From a single cow to a thriving enterprise – success story of Kefa Farm in Makuyu

Were it not for the beautiful blue metallic gate off the busy Makuyu–Sagana Road, nothing else would have suggested that the dusty road I had taken had brought me to the vicinity of a popular dairy farm.

Kefa Farm sits on 1.5 acres and one can easily pass without noticing it as it lies in perfect harmony with the rest of the dry, somewhat abandoned farms.

Yet this farm is the source of 1,400 litres of milk daily. It has 64 zero–grazed cows each of which produces between 40 and 50 litres daily.

The farm located on a slope ideal for waste disposal also sells heifers and carries out embryo transfers.

It has gained reputation as a source of pedigree cows and a ground for training farmers on dairy management.

It receives about 100 visitors every month from Busia, Machakos, Meru, the Coast and across the border from Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda.

Situated in a semi–arid area of Makuyu in Murang’a County where temperatures average 21.7°C and receives 836mm of rainfall annually, the farm is showing new opportunities in the predominantly rain–fed agricultural zone.

Owner Dave Kimani credits its existence to the 2007/2008 post-election turmoil, which saw many displaced people settled in the region pushing up demand for milk.

“Then the farm was only half-an-acre with one cow and a worker. The steady rise in demand for milk made me devise ways to improve the farm,” says Kimani, noting he spent Sh90,000 on building a cowshed for five animals and bought two more Friesian cows at Sh40,000 each.

Since then, he has never looked back. “My herd grew to 82 in 2014, but I had to reduce the number to 64 due to limited space and scarcity of feeds,” he says.

The farm sank its own borehole and expanded by purchasing one more adjacent acre and another four acres where heifers are bred. He also leases other farms to grow fodder.

Kimani improved his skills in animal care, health and farm management by attending agricultural trainings, visiting other farms, researching and came up with a programme to develop the skills of his 10 workers.

In addition to the 64 cows, the farm has over 30 calves at any one time aged between a day and two months, hundreds of pigs, chicken and ducks.

Milk, the farm’s main product, goes for Sh45 per litre. Customers who mainly comprise of hotels and institutions bank the money in the farm’s account and present slips to collect milk in a model that has enhanced efficiency and accountability, with Kimani earning up to Sh60,000 daily from milk sales.

The farm has four departments each headed by different persons.

ADOPTION OF EMBRYO TRANSFER TECHNOLOGY

These are stores, sales, production and milking. Each head has a full mandate to hire casuals and make other decisions.

They report daily to Kimani by filing updates to a central computer system where all managers can access the information.

For example, the store head can caution imminent shortage of feeds or the milking head can send alert on a certain animal noted for declining production.

This triggers simultaneous actions like investigations to establish the causes, purchase of drugs if illness is reported or isolation of the animal. Updates on action taken are filed.

The animals are hosted on half-acre, with the cowsheds divided into sections that include steamers, milking, maternity and calves of between zero and three months and another for winnowers aged six months.

The winnowers are moved out of the main farm to another in the neighbourhood where buyers easily access them. At the far end is an isolation section for the sick animals.

Each animal occupies its own shed shielded from rains, extreme cold and direct wind. It does not lie on the cement floor as it is provided with a mat covering the entire floor.

“Every animal has a name, card and file to record production. Before milking, the animal is called by name, then the udders are massaged patiently for a long time and the animal’s immediate behaviour taken note of. It must show signs of cooling its nerves and readiness to produce milk,” says Kimani, noting milking is done twice a day.

Workers are always on stand-by to clean the cowsheds by removing dung and ensuring the units are completely dry each time to keep diseases at bay.

The animals’ feeds include napier grass, sweet potato vines and lucerne. Instead of digging pits to make silage, the farm uses giant plastic containers.

“The making of our own feeds helps us to cut costs of feeding by 60 per cent. We formulate the feeds depending on the animals, for instance, heifer feeds are different from those of bulls,” says Kimani adding that besides silage, the animals are also given concentrates and salt.

The farm’s milestone in the recent past is the adoption of embryo transfer technology to breed its animals.

It involves two cows, one the donor and the other the recipient. They undergo synchronisation to ensure that each is ready. The donor is inseminated and after seven days the embryo is ready for transfer.

DEMYSTIFYING THE MYTH

The process is done on the farm by experts from the University of Nairobi and sometimes South Africa.

“Embryo transfer helps the farmer to benefit from a shortened period of attaining a pedigree animal. Ordinarily it takes at least five years for the farmer to get pedigree as the cow goes through the pool, foundation, appendix and pedigree stages,” says Kimani.

Embryo transfer has historically been associated with big farms but Kimani is demystifying this myth. He notes that even smaller farmers in Kenya can undertake the technology which reduces the cost of the getting pedigree animal to Sh50,000 from Sh300,000 and shortens the period to about a year from five.

However, the process is not all rosy as sometimes the transfer fails.

“Sometimes it is caused by failure to conceive other times the embryo may degenerate.”

Kefa Farm also keeps bulls for slaughter, with the number currently standing at 25 animals of between one and three years.

They take about one year to mature weighing between 800 and 1,000kg. One carcass yields between 650 to 700kg of meat each going for Sh320.

Kimani, now a self-made dairy expert, receives over 10 calls a day from farmers across the country including from Kisii, Kiambu, Meru and Kericho.

He also makes follow up on his callers and those who visit his farm allowing them to consult him regularly.

He organises customised training for various clients at a fee of Sh2500 per head per visit. Kefa Farm has a training partnership with the Strathmore University and the Cooperative University where agribusiness students visit for lessons.

“Kenyans no longer need to mystify dairy farming by going to Israel for lessons. Israel is here at Kefa Farm,” he says, acknowledging that most farmers lack information.

In fives years, he hopes he would be able to open a milk processing plant and increase his dairy herd to 150 cows Alex Njenga, an agricultural extension officer in Kiambu, says adequate training is crucial for the success of any farmer.

However, he notes that most successful dairy farmers in Kenya close their gates on smallholders seeking information and skills.

“There is need to structure farmers training programmes to co-opt farms that understand the benefits of overall agricultural development to the country.”

SRC: Seeds of Gold