(Photo: Provided)
Skurweberg Secondary School recently earned a place in the history books with the successful completion of its first roast chicken project and the first project of its kind in the Western Cape.
Of the 2,000 broilers that Cape Forum donated to this school in Ceres two months ago, around 1,950 adult chickens were slaughtered. With this, a remarkable success rate of 97.5% was achieved and the project – despite the challenges of selling the chickens one by one – recorded a net profit of more than R50 000.
Cape Forum and National Chicks donated these broilers for the project, while Meadow Feeds made the feed available for one cycle. This project follows after the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) approached Cape Forum to help with such a donation.
Astral Foods, the largest poultry producer in Southern Africa and National Chicks’ parent company, under the leadership of its CEO, Gary Arnold, made this donation possible.
National Chicks is the supplier of prime Ross 308 day old chicks and hatching eggs to farms locally and elsewhere in Africa. Meadow Feeds, as a manufacturer of various specialized formulas and feed mixes, is in turn regarded as the market leader in the Southern African feed industry.
(Photo: Provided)
The broiler chicken project offers Skurweberg Secondary School the opportunity to generate a sustainable income, while learners receive practical agricultural training. The business model briefly involves that the school had to raise the first cycle’s chicks and then use the proceeds to finance further cycles.
After the successful completion of the first cycle, all involved role players are now looking forward to the further phase in establishing this sustainable initiative to become self-sustaining and ultimately profitable for the benefit of the school, its community and the taxpayer.
Challenges and solutions
Dr. Ivan Meyer, the Western Cape Minister of Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism, described the project as brilliant.
The new project did experience growing pains. Although private agents were initially to be relied upon to buy all the chickens at the end of the growing cycle, this plan fell through. This resulted in the school being forced to keep the chickens alive for an additional two weeks until each one could be sold individually.
The delay in sales forced the project’s operating costs up, among other things due to the continued demand for feed.
However, these challenges were a good learning school and plans for improved marketing are already envisaged to ensure advance sales and thus avoid unnecessary additional expenses.
Arnold says Astral Foods realizes its social and corporate responsibility within the agricultural sector in which it operates.
(Photo: Provided)
“It was a privilege for us to work together with the local government, the WCED and the civil rights organization Cape Forum. Thanks to the involvement of Astral, National Chicks and Meadow Feeds, a school was supported with the establishment of a broiler project.”
He says this initiative aims to develop additional agricultural skills at the school, stimulate entrepreneurial thinking and enable schools to achieve greater financial independence over time.
“This in turn can contribute to the relief of pressure on the public treasury and therefore also on taxpayers,” says Arnold.
Dr. Mariëtte Wheeler, WCED curriculum planner for agricultural and marine sciences, says that through agricultural projects such as these, learners are equipped with skills by doing it themselves – this is something that is not available in textbooks.
“It also builds their self-confidence and the feeling that they can also take care of animals. The smiles on the learners’ faces clearly radiated this sense of self-confidence. They also realize the value of working together as a team with their classmates, teachers and the school’s agricultural workers.”
She emphasizes that these new skills prepare the learners for their future workplaces as part of a larger community that focuses on sustainability.
Of the 2,000 broilers that Cape Forum donated to this school in Ceres two months ago, around 1,950 adult chickens were slaughtered. (Photo: Provided)
“This cooperation was also evident among the team from Cape Forum, Astral Foods, National Chicks, Meadow Feeds, Skurweberg Sekondêr’s staff and the WCED who kept in touch with the school throughout. We learned in the process and look forward to future projects.”
Ivan Fredericks, deputy head and head of department for Agriculture at Skurweberg Secondary School, says he is very happy with the outcome of this project.
“This was our first attempt and we concluded the project with a significant profit. We look forward to continuing this project and thank all our staff, workers and learners who made this project a success.”
He says he is aware that many similar agricultural initiatives are being launched and is proud to be able to show that Skurweberg Secondary School was also able to make this chicken project a success.
Bernard Pieters, head of community activation at Cape Forum, says this project connects directly to Cape Forum’s holistic education plan which aims to create environments where schools can function more independently and sustainably.
“At the same time, it offers learners valuable practical exposure to the agricultural industry as well as the principles of entrepreneurship, financial management and project planning.”