Smart farms

: 18 September 2022; Hits: 2357

Diagnosing and treating diarrhea in calves

Smallholder farmers can control cattle calves’ diarrhea, a non-responsive disease to treatment by observing hygiene, deworming and laboratory diagnosis

Cattle owners often treat diarrhoea of in-house calves with antibiotics. The calves however sometimes do not recover and the diarrhoea continues leading to death.

Some vegetation species e.g. Duosperma eremophilum are associated with worms. Further, pastoralists associate diarrhea in suckling calves with excess milk. Calves are usually infected with worms from the mother. The Dormant eggs in the mother become active and larvae migrate to the mammary glands whereby in-house calves are infected after suckling milk of the infected mothers.

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The sick calves should be treated with a de-wormer (use a safe, effective, metabolisable and economic de-wormer). Ensure that the cattle calves are well restrained to avoid choking.

For laboratory diagnosis collect faecal sample for examination in the laboratory. On examination, eggs of the parasite are seen on the specimen.

Also clean the bomas (the place where cattle sleep) to avoid re-infection. It is advisable to treat new animals before introducing them to your herd. Finally, share the knowledge with other cattle owners to increase awareness of the disease in the community.

The dairy industry in Kenya is faced with various challenges such as the high cost of milk production, low quality of raw milk delivered at the factory gate, fragmentation of supply chains and seasonality of milk supply as well as expensive farm inputs, poor animal husbandry, cattle diseases as well as poor management of dairy marketing systems. Much of this is related to low skills of farmers in dairy husbandry and fodder management and preservation.

Recent research by the Kenya Agricultural Research and Livestock Organization showed that most pastoralists believe that calves collect worms from the pasture during feeding. The signs of the disease include diarrhea, colic-abdominal pains and colored mucus.

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: 18 September 2022; Hits: 1563

Farmers move closer to Nairobi to earn max profit

A farmer has relocated his supply station from Nyeri to Nairobi, a move that has seen him triple his customers and income to Sh100,000 a month against Sh30,000 he used to make three months ago.

Githaiga Ngarry Kihara started growing Brachiaria Mulatto II hybrid grass in August 2017 with the aim of supplying grass splits to livestock farmers in Nyeri. However, he decided to move to Nairobi to expand his customer base since there are no direct routes from the county to regions like Western, Central and Rift Valley.

“I can now serve my customers from other regions with much ease due to availability of transport services available in Nairobi which has enabled me deliver the grass while still fresh” said Githaiga.

He uses his personal car to deliver the splits within 150km radius from his Nairobi base and Nyeri farm, and sources public transportation and currier services to reach his buyers from far places such as Kisii, Bomet, Kericho, Nakuru and Narok among others.

There are over 176 matatu saccos and 41 courier service companies in kenya according to Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) saccos registration list for financial year which ended December 2016. This gives Githaiga a range of options in transporting his splits to farmers from far.

He can currently serve up to 30 customers in a week who places different orders ranging between Sh1,000 and Sh5,000 with the number increasing during rainy seasons as most farmers in the county depend on rain-fed agriculture practices.

“I deliver over 2,500 brachiaria splits to my customers selling split at Sh10 every week but during rainy seasons I deliver about 3000 splits because more farmers plant during this time,” he said.

Though farmers pay for the delivery, Githaiga does free delivery to customers who place orders above Sh12,000 to promote impulse buying by his customers.

Githaiga who has been in this business for just six months is also posting pictures of brachiaria grass and its importance on his Facebook page (Githaiga N. Kihara) improving his reach for farmers.

“Through Facebook posts I receive enquiries and orders by Kenyans in diaspora living in the US, South Korea, South Sudan, UK, Switzerland and Botswana who want the splits to be delivered to their families in Kenya,”

“I not only post to attract sales but I also find it as an opportunity to educate farmers and friends on Facebook more about brachiaria grass,”

“An acre requires 2500 splits planting at spacing of 1 m × 1metre. The grass has high crude proteins content of around 18per cent, drought tolerance of up to 6months, makes excellent silage and increases in milk production.”

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: 18 September 2022; Hits: 2033

Maasai herder employs confined feeding to avert drought losses

Feedlot

Lolkerra Tanei, Maasai herder from Narok County is feeding his livestock on hay, wheat bran, maize chop, sunflower and molasses on a confined system also known as feedlot ting allowing the cattle gain maximum weight to be ready for the market in the shortest time possible.

Tanei who rears borans (Maasai beef cattle) on a three acre land had lost about twenty of his cattle worth Sh1.1m to 2013 drought forcing him to change tact.

“I feed my cattle on carbohydrate, sufficient proteins and optimum mineral salts. This makes them grow faster and gain weight and within a short time I sell them off to avoid drought effects,” said Tanei.

Kenyan livestock sector is badly hit by drought yearly with 72 per cent of total damages and losses recorded between the year 2013 and 2017 according to the Second Medium Term Plan 2013 – 2017 on Drought Risk Management and Ending Drought Emergencies by the government of Kenya.

Confining beef cattle has seen the Kilgoris farmer new method since then. This allow him to destocks by selling his cows in large numbers in December and early January each year before the onset of dry season in Kenya which ends mid-March.

During this time he says one boran weigh 400kg (life weight) goes at Sh56,000 and with 50 cattle he sells yearly, he earns over Sh2.8m which he uses part to restock at the end of a dry season.

He can earn up to Sh3m if he sells with Kenya Livestock Marketing Council (KLMC), an organization of livestock producers and traders in arid and semi-arid areas of Kenya which helps farmers access both local and international markets.

“We encourage farmers as individuals or in groups to work with us for better markets. We are connected with exporters and we export beef cattle to Middle East, Europe, and Mauritius among other places,” said KLMC CEO, Abdikadir Mohamed.

“Farmers must be able to produce 20 cattles weighing seven tonnes in total which can fill a lorry, and that is why we advise farmers who cannot meet the requirement to work in groups.”

Tanei who has 15 borans currently that he can take care of, due to the present dry condition in the country leading to inadequate pasture buys young borans from other farmers at Sh18,000-27,000 weighing between 50kg and 200kg each from mid-March to end of April every year.

Once he feeds them to a maximum weight in a duration of 60 to 120 days he would begin looking for markets to regulate his stock to match his feeding system.

According to Peter Muturu, Nairobi County livestock officer, land diminishing everyday due to population increase and need for settlement and industrialization hence there is no space to rear many animals except if a farmer practices feedlotting.

“Due to increase in nyama choma business as Kenyans love roasted meat, demand for red meat is always high and farmers may want to keep many cattle for beef. Feedlotting is therefore a good practice as farmers will be targeting a given weight then sell some animals to avoid overstocking,” said Muturu.

“Feedlotting can be established on a small area, and there is no need for arable land. All a farmer requires is a gently sloping site with a good, secure water supply.”

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