 with your agricultural knowledge, did you decide to pursue a niche in poultry production? So you've got 30,000, there's a 20% room of error or margin. What else should we know about egg laying? For example, when a person wants to pursue poultry production and specifically egg laying, does one need to find clients first before the chickens start to lay the eggs? Which one comes first? It's making sure that the chickens start laying eggs and then you can find the clients because when you start, right, you don't have to have the market when you start. Welcome to the Private Property Podcast. My name is Mbali Mwaka and this is the Farming Podcast. Joining us once again, I'm your host and we always speak to agricultural professionals, people who are pursuing their careers in the agri-industry, farmers, entrepreneurs. And it's quite an exciting podcast because we have a diverse set of guests who always drop gems right here on the Farming Podcast. Continue to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel, follow the Farming Podcast playlist under the Private Property YouTube channel. And that's where you can get all the information and all the previous interviews we've done thus far. I think we're approaching episodes 200 so it's been quite a milestone doing this Farming Podcast and I can say as a farmer, I'm definitely learning something each and every time I speak to the guest. Today we're joined by a poultry farmer and like I said, I'm always excited to speak to female farmers because we don't typically interact with one another on a daily basis. So excuse me for being biased but I'm super excited to be speaking to yet another young female farmer learning about her journey, understanding her journey and how she became successful in her own right and what path she's trying to pursue, what goals she's trying to attain and how can we support each other within the agri-industry as farmers. So introducing my guest is Zondi Thajayo. She's a poultry farmer and let's get to deep dive into her business and get to know a little bit more. Zondi, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast, how are you doing? I'm doing fantastic, super excited to have you on. We've had many poultry farmers on the podcast, very few females. So maybe if you could tell us about your farming business, what's the name, why did you decide to farm poultry and not any other commodity? Okay, the name of our business is Mazapha Trading and we are doing poultry, crops and pigory. But we mainly focus on poultry because when we got into poultry, we realized that almost every house has eggs, could be for breakfast, could be for lunch, could be for dinner, but almost every house has eggs. So that is why we decided to get into poultry and everything else just balances it out. Yeah, so you keep saying we. Are you running a family farm? Do you have business partners? Or are you saying we thinking of yourself and the team that you employ? It's a family business, it's me and my mom, but we also have a team that helps us. At the end of the day, it's not just the two of us that this business supports, it's us and a whole lot of other families that are involved. Yeah, so we do get a lot of farmers who have joined generational family farms or joined the family business. What made you to decide to pursue farming with your mother and just also expanding a little bit on poultry? Are you farming broilers or layers? Okay, oh, I came up with the idea, right? But I did not have money. So I was like, okay, you can bring in the money and I will bring in the skills. Because at first I was even studying psychology and then I dropped out of psychology to go pursue agriculture with Unisa. And then she brought in the funds, I brought in the skills and we just ran with it and yeah. And oh yeah, the farm, we focusing mainly on the eggs, right? But on the side, we have broilers, we also have day old cheeks. Right, so maybe tell us a little bit, Sondi, in terms of the layers. How many layers should one start with just to break even? And what are the type of conditions that the chickens need to successfully lay eggs in? If you could maybe just share that with us. Okay, first of all, with the layers, it's a go big or go home kind of a game. You can't start with 100 chickens and because you get roughly 80% of the eggs of your total number, if you have 100 eggs, then per day you should look at 80 eggs, right? Which is not enough because that's roughly two, not even three trays. So you just have to go big and currently we farming with about 3,000 chickens from two different chicken houses, right? And then from that 3,000, at least we know that we have 80% which is enough. Yeah, and so with your agricultural knowledge, did you decide to pursue a niche in poultry production? So you've got 30,000, there's a 20% room of error or margin. What else should we know about egg laying? For example, when a person wants to pursue poultry production and specifically in egg laying, does one need to find clients first before the chickens start to lay the eggs? Which one comes first? It's making sure that the chickens start laying eggs and then you can find the clients because when you start, right? You don't have to have the market when you start because you can just start for household consumption before you even go big. You know, the neighborhoods around the farm are your start-off consumers if I should put it like that because before you get