Farmer credits Hamara for success

Judith Phiri, Chronicle Reporter
A BULAWAYO small-holder poultry farmer is convinced that the success of his poultry business has to do with best products and easy-to-grow chick breeds being offered by Hamara Group Zimbabwe.

Hamara’s newly-introduced chick breeds, which have been on the market for the past one-and-a-half years, include Sasso C431 brown broiler, Sussex dual purpose and Sasso T-Rainbow dual purpose.

Based in the city’s Manningdale suburb, Mr Thulani Mbuyazwe, has since shifted from rearing broilers and opted for Sasso C431 brown broilers.

“I am currently rearing Sasso C431 chickens with the youngest batch at two weeks old going on to three weeks by end of week.

“The older batch is almost ready for slaughter and I should be starting this week as they are seven weeks old going to eight weeks by Friday.

“All along l have been doing broilers and this is my first batch of C431 following a national broiler shortage,” said Mr Mbuyazwe. He said that he started off with Sasso T Rainbows but then realised they were taking longer to mature and then opted for the Sasso C431.

“My clientele is for meat consumption. I have a reliable customer base of diasporas who buy for their local relatives. They pay and l deliver where they want me to around the city,” said Mr Mbuyazwe.

“So far, l have been overlapping small batches of 100 chickens each and I anticipate to grow that soon.”

Mr Mbuyazwe said for starter feed he starts the chicks off on Sasso starter crumbs for optimum results and the mixture of the feed provides all the nutrients required by the small chicks. From two weeks old, he said he gives them grower feed for about a week and after that as a crop seasonal farmer, he mixes maize with concentrate.

“l have grain harvested this year and give them crushed maize mixed with concentrate on a ratio of 2:3 for finisher feed. It does pretty well, the results speak for themselves and l am happy with how they are growing. So far so good,” he added.

Mr Mbuyazwe advised other poultry farmers to grow their own crops as it supplements some of the feed and relieves them of some expenses.

He said he has been hesitant to get into egg production because of security reasons.

Mr Mbuyazwe noted that keeping layer chickens requires one to stay awake ensuring no thieves get to the hens, hence for him layer birds are labour intensive in that regard.

Sasso C431 brown broilers are hybrid birds suited for commercial meat production.

Both males and females could achieve 2,2kg to 2,5kg in just seven to eight weeks and after 13 weeks the males could hit a weight of up to 4,8kg and the females could grow up to 3,6kg.

Meanwhile, the Sussex dual-purpose are hybrid birds that are best suited for serious egg production and casual meat production with the females laying up to 290 eggs per year, per bird. The males could be slaughter-ready at 2,2kg in 12 weeks.

The Sasso T-Rainbow are dual-purpose hybrid birds suited for both egg and meat production.

The layers could lay up to 260 eggs per year and the males grew fast and could be slaughtered at 2,2kg to 2,5kg in nine to 10 weeks when well fed.

Hamara is also currently running several programmes, which have recorded success among participating farmers.

With the Sasso contract farming for farmers in Kezi and Ntabazinduna and community arrangements they supply Sasso chicks and provide farmers with the markets in areas such as Ndolwane.

For the Sasso mother unit (Brooder) programme, farmers grow chicks from day-old to four weeks and then sell to Hamara and other farmers buy at four weeks and then sell at eight weeks or keep them for layers.

The company has witnessed great success among farmers throughout the country and under Hamara Foods they also offer starter, grower and finisher feeds for chick production.

The business is located in Umguza with a division focused on broiler and layer day-old chick production, as well as producing point of lay birds. Hamara runs the only breeder farm in Matabeleland, which is one of the few in Zimbabwe.