Thando Soroshi was still in primary school in 2018 when a member of his church in Lady Grey, in South Africa's Eastern Cape, gave him four chickens. By the end of that year he had 100, Food for Mzansi reports, and he now runs a mixed farm and a shisanyama, a braai restaurant, under a company he registered as Soroshi Empire Pty Ltd.
His first try at hatching failed. He travelled to Gauteng for incubators that held about 360 eggs, and all of them rotted. "I didn't know what I was doing. My research was probably half done," he told the paper. The second attempt gave 280 chicks.
After agricultural high school in the Free State he came home in 2024. With broiler chicks from his parents, Mzwandile and Nomabali, the flock grew to about 2,000 birds. Profits and family support bought four pigs, now a herd of about 30 that produces around 300 piglets a year. He chose Large White pigs because they grow fast and aims for 100 kg within six months.
The farm also keeps Merino sheep for wool and meat, Boer goats for their twins and triplets, indigenous cattle he plans to cross with Bonsmara for beef, and Lohmann Brown and White Leghorn layers alongside Ross 308 broilers, the one line where he reports trouble with mortality and target weights. On three hectares he grows spinach, cabbage and tomatoes.
Four permanent workers handle the livestock and three work at the shisanyama; about 30 seasonal workers are hired at planting and harvest. In August the provincial economic development department, DEDEAT, supplied poultry cages for 644 birds. His cousin Lifalakhe Maqubela left a job in Gauteng to farm with him, and Lady Grey commercial farmer Joseph Nkopane mentors him.
Local wholesalers and town customers buy his chicken, eggs, pork, beef and mutton, and he plans to open a butchery next. The story was reported by Vateka Halile.
Photo: Bel Adone / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Source: Food for Mzansi
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