 What advice can you give to young farmers? Maybe that are sitting in a similar situation who also want to start their own farming. Maybe we have saved up a little bit of capital and when they're doing the numbers they can see that I can also get my own a hundred day old chickens. So what advice can you give to young farmers maybe who just want to penetrate the industry and just pursue their their their dreams and goals in farming? Ms. Mbalinwako once again as always your host bringing you agricultural conversations with farmers entrepreneurs experts in the industry those that work in farming corporations and private companies in government you name it. This is the podcast to tune into. This is the podcast to subscribe to because we discuss all things farming in and around South Africa. Today we're talking about the ins and outs of poultry farming yet another poultry farmer. Let's learn about his journey how he's navigated into the sector and into the industry at large how he started you know we have many farmers who started at humble beginnings with funding without funding with land without land at the end of the day I think what stands to is that farmers are resilient and if you're an entrepreneur and want to make a success out of your business whether it's being in Agri or in a different sector you will start no matter what the cost because you believe in your vision you believe in your business and you believe that you can make a difference within your community. So today we're speaking to Sisamgele Ndutula he's a young farmer as well and always great to speak to young farmers you know because they say young farmers aren't anywhere we can't find them we don't see them we don't hear about them but right here on this farming podcast we're bringing to you young farmers who are just succeeding in their own right so let's introduce Sisamgele well let's welcome him brother. Sisamgele thank you so much for joining the podcast it's your first time here tell us about who you are what you do and are you a broiler or a broiler farmer or egg laying farmer? Hello good people my name is Sisamgele Ndutula I'm the founder of Sisamgele N Pty LTD we have a division called SM Poultry which we are specializing in chickens mainly our broilers but in the long run we're looking forward to do the egg laying as time goes on and the company was founded in 2020 but it started operating properly last year as we all know there was combustion on on the COVID-19 issues so I saw the gap in the market okay let me rather start the business which is poultry farming and so I started with the the broilers because I see it's an accessible market yet affordable market to venture on yeah so you know some farmers say when a person starts or when a farmer needs to start farming some of them say maybe start small and grow gradually some say go bigger go home so how did you start how many broilers did you start with and how from your advice how many broilers can one start with just to maybe make a profit in the early stages okay so I started with hundred broilers and I grew them from day-olds till the sixth week the day of the market but I would say but it's not really easy to grow chickens because chickens are very sensitive chickens and I started in my backyard because I didn't have land and it's so hard to to get land especially here in the western Cape so I started small as time goes on I increased my production and mostly I sell to the to the street vendors and what I would say to the upcoming farmers start with what you have I haven't got any funding or finance from both private or public sector I started with my with my with my private funding so I invested in in the business because I saw the gap in the market that I can I can supply to street vendors I can supply to private individuals and the chicken is quite in demand and it's and it's also quite costly in the in the retail market so so I supply the convenience to customers because I do deliver deliver to my customers free of charge and also our customers are living near where I do my my production so that's how I do what I would advise to those that want to start never wait for the for government start with what you have and continue you will see as time goes on how you go into how you go into operate your business and also now now I'm increasing increasing my cycle I started from hundreds now I'm increasing to 500 but and I'm still still looking for a space now to to supply to to bigger markets whereby I will breed from 2000 or and 5000 depending on the space where I can keep the capacity of my chickens yeah what I like about your stories some gal is that yes you started in humble beginnings last year with just a hundred now you're looking to grow into 500 and then there's a bigger vision right to go into 2000 yeah and I like the fact that you saying you started with your own finance you had limited space and I think maybe that's just what we need to learn to say irrespective of how many chickens you start with you need to make the space available to you work for you so if the space can only accommodate 50 maybe start with 50 right and learn the exact of that broiler production with just 50 chickens and then before you go into a bigger space you would have obviously accumulated all that experience to expand in your business I just want to find out as well how is your community taken your farming journey I mean you're saying you're selling to individuals you delivering to them they feel that your chicken is quality so what type of responses and feedback are they giving to you with regards to your farming