Former Telecom Kenya employee Bernard Boit from Kericho quit the parastatal after five years to venture into tea farming.
The tea farmer at Samaget village, Litein ward, in Bureti had laboured for many years without significant returns from his seven acres of tea bushes.
He had to secure loans now and then to educate his six children since the tea payment he used to earn then could not enable him pay school fees other domestic needs.
In 2016 Boit, who is a member of Litein Kepagenge Dairy Cooperative Society, landed an invitation to learn zero-grazing farming in Israel, courtesy of Kenya Cooperative Creameries.
Upon returning after a 10-day stay, Boit came back a transformed farmer. He realised tea farming was no longer viable and immediately ventured into dairy farming.
In 2019 Boit used the little money he had saved, built a Sh750,000 zero-grazing cow shed and kept 20 Frisian cows. Twelve are being milked daily.
Nicknamed Chemutai, the top milk producer gives an average of 44 litres of milk a day, followed by Kipkelion, 42 litres, and Cherop, 38 litres.
For more production, milking is required three times a day, at 5.30am, 12.30pm and 5pm.
The animals consume an average of one bag of dairy meal per day.
Through the help of agricultural extension officers, Boit has been able to produce high-breed animals through artificial insemination.
He uses cow dung to make bio-gas and organic manure in his Napier grass farm. Before milking process, bio gas is used to heat water for cleaning cows' udders.
At the foot of his seven-acre farm, Boit has put a diesel propelled engine to pump water to the cowshed.
Frustrated by the little money he was earning from tea bushes, Boit uprooted many of them, replacing them with Napier grass for his dairy cows.
From these 12 cows, Boit proudly said he was able to deliver 250 litres of milk daily to the Highlands Dairy Society in Kisii. He earns Sh200,000 a month.
Tea farming, he said, could not provide anywhere near the profits from dairy farming.
"I am able now to get Sh20 per litre of milk, as opposed to Sh9 that I used to get as tea bonus,” Boit said.
Boit aims to go it alone by venturing into value-addition by making lala maziwa and yoghurt after increasing milk production from the current 250 to 500 litres a day.
Every year, Boit said, he was able to sell 50 heifers to the neighbouring community at Sh100,000 each.
Animal feed, he said, was one of the main challenges in keeping the Frisian dairy cows since local farmers hardly grow cotton, sunflower and soya beans recommended for making the feed.
“Most dairy farmers and animal feeds processors rely on raw material imports from Tanzania and Uganda,” Boit said.
He said it's necessary to start serious and large-scale production of cotton, sunflower and soya beans if zero-grazing is to become a reality. The animals don't graze on anything, they eat carefully prepared feed.
Boit, who is the Kericho Operatives Union chairman, said they plan to establish a milk processing factory to cater for farmers’ well-being. It will ensure uniform payment for milk deliveries in both dry and wet seasons.
He said unlike situations when milk prices drop during wet seasons and rise in dry spells, dairy farmers will be assured of uniform payments for their deliveries, regardless of the weather.
(Edited by V. Graham)
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