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MAKING HOME-MADE RATIONS FOR YOUR DAIRY COWS IN KENYA

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Diary cows in Uasin Gishu County

Making your own home-made feed for your dairy cows is less costly than purchasing the commercial feeds. Dairy cow feed is majorly grouped into two classes; Concentrates and Roughage. Formulating your own Home-made rations for your Dairy cows comes with its own advantages. These are;

Advantages of homemade rations

1.      Minimizes on the cost of production where homemade rations are cheaper than commercial ones.

2.      Provides your animals with the right nutrients they need to stay healthy hence optimizing production.

3.      Palatable (acceptable) to the dairy cows.

4.      You’re guaranteed high quality- feeds for your dairy cows.

Concentrates are mixtures of commercial feeds, such as dairy meal, cubes and pellets, and individual ingredients, such as the milling by-product like; wheat feed, maize germ meal and cottonseed cake. Mainly, Concentrates are sources of energy and protein, but they usually also contain minerals and other crucial nutritional requirements that cannot be met from forage alone.

They provide far more nutrients than an equivalent weight of forage. They are low in fiber and their dry matter content is usually high. In dairy production, concentrate mix is always used to supplement a basal diet, which is normally forage.

Roughage on the other hand, are rich in fiber and they include; Napier grass, Hay, Lucerne and Silage. Functions of roughage in dairy cows is to prevent constipation hence facilitating digestion process of the animals.

Both Concentrates and Roughage provide nutrients that your dairy cows need. These nutrients are divided into Carbohydrates, Proteins (crude protein), Vitamins and minerals.

Besides feeding your cows with both roughage and concentrates, also include minerals and vitamins to meet your cow’s needs. For instance; Di-calcium Phosphate (D.C.P), mineral premix, and rock phosphate.

What proportion of each ingredient is needed to formulate 100 kg of home-made commercial feeds for my Dairy cows?

The table below demonstrates each amount of ingredients that is required to make 100 kg of high yield Dairy cow

Energy feeds in Kg

Protein feeds in Kg

Minerals and Vitamins in Kg

Total in Kg

68

30

2

100

Such that,

  • 50 kg of maize germ
  • 18 kg of wheat pollard/ Pollard
  • 2 kg molasses
  • 14 kg of cotton seed-cake
  • 12 kg of Lucerne, Hay, and Napier grass
  • 4 kg of Fish-meal

When using home-made Dairy meal, a farmer saves a lot as compared to when he/she uses Commercial feeds.

Ration in 70 kg bag

Price in Kenyan Shilling

 

Amount saved in Kenyan Shilling.

Commercial Dairy meal

2,150

_

Home-made Dairy meal

1,550

600

The amount of home-made concentrate depends on the below factors;

  1. Forage quality
  2. Level of milk production of the cow.
  3. Availability of forage and concentrate.
  4. Weight of your dairy cow

Note that water is also very necessary to be included in the dairy cows' diet. Your cattle should have access to plenty clean water so as to increase milk production. Milk contains about 87% of water. So if you give your cows sufficient clean water, you'll definitely milk good quantity of milk hence making more profit from your dairy cows. An average dairy cow requires approximately 30 litres of clean water in order to produce high quantity and quality of milk.

Functions of water to dairy cows;

 -Allows mastication and swallowing 

- Helps in digestion 

- As a solvent it allows absorption of nutrients and excretion of waste 

- Essential for cell nutrition and transportation of nutrients to different parts of the body 

- Regulates the body temperature 

- Maintains the flow of blood 

- Maintains the correct acidity in the body

 - Dilutes or reduces toxicity

 - Makes food palatable and dry feed soft

 - Forms about 87 % of the milk

In summary, a dairy cow fed on grasses alone cannot achieve its full milk yield potential hence there is need to give concentrates too. Commercial concentrates such as dairy meal are estimated to cost about 20% of the total cost of milk production hence reducing the farmer’s profits. Formulating your own dairy concentrates using locally available raw materials and less costly feeds help farmers to realize higher milk yields at a lower cost of production. It is very important to note that for the concentrate to be useful to cows, it must contain balanced proportions of energy, protein and minerals/ vitamins. Are you in Uasin Gishu County and you want to buy land for Dairy farming? Baoriat Agencies should be your final solution. We sell land that is suitable for Dairy farming that is relatively pocket friendly. Just call us on 0721-554-937 or visit Juma Hajee Building in Eldoret room 16.

Find Property in Uasin Gishu County


Baoriat Agencies

Call: +254 721-554-937
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