operation okay as let me start where I started from I didn't receive the positive feedback entirely because I didn't have I thought I knew everything but I the way I grew my chickens sometimes it was small because they didn't get enough heat and so I did my advertisement on the fourth week and when the demand I had to meet the my demand where I have to supply to my customers firstly I started with the household it wasn't so well because firstly in my chicken shed I first the mortalities because we were facing load shedding so our chickens had to be have to stay warm each and every time and the temperature to stay in between 36 to 38 degrees and imagine they don't have any heat because there's there's load shedding and it was an extended so sometimes I would supply small chickens and people would complain as to why would you bring me small chickens I trusted you I don't know what you are doing now so I had to improvise along the way as to how am I going to solve this program so I improvised and brought in the gas and also the the cold stove so that my chickens can grow gradually and and so that when it's time for me to supply to to the markets I can be able to give the my customers and big chickens and now since I've grown I've learned along the way I I grow my chickens properly so now customers they always recommend me to other people so now I can supply to more people because through the recommendations this the supply has I mean the demand has increased so now the supply is also increased hence I'm saying I was I will do the the cycle of five five hundred birds so that I can be able to to meet though that demand because my customers have received my chickens so well because I give them quality quality chickens so now they appreciate my my chickens because if I post on Facebook where I get my my client my clientele I some people would inbox me as to where do you stay how can I get hold of your chickens how can I purchase your chickens and so I give them details as to how they can purchase my chickens so and I can deliver to them if ever they are within the 15 kilometers proximity of where I stay so I would say now my customers really do appreciate me and they really supporting my my my business and my chicken business where my community where I stay they really support me I if ever they need some chickens I do give them but it always depends if ever this they are available because most of the times now I found the market through the street vendors I supplied the I supply now in bulk so the individuals are no longer the high priority the priority now is the street vendors because it's where I make quite a lot of profit because they pay they purchasing it in bulk so the community we I do I do they do support me and also the people who are also in business that they want to resolve they're also appreciating sure it sounds quite intensive and I believe over and above feed also you must have good clean water right so that your exactly healthy as well so maybe tell us what are the some of the key things that a poultry farmer needs to make sure that they have you've mentioned you know obviously a market mentioned that you know you have to take control of your pricing you have to have feed what else open about just feed does one need to have to obviously run a successful poultry production okay so first of all you must make sure that you have a clean shed which is a chicken house whereby you have to have infrared bulb so that we can keep your chickens warm you have to have your feed your feeders whereby you put your chicken feeds and also where the chicken eat from and you have to have your drinkers whereby your chickens have to have to drink water from and people have to realize that if ever you give the chickens water that is not clean it will delay with the progress of the growth of your chickens because chickens have to drink clean water you have to first drink that water to to seed or to to taste that is this water clean for them to drink and you you have to have biosaturity in place whereby if ever people are entering the chicken shed have to sanitize their shoes so that the chickens cannot contract the disease such as new castle disease because that's what we are facing as poultry farmers the new castle disease is what's increasing all over the country here in South Africa so we have to be aware of such things and also we have to have if ever you want to operate um repeatedly you have to have your placard which is a de-feathering machine uh machine whereby you um they de-feather your your chickens um and it takes um quite short time compared to to the manual labor whereby you have to de-feather with your hands and also you have to have the electricity uh but that that one is quite a challenge also because uh when you have to switch on your bulb throughout the night it consumes a lot of electricity because infrared bulb have higher watts which is 1200 watts is because chickens have to stay warm at night like it or not as I've mentioned earlier on that the chicken shed have to be heated between 36 degrees to 38 degrees so that chickens can be able to grow healthily and rapidly and also so that you can meet your your demand and also the um the ventilation the chickens must not have stress at all they have to get fresh air at a at a certain period of time like during the day they have to get the fresh air so so that they can be able to to grow to also during the day yeah and also the the other thing that we um as poultry farmers we must look for or if you are aspiring poultry farmer you must do your backlog whereby you have to do your your