By George Munene

Nutrifeed forage pearl millet is a drought-tolerant, rich in protein fodder supplement that is new to the Kenyan market and has shown to improve milk quality and production by up to 30 per cent.

Developed by Advanta, a specialized dairy cattle feed research company, the forage pearl millet contains between 16-20 per cent protein content— in line with other sources of high protein content forage. “In a feeding test we conducted at Joy Farm, Lanet, we observed an increase in milk output for most cows, one moving from an output of 12 liters to between 16-18 liters daily in just two weeks,” explains Mark Kandie, Advanta’s sales representative for the Central and Rift regions.

While it grows across all regions, forage pearl millet is particularly engineered to offer farmers in arid and semi-arid regions a high protein supplement previously unavailable to them. 

“The crop does well under adverse conditions. In a demo we conducted at Elda Maravin we were able to obtain two crop cuttings between October and March with a little watering at planting and it having rained just once. The same is true in Kitui, where with just one rain a farmer obtained five cuts.  

For small- and large-scale farmers who have tried lucerne or Brachiaria and they have not worked for them I would advise that they consider forage pearl millet as it is a low-cost alternative that gives their animals a similar protein content,” Kandie counsels.

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In terms of milk quality, the butterfat content in milk also increases when cows are fed on forage pearl millet. For a trial experiment, a cheese maker in Central was able to reduce the amount of milk used to produce one kilogram of his cheese from 18 liters to 12 liters by using it as a fodder supplement. 

Forage pearl millet is meant to be fed as a supplement in portions of 15-30 kilograms depending on the cow's stage of lactation. It is not meant to be a full meal. It is a high-energy source containing 10 millijoules of energy per kilogram. An acre of the crop can produce up to 40MT of highly palatable animal fodder.

It takes longer to develop in areas that are wet and cold than it does in drier areas. It is also established by direct seeding with minimal agronomic maintenance required. This makes it a low-cost alternative in both time and money. 

Brachiaria grass often requires to first be established in a nursery before acquiring the splits for planting; a tedious process for most farmers. Lucerne, another high protein source, needs a lot of watering, making it out of the reach of most arid farmers, as well as demanding close management. Forage pearl millet gives livestock similar protein content at a fraction of these costs.

It can be fed as chopped green fodder ensuring it is wilted for at least an hour, is excellent in silage production and can also be baled into hay. The crop can also be fed as pasture, as is the case currently for range farmers in Narok, Kandie points out.  

Forage pearl millet can be grown in most soil types given they are well-drained and not acidic or saline. The optimum growing pH ranges from between 5.5-7. Farmers in tea-growing regions should lime and manure their soils to reduce acidity levels.

The fodder matures in just two months and under the right agronomic management up to four cuttings are possible in a year while a single crop can last on the farm for two years. At this point, fresh seeding is required as it cannot be replanted through splits

The crop is established similar to other cereals such as finger millet or oats. Rows are spaced 30cm apart while plants are spaced 10cm apart. Three kilograms of seed caters to an acre with a kilogram of seed costing between Sh2000 and1600. The planting area should be well harrowed as its seeds are very small. Manure and any recommended fertiliser should be incorporated at planting with top dressing done in the third week. CAN/Urea or any other appropriate top-dressingfertiliser should be applied after every cutting to ensure the crop regenerates and ratoons adequately. 

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It is critical to especially control for broadleaf weeds at every stage of the fodder’s growth. Glyphosate should be used to eradicate weeds before sowing, while BASF’s Stomp herbicide is recommended before germination. At the post-emergence interval (after germination) Buctril/Ariane herbicides are used.

Pesticides that farmers should worry about are shore flies, stem borers, and fall armyworms. To control these, you should scout your fields checking for the intensity of infection and spray if needed. Alternatively, pesticide application every 14 days heads off any chance of infection. 

At harvesting, it is advised that stems are cut 6-8 inches above the ground to aid in ratooning and tillering.

Pearl millet is best fed to animals at its flowering or tasseling stage, day 45 to 60 when the protein content is at its highest.

Forage pearl millet has the added advantage of containing no toxic levels of prussic acid poisoning. Prussic acid poisoning is more common in forage sorghums planted under arid conditions and fed as green chop.It results in death when livestock are fed on plants that are either very young or stunted by drought.

