Dairy Farming In Kenya | Expert Advice You Need To Get Started

All you need to know to become a successful dairy farmer in Kenya is here. Getting informed is very important to help jumpstart your dairy farming business.

Dairy farming in Kenya is one of the countries backbone farming practices. The country has reaped great from the farming practice since independence. Milk is basic to almost every Kenyan. Thus, the commodity has high demand making dairy farming one of the most lucrative business you can invest.

Dairy Farming For Beginners

Beginner farmers with visions of venturing into the dairy farming business are advanced to check their financial budget. Starting a business with passion can lead to failure in accomplishing the set goals due to a lack of interest.

Beginner farmer should evaluate their resources before getting started. Thus, you need to know the Cost Of Starting Dairy Farming In Kenya | Calculations

Most successful dairy farmers advise every beginner farmer to visit a successful dairy farm for more knowledge concerning dairy farming. In addition, the farmer can attend dairy farming seminars and training for better production performance.

Types Of Dairy Farming In Kenya

Smart Dairy Farming

The agricultural system in Kenya has introduced the use of smart farming methods. Since the introduction of the smart farming system, dairy farming has gone through a whole revolution to the new technology. More milk production has been realized over the few years of smart agriculture.

Although smart farming is more expensive than other forms, farmers’ monitoring of the dairy cows is made easier. The use of IoT has helped farmers in data collection concerning the vitals of the cattle. More attention has been concentered on timely factors affecting the quality and quantity of milk production.

The technology has grown small-scale farming to higher productions. The smart farm helps detect farming challenges farmers face that lead to low milk production and remedies on how to handle them before they affect milk production.

Benefits Of Implementing Smart Dairy Farming

Conditions affecting healthy milk production can be noted and averted
The animal’s behavior that may affect the production is monitored
The animal’s nutritional needs including specific deficiencies can be discovered
Detection of hunger patterns and exact quantities on a feed
The animals breeding patterns help determine the kind of practices in particular seasons
Detection of thirst patterns and specific drinking water needed.
Animal diseases and infection can be easily noticed and controlled

Small Scale Dairy Farming

Most farmers from every region in the country have been involved deeply in the farming practice. Small-scale farming has mushroomed both in rural and urban areas. Urban areas are involved in the farm practice with the practice of modern technology.

Farmers in the rural areas mostly trade with the local Kenyan breeds. A few of the farmers have embraced modern technology to improve the quality and quantity of milk production.

Large Scale Dairy Farming

Farmers who are involved in intensive farming tend to keep a large number of dairy animals. The farming practice requires a lot of capital investment to start and maintain the project. There are more quantities of milk productions than for small-scale farming.

Large-scale farming demands farmers to heavily invest in modern technology to catch up with the high productivity rate. Large-scale farmers incur expenses in their marketing strategies to reach a wider range of consumers.

Most of their consumers are the large companies involved in milk processing, packaging, and distribution to different parts of the country. Excess milk produced is used as an ingredient to make other edible milk products in most industries.

Milk has been an essential product consumed at a high rate by both vegetarians and non-vegetarians from all communities around the country. Consequently, it has increased the health standards of the country. Apart from milk distribution, production industries process other milk products such as

Yogurt
Ice cream
Butter
Fermented milk
Casein
Custard
cheese,
Cream

Different products are made into different tastes to serve people’s needs. Most of the packaged milk is preserved to meet the future needs of the consumers in different quantities. Some of the milk can be made into powder form and transported to the ends of the country.

Large Scale Milk Processing

During milk processing, big apparatus are used in the processing art to accommodate the large quantities of milk production. Some of the equipment includes; Milk tanks, pasteurizers, separators, homogenizers, among others.

From the point of production, the milk goes through certain steps before being released to the consumers including:

Transport to plants
Separation
Clarification
Homogenization
Pasteurization
Packaging ready for the market.

Significance Of Modern Dairy Farming

Large scale farming may need to use technology. The resultant benefits of using smart dairy farming include:

More output is realized with the little workforce.
Performance is always at its best due to reducing reliance on human effort.
High-quality products at standard costs
Quality of products is always guaranteed to consumers
Since machines work all round the clock, high quantities of production are realized per day
Reliability of the devices over human labor.

Dairy Farming Business Plan

Dairy farming business, like other envisioned businesses, cannot be successful through guesswork. Successful dairy farmers develop a well-defined business plan the stands as a mirror to where the business is supposed to be. The plan helps the farmers estimate and allocate proper farm funds to avoid misappropriation.

The plan helps the farmers gauge how far the business is in terms of success. Proper planning of the farm and farm equipment enables easy management of the dairy farm business. Adequate management of daily funds leads to financial strength. Therefore, the farmers are encouraged to maintain high record-keeping and accountability.

Dairy farming in Kenya is a basic form of production that has generally improved the living standards of the farmers. The Kenyan market has an increased demand for milk supply since the consumption rate is high. Both large-scale and small-scale farmers have helped improve the socio-economic status of the country.

To be successful in dairy farming you need tips in this article Successful Dairy Farming In Kenya | What It Takes To Succeed

Challenges Of Dairy Farming In Kenya

Storage Facilities

Milk is a highly perishable product that needs to reach the consumer as soon as possible or preserved in refrigerators and freezers. Unfortunately, cost investing in storage facilities may not be affordable to many farmers.

Poor Roads

Majority of farms are located in rural areas where the roads are not tarmacked. As a result, during heavy rains the roads may end up being impassable and farmers are likely to experience loses when milk gets spoilt before reaching the consumer or factories.

Delayed Payments

Large scale farmers often supply milk to factories and depend on monthly payment. Unfortunately, some factories end up delaying the payments and even fail to pay a farmer that in turn negatively affects a dairy farmer.

Costly Feeds

Dairy cows consume a lot of feed including commercial feeds full of nutrients. Unfortunately, the high cost of living has triggered a ripple effect of the feeds such that the farmers end up spending too much capital to buy feeds. In the end there is no return on investment resulting in discouragement.

Lack Of Expert Knowledge

It is dangerous to start dairy farming without having gained the necessary expert advice. Farmers may end up incurring huge losses due to poor management of their dairy farms, and capital.

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