Eliud Kireger, the director general of Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation said Kenya is advanced in dairy farming but there are still some challenges that hinder production.
He spoke during a farmer’s field day that was attended by over 1,000 farmers from Nakuru and Nyandarua at the Dairy Research Institute in Naivasha.
He said animal feeds are expensive and many dairy farmers have been forced to either downsize or close down their dairy business venture.
“Over 80 per cent of the dairy farmers are small-scale operating on two acres or less. We are showcasing a model on how small-scale farmers can manage a small dairy farm using available pasture-based feeding,” Kireger said.
He said Kalro has been supported by the Irish government and other partners to try and develop research on livestock systems can that can use minimum available feed and produce enough milk for the farmer.
The objective of the field day is for farmers to learn how Kalro has developed many technologies for dairy but the information has not reached them.
“The challenge is we have developed many technologies but farmers have not benefitted from some of these technologies,” he said.
He said the research organisation seeks to demonstrate that a small-scale farmer can be able to keep dairy animals and grow fodder on a two-acre land and be able to maximise production.
Kireger said with two acres, a small-scale farmer can till the land, and plant fodder which is available in the Kalro seeds unit.
“Using a pastured-based system is far much cheaper and a farmer can spend less than half of what he can spend while using concentrates or manufactured feed,” Kireger said.
“We want the farmers to be self-sufficient in producing their fodder such as sorghum, brachiaria and Lucerne grass as well as sweet potato vines.”
He said they encourage farmers to use the fodder that is available so that they can maximise productivity without spending so much money on feeds yet one is earning little from the venture.
Wiliam Ayako, a research scientist said farmers tend to think that a cow that produces 50 litres of milk per day is the best.
“That cow requires a lot of feed, especially on concentrates. This is why we are emphasising the breeds that we have at Kalro. We are trying to come up with economical breeds and have the economic breeding effect,” he said.
“We want farmers to have a dairy animal that is cheap to keep by producing milk from foliage-based. We have to adopt the breeds and grow feeds that will support production reasonably and cut down on the cost of feed production.”
On feed scarcity especially during the dry season, the scientist said conservation is key hence the need to grow resilient crops like sorghum and Lucerne.
“These are foliage that can be conserved in form of silage which is a good cushion for the dry season, feed scarcity,” Ayako said.
He said for milk production, a Fresian breed and a cross breed of a Fresian and Sahiwal produces 20 litres of milk, and a Jersey and Sahiwal cross breed produces 14 litres at peak.
“These production rates are good because they are above the national herd average. But even though the Jersey and Sahiwal produce 14 litres of milk, they are best because they give a farmer a calf every year and a farmer gets to profit from both a calf and milk,” he said.
“A cross of a Fresian and Sahiwal gives more milk but they delay in conception and therefore and they tend to have a slightly longer calving interval.”
He said feeding is key and there should be no shortcut and it has to be consistent, and that one must budget to have feed throughout the year.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
“WATCH: The latest videos from the Star”