to produce for shop ride and spa and you start off with the people around you, you know, the household consumptions are the first people that we started at because you can just stand anywhere and sell eggs and they will fly off. Yeah, yeah. So what would you say to someone who says, for example, you said, you know, firstly, they need to go big or go home because starting with 80 chickens is not sufficient. That's about two trays. And if you started selling to your nearby community, why would there be a need for someone to go supply to established retailers? Because at the end of the day, those same people buy from the retailers. So doesn't it make logical sense to just expand to a immediate community and then broaden it outside your immediate community and start supplying other communities? Yeah, it definitely does because at some point people work with... I wouldn't say you channel people, but I would say it's easier to build relationships with people around you, right? And people work with referrals. So if one person can tell the next person that I found fresh eggs at so-and-so store, then chances of the business growing are very high. Mm, mm. Zondi, if you can share with us, you know, without revealing too many business trade secrets, who is your market? You know, how are you selling to them? Is it weekly, daily? And how are you managing cash flow within your business? Do you have certain payment terms or do your customers have to pay cash? Because we all know that in the broiler poultry industry, you know, chickens need to be fed every single day, almost every hour. So how does one manage their cash flow, especially if they want to go into poultry production? Okay, we work with cash on delivery. We are very strict on cash on delivery, right? Because chickens need eggs and feed is expensive. With patrols going up, everything going up, feed is also going up, right? So we cannot afford to have people maybe taking stock on account and the payment end because the business is still growing. There's always room for improvement. It's our fourth year in the game and there's still room for improvement. So cash on delivery makes things easier, right? And we sell on a daily basis because just not far from the farm, we have a store where people come in. At first, we were selling for the around neighborhood and before we knew it, we had people coming in to stock, right? So that is what has been helping us keep the cash flow. And another thing is the crops, see the crops also help us with the cash flow of the business because crops are growing at three months, three months rotation. And that makes it easier to have a constant cash flow for the chickens, the feed and everything else. I like the fact that you are diversifying so that you can maintain both enterprises because my follow-up question there was, why did you decide to also diversify into pigory and crops? That also seems like very, very intense of farming in their own rights. But at what stage, having been in the business for about four years, did you guys decide let's venture into crops? And if you are venturing into crops, what crops are you farming? And also why pigory at the same time? Okay, pigory was a hobby, right? Because my mom just left the pigory and she started off with just four pigs and now he's sitting at about 80 to 100 but it's a hobby. I wouldn't say it's something that we focus on too much but it's there and it also generates cash flow, right? And then the crops, the crops we currently plant. Okay, we just sowed sweet potatoes and milimere, right? And then we currently in the process of planting cabbage. So now with crops, it's three months, three months, three months. So those three months we just see, we just grow, we sell and it generates cash flow. Fantastic, and tell me, are you guys farming in your own private land or is it state owned or are you leasing? It's privately owned because we have two farms. One farm is my mom's and the other farm is my dad's. All right, and so what advice could you give to young farmers, especially managing their cash flow? A lot of young children, unfortunate enough to have parents who are really in business, maybe to assist them on cash flow. A lot of other children are not also fortunate enough to go into the farming industry with their parents having farmed. I know you said to your mother, she needs to bring in the cash, you bring in the knowledge. But having farmed for four years, managing all these various commodities, poultry, pigory, as well as crop production, what are some of the learnings that you have acquired throughout your farming experience around managing cash flow and the importance thereof? And what advice could you give to the other young farmers? Maybe we just studied agriculture, but in theory, and don't have actual practice in managing cash flow because I heard you say, you take cash on demand. Now, for a person who's not used to getting cash on hand and thinking that I have to reinvest this in the business, they might use that to spend other things. So what are some of the things that you've learned around handing cash flow management, managing finances in your business that you could share to other young farmers, maybe who are less inexperienced in financial management? You know, I would first say that the business does not find the lifestyle because it's a completely different world as much as cash flows every single day. There's something to be