By George Munene

When Charles Wathobio who now sells 40 litres of goat’s milk weekly started out his business some 15 years ago with just two goats, he faced what he considers the two greatest challenges to any would-be goat farmer even today: “The demand for goat’s milk right now is insatiable, which is reflected in the price; a litre goes for Sh200. The key obstacles to making a success out of it however are marketing and logistics,” Charles explains.

“The few ways within reach to advertise to clients when I was starting out were buying poster spaces on mall notice boards and taking out small newspaper ad slots that were so expensive and didn’t deliver commensurate value,” he says. “With the prevalence of internet access today I have clients who call me having seen an advertisement I had put up online two years ago, with newspapers, if clients did not reach you two days post-publication you knew you would not get any new business,” Wathobia adds.

Today almost all his new clients he says are gotten online and a few from word of mouth referrals. “To any prospective dairy goat farmer I would urge them before anything else to brand themselves; whenever anyone googles ‘goat milk suppliers in Kenya’ you want them finding your name,” he says.  

Related News: Demand for boer goats outstrips local market and breeders

Related News: Kenya’s deadliest goat disease costing nearly Sh1/4m per 100 goats in Turkana 

“I have clients in disparate places; Kasarani, Westlands; looking to have two litters delivered to them. With time I have worked out a delivery system that sees milk delivered to a central drop off point at Kitusuru from where it is picked up by boda bodas and ferried to individual’s doorsteps. Buyers today want consumables at the convenience of their home – if you can offer this reliably you will have a repeat client no money can buy,” he explains.

Thanks to a Sh50,000 chest freezer, Wathobio is able to chill his milk usually for three days and up to two weeks over longer holidays such as the coming Christmas season when the market demand is slow. “Milk ought to be chilled immediately after milking to avoid chances of bacterial contamination,” he says.

Though Covid-19 disrupted his standard delivery times and meant he had to drop his milk output, he expects this to creep back up in the coming weeks to the usual 50 litres weekly he did before. Charles occasionally adds value to his milk by making yoghurt for individual clients, for the most part, he sells his milk raw—“Value addition can be a good thing, I, however, feel it’s almost become fetishized in farming circles; I am selling off all the milk I produce and at Sh200 for a litre, that is a premium price I am more than satisfied with,” he says.

Another crucial factor that has kept him growing this long he says is the passion he has that is reflected in the time he puts into understanding the animal. “Every day is a new learning experience; what I have learnt for over a decade you cannot cram into any textbook. If any of my animals fall sick, I am no trained vet, but I more often than not know exactly what to remedy them and have the drugs in hand,” he says.

Over time he has self-selected his herd of over 40 goats on the basis of two key factors: milk production and disease resistance. He has settled on keeping Alpines and Toggenburgs that he says meet this criterion; they each average three litres daily.

He houses his goats on two farms in Nyeri and Kangema. Goats being browsers, unlike cows, cannot subsist on the same diet over a long time—they constantly need exciting with new feeds introduced to their meal plans to maintain their production levels. Bracharia, which is a fast-growing protein-rich grass, makes up his main fodder supplemented with lucerne, desmodium, mulberry, sweet potato vines and traditional herbs.

One of the major cost benefits of keeping goats to cows is their low feed consumption. In concentrates, he spends Sh100 monthly per goat buying a dairy meal, minerals and protein supplements, which he considers the most crucial, are given as magic protein concentrate, maize and soya germ. He sources all his fodder directly from his farm.

Related News: State to offer milk market for dairy goat and camel farmers

Related News: Taita Taveta farmer earning good money from Galla goat side venture

“We have worked to renovate our goat shed to fit an improved European burn system that traps in heat avoiding the usual 10-20 per cent drop in milk production we’d experience every cold season,” he says. Being in Nyeri the metabolism of goats dropped over colder months which affected their feed intake and in turn the amount of milk they produced. He also uses a transparent iron roof sheet that lets in light trapped as heat even over cold days.

