Dairy production practices among smallholder dairy farmers in Butere/Mumias and Kakamega districts in Western Kenya

Abstract

A survey was conducted on 176 smallholder dairy farms in Butere/Mumias and Kakamega districts of Western Kenya to establish the dairy production practices and constraints in the industry. There was low milk production (16.6 kg of milk per capita), which was attributed to the low number of dairy animals. The average land size was 2.4 ha with only 30.3% being allocated to pasture or fodder crops. Farmers with large farms (>2 ha) set aside bigger pieces (1.2 vs 0.4 ha) for pasture/fodder crop cultivation (p<0.001), owned more (5.25 vs 3.18) dairy animals (p<0.01) and produced more (9.2 vs 7.5 kg/cow per day) milk (p<0.05) compared to those on smaller farms of less than 2 ha. The average herd size was 4.2 animals, of which only 45.0% were in milk, producing 8.0 kg/animal per day. Every kilogram of dairy meal fed increased milk production by 0.68 kg (p<0.001). Over 90% of milk produced was consumed locally. The public institutions provided 74% of total extension services to farmers. About 49.5% of total dairy animals were bought from other districts owing to scarcity.

Management, productivity and livelihood effects on Kenyan smallholder dairy farms from interventions addressing animal health and nutrition and milk quality

“…Anecdotally, the combination of more cows and improved milk production has led to higher farm incomes, leading to numerous new and larger milk sheds and housing sheds. Despite the 2006 drought, the milk production that we found was comparable to that found among smallholder dairy farms in Western Kenya in 2005, where 67% of the interviewed farmers reported getting 5 to 10 kg/cow/day (Musalia et al 2007), and among smallholder farmers in Ethiopia in 2001-2002, where 10 kg/cow/day was the reported average (Mekonnen et al 2006).…”

“…These improvements appear to have led to increased numbers of cattle, with the average number of cows nearly doubling (from 1.5 to 2.9) and the average number of young cattle nearly tripling (from 0.9 to 2.6) during the program. The average herd size in 2006 was higher than that found among smallholder dairy farms in Western Kenya in 2005, where an average of 4.2 dairy animals were reported per farm (Musalia et al 2007), and among smallholder farmers in Ethiopia in 2001-2002, where 4.6 animals were the reported average (Mekonnen et al 2006). The intervention program appears to have helped these farmers expand their operations, likely translating into better farmer livelihoods.…”

“…Among these are knowledge and skills related to animal genetics, infectious diseases, parasitism, nutrition, reproduction, and husbandry, and limited access to extension and veterinary services (Gitau et al 2001;Nkya et al 2007). In a study of dairy farm practices and productivity in western Kenya (Musalia et al 2007), the authors stated that "farmers should be encouraged to form cooperatives to provide training, dairy support services such as veterinary services, dairy inputs and connection to breeders outside the districts, and markets for milk." However, it is unclear what would be the best model for enhancing milk production among smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya or elsewhere.…”

A case of cranium bifidum with meningocele in Ayrshire calf

“…Besides unavailability of veterinarians in such regions, access to veterinary services is also limited by inability of farmers to pay for the clinical veterinary interventions [21]. For the case of livestock farmers, income from livestock products is generally low, due to low animal productivity and poor market prices for animal products [22, 23], and therefore often inadequate to pay for ‘costly’ veterinary services/interventions in the nature of the current case [24]. This in turn discourages establishment of private veterinary practices in their locality.…”

Risk behaviours for milk-borne diseases transmission along the milk chain in The Gambia and Senegal

“…In rural areas of developing countries, very few farmers keep crossbred local-exotic breeds because of the costs of the AI and inputs for their maintenance (Sidibe et al 2004;Musalia et al 2007). Following the model of developed countries, AI is becoming common in peri-urban dairy min minimum, max maximum production system in Africa.…”