By Bob Koigi

Farmers feeding their cows with a multi purpose sugary tuber are recording up to three more litres of milk a day.

They also save on feed cost, that has become unaffordable to dairy farmers due price prices.

This is because the tuber complements energy and protein levels that is not available in traditional feeds like Napier grass.

Fodder beet, commonly referred to as the fattening tuber, belongs to the beet family and is made up of beetroot and spinach.

The plant utilises both the leaves and its roots to provide a high energy and nutritive livestock feed. The tuber can be fed to all livestock including lambs and donkeys.

Nutrient content

 This is due to high-energy roots but falls short of the recommended protein levels with a paltry  six per cent.

However, its leaves bolster this shortage with leaves containing 17 per cent protein levels.

Nappier, the most common dairy fodder in Kenya, has a crude protein content of only nine per cent.

This is not high enough on its own to sustain adequate milk yields. It is therefore fed together with nappier for better results.

Farmers who have grown it over years refer to it as the fattening crop for its unrivaled ability to increase livestock weight.

“It does not just make the cow fat, its ensures that the cow produces lean meat but also increases weight in a healthy way,” said Juanta Kiere, a dairy farmer from Kinangop.

Advantageous crop

 “I have been feeding my sheep with fodder beet for three years now and I can tell the difference when they have been fed with it and when they haven’t,” remarked Mleto Ndemi, a sheep farmer from Elburgon.

“The sheep hair is velvety and soft which is hard to get. Sheep hair is largely determined by what the sheep is fed.”

Scientists and researchers agree that feeding livestock with fodder beet has advantages than traditional feeds.

“Its the high protein levels that trigger enzymic reactions and other important metabolic activities necessary for good growth of livestock,” says Dr Janet Muheria a scientist from Moi University.

“That is why the plant does well with any livestock, not forgetting its sugary aspect.”

The forage crop is possibly the highest yielding forage crop with 20-30 tonnes per acre under normal planting methods. When grown well, it can produce 40 tonnes per acre.

Critical to growing a good fodder beet is the ground preparation and keeping the weeds down.

The first six to eight weeks is the most important time as the plant produces the most important elements but equally very susceptible to weed and pest attack.

“It’s not a crop where you throw the seeds in the paddock and forget it. It’s an expensive crop to grow because of the tilling and the constant monitoring required and you need to do it properly,” said Juanta.

It takes six months to mature and be harvested and can be inter-cropped with other crops without competing with them for nutrients.

The wonder tuber has a five month shelf life without losing its nutritional value.

information gap

Researchers estimate that even with the tuber’s immense benefits, most farmers have not planted it due to information gap.

This is even as the cost of commercial feeds skyrocket.

 Only a paltry 50 acres are under fodder beet cultivation with a national production of just 2,000 tonnes annually.

 This is low compared to countries like Australia where farmers hugely rely on the tuber to feed livestock, boasting of over a million tonnes production annually.           —FarmBizAfrica