There is a general impression that it is easy to run a dairy – cows spend the day grazing and they only need to be milked every day. But dairy farming is much more complicated than this. A dairy could be run in a relatively simple way, but it needs…
The Kenyan Dairy Board (KDB) has raised alarm over public health risks posed by the heavy presence of drug residues in local dairy milk. KDB Chief Dairy Development Officer Kaberia Muriungi told local media that milk samples tested over the past one year period up to October 2017 had tested…
Question: I have a cattle ranch and I don’t see all the cattle every day. Sometimes a cow comes in having calved, but with no milk whatsoever, and no reason for the dry udder. I then have to rear the calves and don’t always have enough frozen colostrum for them.…
The Kenyan dairy company Happy Cow has made significant progress improving the quality of milk delivered to them by farmers by paying these farmers according to the quality of their milk. One of the major achievements was the reduction of the occurrence of antibiotic residues in milk to less than…
Africa spends a significant amount of money importing dairy products that could be produced locally. “In East Africa there’s a yearly shortage of 40 billion litres of milk. Products that we can produce ourselves shouldn’t be imported,” says dr. Okeyo Mwai, lead scientist at the International Livestock Research Institute (Ilri)…
Braunvieh cattle crossed with Brahman produce a cross-bred animal that is very popular among extensive dairy farmers in Namibia. Dairy farmers are suffering all around the world amid low producer prices and high production costs. In Namibia, with its difficult farming conditions, you can expect it to be even tougher,…
The Dairy Association of Zambia (DAZ) says the nation’s milk production is far below the installed capacity of 182 million litres per annum. According to DAZ, the constrained growth was a result of high cost of inputs. This resulted into sector producing a mere 65 million litres per annum. “Feed…
Leonard Mavhugu, a dairyman from the Eastern Cape of South Africa, talks to africanfarming.com about managing large herds and releasing the potential of farm personnel. It’s two hours before dawn. Dairy farmer Leonard Mavhugu is on the move, driving through the darkness to Amadlelo Agri’s dairy at Fort Hare, outside…
Namibia’s best extensive dairy farmer for 2015 successfully combines the production of fresh milk and the growing out of oxen in tough, dry conditions on his farm. Pure-bred dairy cows are not suitable for extensive dairy production in the toughest parts of Namibia. As a result, extensive dairy farmers prefer…
Small-scale farmers own most of Zambia’s cattle but produce only 50% of the country’s milk. Given the value of milk as a food, this seems a pity when it is quite possible to improve milk production, without major capital injections, through small tweaks to management with significant outcomes. The Zambian…
