Teaching Dairy Cow Management with our partners in Kenya.
Daniel Scothorn and I had the opportunity to teach a number of sessions on dairy cow management to the members of our partner dairies in Kenya. The usual daily session would be something like this. We would travel from our accommodations in Ischamara to the dairy in Othaya and prepare for the day. The arrangements would have been made by Othaya staff. Usually this would have been the milk quality staff person ,Leah and the Dairy Manager. A farm would have been selected in a new area and farmers contacted to tell them of time and place. We would prepare by assembling our “Fact Sheets”. These are a series of one to three page information sheets on topics like cow feeding, milk quality, and calf rearing. We wrote these information sheets to meet the demand for information by the farmers. We check to see if we have samples of the crops we use to illustrate our talk or if these can be found on the farm. These include Napier Grass, Desmodium and forage trees. After we get our materials in order we usually have a quick “cup of tea” at the local restaurant. This is usually consists of tea, semosas, sausages and a donut!
We travel to the farm in the “Combi”. The drive can be from 15 min to a half an hour and we may have to walk the last bit if the road is too narrow. When we arrive at the farm there has been some canopy in place to provide shade. We are on the equator and at a high elevation so both us and the farmers need shade. We usually tour the farm and see the cow housing and determine how we can use it on our talk on cow comfort. At this time farmers start to arrive. They usually come after they see us travel to the farm. There is always an interesting mix of farmers. Some will be women, some will be older gentlemen, some will be young farmers and all will be keen to find out better ways of feeding their cows. We always talk to the farmers as they arrive. This lets them know that we are also farmers and that we care about their cows. Also, we try to find out how they manage their cows so we can adjust our talk to fit their farm situation.
We use a flip chart with an outline of our talk. We make some basic points. Forage has a higher nutrient content when the plants are immature, home grown feeds are more economical than purchased feeds , and feeding cows in early lactation results in maximum milk production. Although many of the farmers understand English we work through a translator who is usually a staff or board member of the dairy. Translation is necessary but it slows the amount of information we can present. We are always aware that we have to repeat each point several times, use illustrations, and watch for feedback to see if we are understood. After the talk on feeding we go to the “zero grazing” or cow housing to discuss cow comfort. We normally put on our rubber boots and go into the cattle housing to show we are familiar with working with cows. Usually the situation is the same as in Canada ,where the cows tell us if they are comfortable in their stalls. Normally we observe they need bigger stalls, more bedding and more accessible feed bunks. After this we return to the teaching site where Leah gives her talk on how to produce clean milk and answer questions to complete the day.
After wards we share tea prepared by the host. The tea is usually accompanied by boiled eggs, bread, and boiled arrow roots. This an excellent time to talk informally about feeding cows and answer questions about how we farm in Canada.
We are always impressed with how interested the farmers are in gaining new information for managing their cows. We are impressed on how they put these ideas to work. We see improvements in milk production within days of making suggestions for improvements. We are impressed with demand for written information. We provide hand outs and this time we also gave all the women a back copy of the American publication Hoard’s Dairyman. These were in great demand. Milk production in Kenya is one of the few profitable farm enterprises and farmers are willing to work hard to make their cows profitable.
The days we teach on the farms are the best days in Kenya.
Daniel Scothorn and I had the opportunity to teach a number of sessions on dairy cow management to the members of our partner dairies in Kenya. The usual daily session would be something like this. We would travel from our accommodations in Ischamara to the dairy in Othaya and prepare for the day. The arrangements would have been made by Othaya staff. Usually this would have been the milk quality staff person ,Leah and the Dairy Manager. A farm would have been selected in a new area and farmers contacted to tell them of time and place. We would prepare by assembling our “Fact Sheets”. These are a series of one to three page information sheets on topics like cow feeding, milk quality, and calf rearing. We wrote these information sheets to meet the demand for information by the farmers. We check to see if we have samples of the crops we use to illustrate our talk or if these can be found on the farm. These include Napier Grass, Desmodium and forage trees. After we get our materials in order we usually have a quick “cup of tea” at the local restaurant. This is usually consists of tea, semosas, sausages and a donut!
We travel to the farm in the “Combi”. The drive can be from 15 min to a half an hour and we may have to walk the last bit if the road is too narrow. When we arrive at the farm there has been some canopy in place to provide shade. We are on the equator and at a high elevation so both us and the farmers need shade. We usually tour the farm and see the cow housing and determine how we can use it on our talk on cow comfort. At this time farmers start to arrive. They usually come after they see us travel to the farm. There is always an interesting mix of farmers. Some will be women, some will be older gentlemen, some will be young farmers and all will be keen to find out better ways of feeding their cows. We always talk to the farmers as they arrive. This lets them know that we are also farmers and that we care about their cows. Also, we try to find out how they manage their cows so we can adjust our talk to fit their farm situation.
We use a flip chart with an outline of our talk. We make some basic points. Forage has a higher nutrient content when the plants are immature, home grown feeds are more economical than purchased feeds , and feeding cows in early lactation results in maximum milk production. Although many of the farmers understand English we work through a translator who is usually a staff or board member of the dairy. Translation is necessary but it slows the amount of information we can present. We are always aware that we have to repeat each point several times, use illustrations, and watch for feedback to see if we are understood. After the talk on feeding we go to the “zero grazing” or cow housing to discuss cow comfort. We normally put on our rubber boots and go into the cattle housing to show we are familiar with working with cows. Usually the situation is the same as in Canada ,where the cows tell us if they are comfortable in their stalls. Normally we observe they need bigger stalls, more bedding and more accessible feed bunks. After this we return to the teaching site where Leah gives her talk on how to produce clean milk and answer questions to complete the day.
After wards we share tea prepared by the host. The tea is usually accompanied by boiled eggs, bread, and boiled arrow roots. This an excellent time to talk informally about feeding cows and answer questions about how we farm in Canada.
We are always impressed with how interested the farmers are in gaining new information for managing their cows. We are impressed on how they put these ideas to work. We see improvements in milk production within days of making suggestions for improvements. We are impressed with demand for written information. We provide hand outs and this time we also gave all the women a back copy of the American publication Hoard’s Dairyman. These were in great demand. Milk production in Kenya is one of the few profitable farm enterprises and farmers are willing to work hard to make their cows profitable.
The days we teach on the farms are the best days in Kenya.
