Modern ways to boost milk production, breeds

In a country where the price of milk rivals that of fuel, something is not right. Stakeholders in this sector need to think differently and out of the box.

Milk is a major protein source for the most vulnerable groups of our societies. The nutritionists will also tell you that you need at least a glass of milk daily.

In Kenya, 80 per cent of milk produced is from the small scale farmers and most of them are confined to the high potential areas of Central and the Rift Valley highlands. Despite this sector having immense potential and capacity to adequately serve the country’s milk needs, not much effort is exerted on empowering farmers with the requisite knowledge and skills to boost milk yield.

Kenya prides itself of the most advanced dairy sector in East Africa and therefore the source of dairy animals to the EAC countries. Since this is based on the willing-buyer willing-seller policy, trouble might be lurking around our dairy sector.
Following the privatisation of veterinary services in the 90s, it brought with it the extinction of the dairy industry extension officers and disenfranchisement of the then vibrant industry.

Improving production

Since milk production is a genetically inheritable trait, the dairy animal should always be improved aspiring to get a better milk producer when a new calf is born. This only happens with better semen. Currently, semen available in the country is from the government owned Kenya Animal Genetic Resources Centre (KAGRC) and imported semen marketed by individual local and multi – national companies. Some of this is highly reputable while others cannot be trusted. Trade in imported semen has given rise to con inseminators.

These individuals charge exorbitantly with promises of using foreign semen from top global bulls only for the calf to be born with zero desired characteristics.

Thanks to technology, we have sexed semen in our market – this is semen where you can choose whether you want your calf to be male or female. Choice of a female calf with better production qualities is desired by every farmer.

Some Kenyan farmers can afford this but more frequent than not they are cheated and instead of a female calf, male calf is born. Next time you encounter this, direct your complaints to the Kenya Veterinary Board, the regulator of the veterinary profession.

Even better is the development of embryo transfer. Here, a high milk producing female becomes an ovum donor. It donates as much as can be harvested. The ova are fertilised using top bull semen and then embryos are evaluated for quality in the lab. Individual farmers can therefore go for the fertilised ova with their animals becoming surrogate dams in which these ova can be transplanted.

This way a low milk producer any other dam can calve a calf with the 100 per cent traits of the donor and the bull hence voiding genetic improvement over a long period of time through generations.

Estrus synchronisation

Many farmers do not have the knowledge that when you have more than one female cow all these animals can be made to come on heat at the same time, be served with the best semen and they calve at the same time.

This technique has been around for long but has been under exploited since little information is available to farmers on this.

Estrus synchronisation is made possible by commercial hormones that are injected so as to bring animals to heat. These hormones are safe to both the animals and to humans who consume milk from these animals.

Use of hormones mimics the normal body hormones involved in reproduction.

Estrus synchronisation when done by qualified personnel records up to 85 – 90 per cent success rates and this lead to most animals calving at the same time thus more milk to sell.

This form of reproductive management ensures that your animals calve in the right season when there is adequate feed. You can ensure proper management of your animals since all of them calve at the same time and you can also reduce labour during other periods and increase it during this calving time.

This way it makes management easy and ensures all animals are productive. Animals that do not respond can be screened early and culled to avoid reproductive wastage. The expertise is available and has been employed in large dairy herds.

The hope for the small dairy farmers who are the backbone of the dairy sector is for them to come into groups, bring their animals together for this purpose and consult a veterinarian.

This way we can ensure maximum productivity from the dairy animals and also ensure proper reproductive health of our animals.

Dr Olum is a veterinary surgeon, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Nairobi