A sweet smell of pineapple hits my nostrils as I approach
Josphat Sirma’s farm in Nkoroi, Rongai on the outskirts of
Nairobi.
One may think that the farmer grows the fruits, but Sirma
keeps dairy cows — over 50 of them — on his three-quarter
acres.
He mainly feeds them the pineapple peels which he sources
from a juice processing factory in Thika.
He supplements the feeds with hay and lucerne that he
buys from Naivasha.
“A kilo of hay costs Sh25, yet it has only six per cent
protein,” says the engineer. “The same amount of pineapple
waste has 13 per cent of protein and costs Sh3,” adds the
farmer who has subdivided his land to host his three-
bedroom bungalow, a servants quarters and a small
playground for his four children.
ZERO-GRAZING UNIT
Before starting to feed his animals pineapple waste, the
Kenya Pipeline Company engineer was feeding his cows on
maize germ, napier grass and hay.
“They were then producing an average of 20 litres of milk in
a day but this has doubled,” says Sirma, who was reluctant
to disclose how many litres of milk each of his 44 lactating
cows produce currently.
However, he does not offer his animals the pineapple waste
and the supplements with other feeds blindly.
“I regularly take samples of the feeds, including the
pineapples, to a laboratory in Nairobi for testing so that I
can know how to feed the animals. This enables me to
know what they need and in what quantity,” says Sirma,
whose initial investment was Sh30,000.
The money went to construction of a zero-grazing unit, with
the investment now growing to over Sh1 million currently.
“I got my first five heifers in 2005 from my rural farm in
Kampi ya Moto in Nakuru after improving with pure Friesian
semen.”
He takes his young bulls to his Kampi ya Moto farm as for
him, urban farming is exclusively for milk production.
At any given time, Sirma sells between 600 to 800 litres of
milk every day mainly to a Nairobi-based ice-cream
processing company at an average cost of Sh45 per litre.
This means that the farmer is able to rake in a minimum of
Sh. 810,000 per month and a maximum of Sh. 1 million
from selling his milk.
He serves his cows with semen which he, in partnership
with two other farmers, imports from the US. But why does
he import the semen while he can buy it locally?
“It is cheaper to import semen than buy locally. It costs me
Sh1,600 per straw of imported sexed semen while buying
locally one would spend from Sh4,000 to Sh6,000. As a
farmer, one must know ways to reduce the cost of
production, besides, the imported semen is of high quality,”
says the farmer, adding that his cows calve at 12 months,
down from 14, and produce up to 40 litres a day at first
lactation.
But it is not only semen that he imports with his friends.
The farmers saved millions of shillings importing a
secondhand milk cooler with a capacity of 2,150 litres from
Holland last year at a cost of Sh300,000. The equipment
would have cost them Sh2.5m.
“I installed the cooler myself on my farm using my skills in
engineering further saving costs. I normally store my milk
at the cooler before delivering to the company,” says Sirma,
who has a machine that milks 10 cows at once.
He has eight employees, three cleaners who ensure that the
unit remains tidy, a milker and a supervisor who doubles up
as a vet, two drivers and a relief employee.
To manage waste from his dairy unit, Sirma has installed a
biogas system from where he produces energy that he uses
at home and on the farm.
He offers bio-slurry free of charge to crop farmers in the
area as long as they pick it from his farm.
Simon Mburu, a livestock officer based in Molo, says
pineapple waste is rich in sucrose, fructose, glucose and
fibre. The sugars are high in energy while the fibre helps in
digestion.
“Cows fed on pineapples will not necessarily need other
sources of carbohydrates such as maize germ and wheat
as the concentration in pineapple is enough.”
MILK PRODUCTION
However, this will depend on how much pineapple waste a
farmer feeds his cows.
“Pineapple waste is cheap, thus, farmers should feed their
dairy cows to their satisfaction,” says Mburu, adding that
the waste is easily digestible than other carbohydrates.
Its fibre, he notes, hastens digestion of other feeds and
nutrients such as proteins.
The faster rate of digestion increases milk production as
well as saves costs as the waste is cheaper compared to
maize germ, wheat or barley.
“Cow feeds need to have 70 per cent energy, 30 per cent
protein and the mineral content should be about 1 per cent.”
Though it is not as effective as pineapple waste, Mburu
says sugarcane waste is also good for ruminants.
“Sugarcane waste is rich in crude fibre and energy but it
takes longer to digest compared to pineapple waste.”
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