Charles is more than happy with the increased number of farmers he has seen venture into dairy goat keeping, seeing it as an opportunity to cater to and widen its market appeal rather than competition.  

Goat’s milk has a myriad of health benefits; it is low in lactose making it easier to digest for those with lactose intolerance. It lowers cholesterol and has 33 per cent calcium to cow's 28 per cent.

By George Munene

Willson Arusei, a farmer at Baringo County has set up fodder storage units and is bulking up his forage reserves in anticipation of the La Niña forecasted to hit East Africa from January 2021 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)

"I was forced to sell most of my herd at throwaway prices in 2017 due to that year’s acute drought. To avoid being flat-footed this time around, I stocked up on hay bales in August and September when balers were delivering directly to farms for Sh100-Sh150. Now the prices have shot up to Sh200-Sh300,” Wilson says.  

The 2016-2017 drought which was declared a national emergency in April 2017 was catastrophic for livestock farmers with its effects still reverberating to this day. “Herders were selling their malnourished cows for a little as Sh2000, goats were being disposed of for Sh300. I had to sell six of my cows which averaged 14 liters for Sh11,000 each, it was devastating,’’ Wilson shudders looking back.

Related News: Kericho farmer builds model dairy unit milking 520 litres daily

Related News: Dairy farmers enjoy record year milk prices

With most feed constituents being imports, the Kenyan shilling trading at historical lows of 111.55 against the US dollar has led to an inflation of 20 per cent in feed prices. Major Kenyan millers are operating at below capacity due to a dearth of raw materials; a 70 kg dairy meal bag now retails for Sh2450 up from Sh2100 a few short months ago. The projected drought only further increase the prices of livestock concentrate.

The predicted drought may also add to food stress in a region already reeling from the devastation wrought by desert locust invasions and Covid-19’s disruption of food systems.

“Because October to December is a major farming season for Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, and Tanzania, it is feared the drier than usual coming season might impact crops and pastures,” said the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (Igad) in a press release, on the situation in the eight-member countries.

According to Yaquby Bachu an animal husbandry consultant, to prepare for an acute fodder shortage farmers should be focused on having forage reserves that sustain their cow’s base energy requirements for at least three months.

“You can supplement protein into an animal’s diet through protein blocks which are also compounded with salts; these come in 2.5 kg slabs given to animals to lick for 30 to 35 minutes in the morning and the evening. They retail for Sh400 and provide sufficient protein requirements for two weeks. For forage purposes, however, there are no supplements; you’ll either have the required plant fodder or not,” Bachu says.

Dry grasses and maize stovers make for ideal feed when fodder is in short supply. However, to extract their nutrient potential farmers need to break down their lignin/outer covering which is not readily broken down by rumen microbes. This is done by fermenting feed in water and molasses.

“If fed directly to cows, dry grasses and maize stalks will wind up as excreted waste rather than being synthesized and utilized by the animal’s body; most Kenyan farmers have the grass to feed their cows but wind up making cow dung rather more beneficial constituents such as milk and meat,” Bachu illuminates.

Related News: Factsheet: Calf to cow expert feeding guide for maximum milk—Part 1

Related News: Feeding livestock with a mixture of Napier grass and desmodium increases milk yields

In a plastic 200 liter drum or a low-cost ground silo, three bales of hay, 15-17 kilograms, are complemented with two kilograms of dried maize cobs and stover, chopped, then thoroughly mixed in with 45 liters of water. A molasses-water mixture is then splayed into this at the farmer’s discretion ensuring all the feed is well watered. Feed-in a 200-liter drum can cater to two cows for three days.

A daily five-kilogram ration provides sufficient feed for bigger cows. Smaller cows and heifers need three to four-kilograms. This can be further supplemented with 3000 to 500 grams of ground maize, maize bran or germ if available.

“If the weatherman turns out to be wrong, my cows will still have feed and I can look to sell or make biomass of the rest; the consequences of failing to prepare as I learned are far direr,” Arusei says.