record keeping so that um you you will see how many chickens that you have lost or how many chickens you have in your chicken shed and if you want to uh you you want to increase your your your supply you have to register with um hazard which is hazard analysis critical control point whereby it's uh they check the food safety um the regulations and also they they review this your storage and how you are storing your your product your product after you you have slaughtered it because when it when it reaches the customer it has to be um the the quality so that um the customer can have the confidence in you and also um if you register with the if you have that certificate has a certificate you also increase your clientele you also um have easy access to to the market to the markets such as retail or if you want to increase to to commercial farming yeah wow that is quite a mouthful in terms of a list of what one has to do and i think it goes to show that farming is not an industry that you could just literally walk in and walk out you know it's not at all it is trial and error it takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to really make it a successful operation but uh sis amgele you know thank you for your time and your contributions towards the podcast especially today and i just want to ask just to close us off um what advice can you give to young farmers maybe that are sitting in a similar situation who also want to start their own farming maybe we have saved up a little bit of capital um and when they're doing the numbers they can see that i can also get my own 100 day old chicken so what advice can you give to young farmers maybe who just want to penetrate the industry and and and just pursue their their dreams and goals in farming i would say start with what you have and also don't look for funding um outside because um governments or all or private sectors such as banking sectors they will not um give you the money to start you have to start with what you have um you you with any money that you you you have now you can start the your chicken farming you can build your own um chicken house whereby you you do the the basic things you can also um build with the the second hand equipment whereby you can also use the the equipments that um uh second hand and also you can buy from from the people that um that are near where you are and also you have to build your market before you start pursuing or venturing into this um poultry business because you will grow your chickens but who are you going to sell your your chickens to so and also people must not expect um instant profits because um chickens and and and you will not recover um instantly um because you have to have your your cost structure in place you have to have your um like everything where you you you purchase your your equipment so um that's quite costly uh maybe the the first cycle you will you will not make any profit the second cycle you will recover from what you have spent on then the third cycle it's where you're going to see okay um at least i'm making money now how can i improve don't just um spend your money if you see um okay my business is improving don't just make uh um irrational decisions okay you see that you have money you must try to improvise okay you see your chicken shed um doesn't have anything that's uh that that will have um my my chickens grow so you will purchase that thing let's say you you will purchase a gas because there's a there's always a load shedding can start that figure you'll purchase a gas so that your your chickens can be able to grow um rapidly so um i would say that you have to start with what you have and you also have to network and also you have to go to people you have to use your social media platforms and into into use you have to inform people that guys i'm selling chickens please buy my chickens or will you be able to buy my chickens should i start my my chicken business and you search if people are going to um support you yeah thank you so much for your time sisam gehle wishing all the best thank you maybe attaining those 2 000 birds and uh yeah thank you so much sis to you thank you so much vali for your time i hope we will do um more of these um in the future future stage thank you so much for this opportunity it's a pleasure absolutely i mean this is what the farming podcast is for right exposing you yeah entrepreneurs um who are starting who are growing who are scaling who are award-winning we are bringing in a an array of different entrepreneurs so that you can learn from their stories and their journey and also just to give you insights around the agri industry if you're just watching us we have spoken to uh sisam gehle and dudula uh he's in the western cape he's a poultry farmer and he's given us um a few a few a few gems and insights around the ins and outs of poultry farming if you found this conversation um fruitful please like and share this video with anybody else that um kids take value from what sisam gehle spoke about and please feel free to comment ask questions bring suggestions through because we're always looking at ways to improve the podcast to make it more informative and more content worthy for you nevertheless i enjoyed what sisam gehle had to say i'm learning a lot as a vegetable farmer and what other farmers go through and face and i think it stands as a testament to say you know in agriculture you have to be resilient you have to be in it in the long term because there's no short cuts there's no short wins so thank you for joining us on this episode and i will see you on the next episode