Want to cut on costs? Make your own feeds

Ten years ago, Norman Owate Wambayi, a former director at Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (Tvet) started working on his retirement plan.

He set up a dairy farm at his home in Ikonyero village in Kakamega town in 2009 and five years after he left formal employment, Wambayi is a happy man.

He started with a Friesian cow which he bought at Sh40,000.

Three months later, the cow delivered but he noticed something strange - she wasn't giving him as much milk as he thought.  

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"I used to get only 10 litres of milk per day instead of the 20 litres I had been told I would be getting. I talked to a veterinary officer who advised me on what to do. I discovered I wasn't feeding her the right diet,” said Mr Wambayi.

He says he had to go back to the drawing board. He started by growing his own fodder.

“I started by drying maize stalks and Napier grass from which I made silage. I also bought a miller for making my own dairy meal,” he adds.

He says he learnt that when you give a dairy cow wet feeds, over 50 per cent of it is wasted. But only 5 per cent of dry matter goes to waste. Besides Napier grass and maize stalks, Wambayi says he feeds the cows on soya beans, dairy meal, desmodium and hay.

Ten years down the line, from one dairy cow, he has over 30 dairy cows. 

“Fifteen out of the 30 dairy cows have delivered and 10 are in calf. For the 15, each one of them gives me between 20 to 30 litres of milk per day. I have at least 300 litres of milk which is sold locally at Sh70 per litre,” he adds.

Wambayi's next plan is to buy a milk cooler as he also wants to increase the number of cows. "I hardly meet the milk demand in this area, I am also hoping to increase the number of the animals," he notes.

A dairy cow that is in calf costs between Sh80,000 and Sh120,000 depending on the size. 

His wife, Bernadette Wambayi, also a retiree, said they don’t keep bulls in the farm since they are not profitable. “A bull is expensive to keep; it only eats but with no returns. We serve our animals through Artificial Insemination (AI) which is more convenient.”

The couple has also installed a bio-digester which has been their source of cooking gas for the last five years. 

They also recently ventured into poultry farming. So far, they have 800 chicken.

Wambayi says despite the intense work that goes into running a farm, he has no regrets.

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