200 | 163,560 |
| Lead-time delay cost | — | 22,400 |
| Total lifecycle cost (10 yr) | 640,400 | 686,760 |
| Per bird place | 16 | 17 |
| Per bird place per year | 1.60 | 1.72 |
Illustrative only: two hypothetical bids in one shared currency. Assumptions: 10-year horizon, electricity 0.12 per kWh, no escalation or discounting, delay costed at 0.08 per capacity unit per week beyond the faster offer. Not market prices, quotations or a recommendation — run your own normalised bids through the lifecycle calculator.