When you first meet Sizo Tshabalala, you might think he’s all talk, but his deep-rooted perspective on life and business has been the wind beneath his wings in farming. He shares his inspiring journey on our Farmer Mentor podcast series on Farmer’s Inside Track.
Despite initial resistance from his family, Sizo Tshabalala, a first-generation poultry farmer in Elukwatini, Mpumalanga, has built Tshabalala Farming into a thriving enterprise.
Starting with six calves and later expanding to Boer goats, he faced challenges such as financial strains and livestock issues.
“In the first season, 43 goats got pregnant through natural mating, but I did not vaccinate them at the time of mating. They got infected with bacteria and I lost 39 goats to miscarriage,” Tshabalala recalls.
After setbacks, he shifted focus to layer production, which became a key income source. Tshabalala and his family began selling eggs as street vendors before securing supply contracts with Spar and other buyers.
“In 2023, Spar cancelled our supply. I realised the importance of diversifying my markets and managed to secure five other buyers. Spar has since returned,” he notes. They plan to expand their layer house capacity and start manufacturing their own egg trays to control more of the value chain.
While the family only owns one layer house at the moment, the goal is to build two more houses. “I can’t have my chicken house at full capacity yet because when I change the chickens, I don’t want them to go to the same space as the previous batch. We are about to increase to 7 500 chickens very soon,” Tshabalala says.
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“One thing I take very seriously is relationships. It’s something many people take for granted,” he emphasises.
He recounts a time when he did not have enough egg trays. “We went all over trying to find egg trays and couldn’t sell eggs. Because I couldn’t sell, I couldn’t buy feed for the chickens. Thanks to the relationships I built, a supplier offered to give us feed until we could afford to pay him back.”
Looking to the future, Tshabalala envisions employing 100 000 people and listing the company on the JSE. He is also passionate about education and mentorship, recently spending time with a grade 9 student interested in farming. “These are the moments I can never be too busy for,” Tshabalala says, reflecting his commitment to community and sharing knowledge.
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