bought every single day for the farm, whether it's feed, electricity, water to be paid, medication, there's just something that needs to be bought every day, right? And it's very tricky because the first three years, there is no profit. You're just farming, farming, farming. Producing, meeting deadlines, but there is no profit. You start to break even, maybe at the end of the third year, then that's when you start to break even. Then that's when you start to see where you're working, what are you working for and where you're going. What's the vision for your farm business? I mean, where do you see yourself in the next three to five years? I would like to see our eggs and wheel rates. I'm sorry, but I would like to see our eggs and wheel rates because that's the top bar of every farmer or producer or anyone who's into food production. Yeah, and how do you think you're gonna get there? Because dealing with the big guys comes with a lot of red tape. So how do you think you're gonna get there? I would say quality speaks for itself because when you produce in quality, everybody around will see it and everybody will talk about it. You can start at the closed supermarkets. Eventually quality will speak for itself. Yeah, yeah, Zondi, before I let you go, I would just like to know maybe for someone who's inspired by your story and wants to start egg laying, what are some of the infrastructural development that one needs to start off with? How much maybe cash do they need to start off with as well because you said start by going big or go home. What does that going big look like? Is it 30,000 chickens? Is it 10,000? Is it 5,000? Roughly how much can one look at as an investment to start off with? And what type of infrastructure must I have to just get my operation going? Okay, first of all, the infrastructure should be very warm, right? Because these chickens are gonna be in there for roughly a year. So they need a very warm atmosphere because if they get too cold, then the production drops. And if the production drops, then it's bad for the business. And price wise, I would say, it depends on your structure, right? But I would say minimum 2,000 chickens, minimum as a start off, and then you will grow as it goes, right? So I would say 2,000 as a minimum, as a start off, maybe in the first year and then from then on, they should be growth, right? And for someone who's interested in farming or poultry, I would say, do your research, do your research because what works for me might not work for you or there's different kinds of breeds that you can start with, you know? So just do your intensive research and figure out what you want to do. And yeah, it will grow. Yeah, thank you so much for your time, Zondi. Maybe the last, last question, this is quite interesting. It is Youth Month and what message can you impart to other young people within the agri-sector? I would say invest in your craft because the best thing you can do is to know your craft, master it so that nobody can tell you anything about it. Just invest in your craft, you know? If it takes you, okay, from my side, there was a year where I had to leave the city, leave everything and go live at the farm for a year. A full year, I was just a farm girl, you know? And that has paid off because now the business is at a state where I would say I'm seeing growth. So invest in your craft. Yeah, thank you so much, Zondi, for your time. I think that's the big closing of point that we're going to take home today to say invest in your craft. I couldn't agree more, but thank you so much for your time and the best of success for your businesses. Thank you so much. It's a pleasure. If you just missed it, we were joined by Zondi Lajayo. She's a poultry farmer and she told us, you know, the journey into agriculture and how she got to pursue her mother to be the financier in her farming enterprise while she came with the agricultural knowledge. And I guess that should give you an answer to say, this is how you could raise your own capital to start your own farming enterprise. Seek and look advice and financial assistance to those close and immediate to you instead of running off to investors, financial institutions who will obviously lend and borrow you money with high interest rates. So if you're fortunate enough to have maybe friends or family that can believe in your idea, your business idea, or your farming operation, maybe give them some equity, let them become involved and you could follow the footsteps like Zondi. Now she's managing an operation four years down the line of about 30,000 chickens, layers to be exact. And she's also diversified into pigory as well as crops to manage the cash flow that she has within her business. She obviously has big hopes as well. She would like to see an enterprise growing. And I think what I took lastly out of her is that you need to manage your craft. And I think this is something that we need to do year in year out. No matter how much you experienced, how many years you've been farming, you still need to keep on upskilling yourself as a farmer, as an entrepreneur, as a business person because decades change, seasons change, operations change and they come with various different demands that need your attention. So definitely own your craft, sharpen your expertise so that you could be a successful farmer at the end of the day. That's it from me. I'll see you next time. And thank you so much for watching.