Dairy farmers can reposition themselves to increase their milk and reduce costs for a decade by planting a calliandra fence.
According to the World Agroforestry Centre, calliandra is a fodder tree that adds a liter of milk for every two kilograms of its leaves that are fed to a dairy cow. It can be grown from seed by farmers as a live fence that they can start harvesting in under six months.
The boundary of a square acre plot can comfortably fit 508 calliandra trees which produce six kilograms of fresh leaves daily. This cuts out two kilograms of dairy meal saving farmers Sh108 in daily costs.
Most dairy cattle in Kenya are fed on Napier grass and two to four kilograms of dairy meal whenever the farmer can afford it. This produces an average of just 9 liters per cow, four extra liters than what is expected from cows fed only on ‘grass’. Every smallholder dairy farmer dreads when they reach into their dairy meal bag and scraps at the bottom for the last kilo of unga. Concentrates/ dairy meal eats up a quarter of total production costs in dairy farming. This is even higher for Kenyan farmers as most feed their cows in zero-grazing units as they have limited space. ”I currently spend Sh34,800 every month on purchasing dairy meal. That’s nearly 30 per cent of what I make from my cows,” informed Joel Gitonga, a Giaki, Meru County dairy farmer whom we interviewed during the 2024 Meru National Show.
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Cows fed on three kilograms of freshly cut calliandra produced the same amount of milk as those given a kilogram of dairy meal.
Calliandra can be grown from seeds that cost Sh2,000 a kilogram in a nursery before being transplanted along the farm’s boundary at 0.5 meters apart after four months or when they are 20-50 cm tall. They grow quickly and are ready for harvest in six months when they are about 3.5 meters tall. The tree’s seedlings can also be used. These cost Sh30 to 100 depending on how old they are.
While the tree flourishes in areas with a yearly rainfall of 1000 to 4000 mm, it is drought tolerant once it starts producing leaves capable of going three to six months without water.
Cows fed on calliandra not only increased their milk output but also the thickness and butterfat content of their milk by 10 per cent. This could be crucial for dairy farmers as the government looks to a quality rather than quantity-based payment system for farmers delivering their milk to the New Kenya Cooperative Creameries.“We have shifted from paying dairy farmers based on quantity to quality-based payments. Now, farmers will receive payment based on the quality of milk they produce; the higher the quality, the more money goes into their pockets,” the Principal Secretary for Livestock Development Jonathan Mueke said yesterday.
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It also has the secondary benefits of ‘fixing soils’ by adding nitrogen which gives crops energy to make food which makes them grow quicker and yield more as well as holding the soil together with its deep roots.
Its branches can also be cut for firewood and to make staking sticks for tomatoes and climbing beans. After 10 years it becomes a tree and no longer produces fodder but can be cut down to make excellent firewood.
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