Dairy Farming Success

Kenya is Africa’s 2nd biggest exporter of dairy products. Lying on the equator it just comes naturally that our dairy products have very good quality and innovative farmer’s are making it happen. Brookside ltd is the biggest exporting company in the dairy industry mainly because of their direct contact with small-scale farmers who are the majority in Kenya. Brookside ltd hosts a biannual ‘Livestock Breeders Show’ that aims to put the different stakeholders together at Jamhuri Park and this year the turnout was incredible. Everyone in the dairy industry was well represented and most of them were very helpful with their information about their successes with dairy-farming.

John Ngethi of Brookside farmers was all over on TV and was saying that some farmers are making  KES 1 000 000/ USD 10 000 per month from 1000 cows and small acreage due to innovation and observing the best practices. Douglas Kanja is his name, and milk production is his game.  At age 26, the techie is living his dream. He started in 2009 with only KES 330 000/ USD 3 300 which was originally meant for a car, but after fixing the computers in a dairy farm, his life changed, and the rest is history. Today his herd is worth over KES 12 000 000/ USD 120 000. 

At the breeder’s show, there were many breeders selling their top breeds which hovered around KES 150 000/ USD 1 500 but the cow produces an average of 40 kilos of milk per day for 7 months a year for the next 15 years, that is a very attractive investment. The pure breed cows gives birth every year and during lactation is when milk if flowing like a river.

Biogas is also a huge part of success in the dairy industry as farmers get wiser and harness this free clean gas saving the environment in the long run.