Mark Kandie, Advanta sales representative for Central and Rift regions: 0725595476

Where to purchase forage pearl millet across different regions: 

Mombasa/Nairobi-Felix Jomo on 0703 879082

Eastern & Central-Alex Njagi on 0725513418

Kinangop-Dan on 0724559471

Eldoret-MerryChem Agrovet

Kitale-CheraVet or KFA

Kericho-Tulwet Farmers Agrovet

Kakamega/Kitale/Kisii-Nelson Sumba on +254 722 946776

Kiambu-Alex on +254 725 513418

Nakuru-Agri-world, Menengai or Meya Agri-Traders

Government officials at Peter Chirchir's farm

By George Munene

After switching from open field to zero-grazing, in four short years, Peter Chirchir has built a benchmark farm housing around 50 cows. His milking herd consists of 24 cows averaging 25 litres between them. Milking 520 litres daily, he sells his milk directly to consumers at between Sh50-60 per litre.

The resident of Kapsoit ward, Kericho County, says he’s always been passionate about animal husbandry. In 2017, he had seven free-ranged cattle and was milking 30 litres from four of them. Although he’d always been accumulating a knowledge base on dairy farming and had planned on venturing into intensive dairy farming, it was not until a benchmarking trip to Kericho that he got a first-hand account of and learnt the ropes on zero-grazing.

Since then he has steadily improved and increased his heard, sourcing and buying cows from Iten, Eldoret to Githunguri, where he bought his best producer which milked 35 litres but with proper feeding and treatment, now gives him 44 litres.

Chirchir has become a leading light for medium scale holder dairy farmers in his region, even recently hosting visitors from the national and county government led by livestock principal secretary Harry Kimutai, on a fact-finding mission on problems facing Kenyan dairy farmers. He also hosts other farmers looking to improve their husbandry skills on his farm every weekend.

“With zero-grazing, there is minimal wastage as cows are confined, using most of the energy gotten from feeds for growth and milk production. My entire zero-grazing unit sits on less than ¼ an acre and this gives me the opportunity to grow high yielding and high-value fodder on the rest of my land,” he adds.

For feeding, Peter grows maize on his own three acres, ¼ acre of napier grass, and has leased another 10 acres for growing boma rhodes grass for hay. He grows the Dk 777 maize variety, harvesting at 2 ½-3 months when the maize corn is milky as at this stage the starch content and fibre digestibility is at an optimum range. He is able to harvest four loads of silage maize annually, enough to feed his heard for the year. For harvest and compacting, he hires a forage harvester from the county government at a cost of Sh1800 per hour. In making his silage he does not use any molasses as the maize’s cob and stalk have enough sugars that allow for fermentation. Peter prefers surface to pit silaging—from his experience, it is harder to prevent water sipping into and rotting silage stored in trenches. When the price of hay falls, he buys more bales to bolster his reserves—he recently bought 1000 bales for Sh60 each.

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For his milkers, Peter feeds them on a ration of silage, hay and dairy meal. The quantity of dairy meal he gives is calculated by one kilogram dairy meal for every two litres of milk a cow gives above the first five litres. For heifers, he opts for napier, hay, standard maize germ and wheat straw as well as about three kilos of dairy meal as they reach their first calving. For his calves, he separates them from their mother on the second day after their birth and feeds them on six litres of milk for their first month, four litres for the second and two litres for the third month. On the fourth month, he feeds them on one litre of milk for the first week and begins to wean them on the second.

For milking purposes, he uses a fixed Delaval milking system capable of milking four cows in one go, having ditched portable cow milking machines. This he says has greatly reduced the usual time spent on milking by his five farmhands. He also eschews the use of cow mattresses—a fixture in most modern Kenyan dairy units. Having used them until two years ago, he now prefers to have his cows’ bed in straws and dung as he has found them to be more comfortable and less prone to mastitis. Mattress he says, are also expensive and demand the farmer uses a lot of water washing them.

He serves first-time calvers with sexed semen and conventional semen to second and third-time calvers as fertilisation rates of sexed semen in repeat mothers is often low. He recommends farmers master the AM to PM rule—serving 12 hours at the onset of heat as this avoids conception failure.

Apart from occasional flare-ups of mastitis and milk fever, instances of diseases in his herd are negligible. This is because his cows are fenced in and stall-fed having no interaction with other cows that might be disease carriers.  Cows gotten colder parts of the country easily adapt to warmer climates he says, though he also gives climate adaptation injection to help new cows easily grow accustomed to their new environment.

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Having been amongst the many farmers who lost their money after Kenya Co-operative Creameries collapsed in 1999, Peter has always been intent on owning the entire agricultural value chain—from his farm to the final consumer. At Kapsoit town, he has his own shop which he pays Sh5,000 in monthly rent from where he sells his milk. The demand for milk is hard to quench he says; he is usually open for a couple of hours after morning and afternoon milking before all his milk is picked up. Peter is now working on value addition in the form of pasteurization, packaging as well as venturing into yoghurt making.