Savvy livestock and poultry farmers are researching and formulating their own animal feeds from abandoned food crops and ‘waste’ products that outperform the nutritional value of storebought feeds.
In its booklet, low-cost homemade supplement for dairy cows, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) states that commercial feeds are 20 per cent of the total milk production cost and an even higher 60-70 per cent of the total cost in poultry production. By using low-cost and readily available feeds and by-products of the value addition of agricultural goods, the research institution argues that farmers not only reduce their feed cost but can also realise higher yields.
One farmer who has done just that is the proprietor of Pwani Farm in Kwale County. The rancher who houses more than one million livestock and poultry on his farm informs that despite their state of flourish, none of his dairy or beef cattle, chickens, guinea fowls or thousands of ornamental birds has ever tasted commercial store feeds.
“I have developed my current feeding formulation which has double (30 per cent) the protein content of store bought feeds through more than a decade of research, trying out and adjusting various feeding formulations,” he said.
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The main component of his feed is cassava. The “forgotten” crop is a much cheaper source of carbohydrates than maize which makes up to 80 per cent of animal feed.
Pwani farms for its part harvests and cuts its own dried cassava which contains 70-74 per cent starch and mills it inhouse to make tonnes of cassava at a go.
Research done by the Livestock Research for Rural Development on substitution of maize with cassava showed no difference in terms of output if animals were fed between on 100 per cent maize based diets or a 50 per cent cassava meal.
“You can source and prepare cassava peals for feed alone but we prefer to use the entire crop as it is a much bulkier and cheaper source of starch for feed,” he said.
For most farmers who do not have their own mills, he advised them to wash the harvested cassava and cut it into pieces for drying (this helps remove its cyanide traces which can only exist when the crop is wet) and take it to be ground at their local poshomill.
He reminds farmers to have a bucket of maize in tow which is used to ‘clean’ the grinder of any cassava contents after use.
Cassava peel meal is prepared by similarly washing the cassava. It is then soaked in water to ferment for 24-48 hours and sun dried. It reduce two per cent of the maize used in feed making.
A 90-kilogram bag of cassava peals cost just Sh600.
Cassava peels also contain more protein content than the root’s flesh and he argues are one of the best goat feeds when dried.
The peels are also a great supplement feed together with other ‘green plant feed sources’ as they keep the chickens’ skins a lively a lively yellow and avoid them being pale while also the yolk a dark yellow-orange colour.
Another component of his star diet is fishmeal which is gotten from fish harvested from his own pond. Fishmeal is prepared by cooking, pressing, drying, and grinding fish, fish trimmings and fish waste into a coarse brown flour.
Fish meal contains the bulk of the feed’s highly digestible protein as it typically contains up to 60 per protein. They also contain lipids which are a major source of energy and ash which improves fodder digestibility improving the utilisation of feeds by animals increasing their weight gain.
The weed or traditional vegetable– depending on your taste buds– amaranthus or as it is more commonly called mchicha/ terere also makes a feature.
Raw grain amaranth can only make up 20 per cent of poultry feed. Once it is heat treated and dried amaranth can substitute up to 40 per cent of poultry feeds without any affect on production performance.
This is because its leaves contain up to 25 per cent protein, Crucially it also contains methionine, an acid that develops animal digestive tracts and their growth. In chickens it also increase muscle mass and egg production as well as feather development.
“We also use the protein-rich cake gotten from pressing coconuts and castor seeds which we also grow on the farm,” the farmer said.
To use castor seed cake it must be detoxified to remove ricin–a poison found naturally in castor beans. This is done by applying lime to the cake or soaking it in a lime solution overnight and drying it.
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Castor and coconut cake improves feed conversion, weight gain and growth rates in livestock, increases milk production in dairy cows, enhances immune system function, and reduces digestivcomplications.
Lastly, he adds egg shells from the thousands of poultry on his farm and sea sand gotten from the Indian Ocean’s western shores, “This provides grit– a crucial component in ensuring good digestion in poultry but is not found in Kenyan feeds,” he said.
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Pwani Farms: 0732650910