Kenya is an agricultural nation where most citizens depend entirely on farm products, including dairy products. Dairy products include milk, ghee, and butter. Therefore, milk over the years has proven to be crucial and essential in the lives of many Kenyans; hence more farmers work day and night so that their dairy cattle produce the maximum quantity and quality of milk.
To attain maximum production from your dairy cow, you must feed it with the best nutrients and forages. Forages suitable for dairy cows include Kikuyu and Napier grasses, Boma Rhodes, Lucerne hay, Brachalia, sweet potato vines, desmodium, sorghum, and maize.
How to Increase Milk Production in Your Cow Naturally
Most dairy farmers tend to ask themselves countless questions about how to increase milk production in dairy cows naturally. The following are steps that, when taken, will ensure you obtain excellent milk quality and reap out a large quantity of milk from your dairy cow:
1. Provide Energy-Giving and Protein-Rich Feeds
For a cow to reach its peak milk production, it requires two primary components in its diet. Energy and protein are two vital components of milk composition. Energy is provided by cellulose, found in roughages such as Napier and Rhodes grass hay, as well as other grass pastures and fodder.
Due to the dairy cow’s limited ability to utilize cellulose, energy is frequently supplemented by providing concentrate feeds such as fermented maize meal germ for dairy cows, cereal grains such as oats, barley, maize, or wheat; industrial by-products; and a variety of premixed feeds.
2. Provide Your Dairy Cow with the Necessary Minerals
While many minerals, such as calcium and phosphorus, are required, chromium is frequently critical. Chromium improves glucose utilization. This is critical during the three weeks before and after the cow’s birth because it determines milk production during early lactation and the cow’s overall health.
The cow does not eat much during this time, resulting in a negative energy balance. Higher productivity and better health result from efficient energy use during this period. Chromium supplementation also improves reproductive performance and reduces the effects of fatigue among animals.
3. You May Use Milk Triggering Hormones
Hormones can be used to increase milk production. To increase milk production, a hormone called recombinant bovine somatotropin (rbST) can be injected into the cow. The artificially synthesized bovine somatotropin (rbST) is identical to the naturally occurring bovine somatotropin (bST) produced by the cow.
These hormones cause the udder to absorb more nutrients from the bloodstream, allowing the udder to produce more milk. A cow given rbST can have 5 kg more daily milk than those without.
4. Include Fibre in Your Cow’s Diet
When creating a balanced diet for the cows, remember that they require fiber. Inadequate fibre intake and digestion frequently result in poor rumen fermentation, which may result in insufficient milk production.
Feeding yeast can improve fiber digestion. Yeast for dairy cows in Kenya stabilizes the rumen pH and increases the number of bacteria required for fibre digestion, resulting in increased milk yield.
After knowing the most crucial necessities and nutrients for more milk production, you should also have a good dairy farming in Kenya feeding formula that will guide you on the right and required amount of feed your cow should be consuming daily.
A Simplified Feeding Formula for Your Dairy Cow
Energy Giving Food
Maintaining an excellent feeding formula is critical during milk production. As a result, at least 40% of the feed should be energy-giving foods. You may also include minerals and salts while feeding dairy cows in Kenya.
Proteins
Protein is vital during lactation because the amount of body protein that can be mobilized is minimal compared to body fat. Thus, 17–19% dietary protein content is recommended during milk production.
Water
Water should also be abundant in supply as it has been proven that water makes up to 80% of milk.
A perfect mixture of these ingredients will form an ideal dairy meal, enabling your cow to provide a large quantity of milk. Observing your dairy cow’s feeding habits will also give you a clear picture of how much dairy meal per day will be enough for your cow.
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