A dairy farmer has increased his milk output by 30 per cent by replacing green Napier with red Napier.
After replacing his acre of regular Napier with red Napier last year, Ian Thiong’o, who keeps five Friesian cows at his farm in Nakuru, has seen his daily milk production per cow increase from 10-14 liters to 18.2 liters.
Red Napier or Elephant grass which is a crossbreed of various African grasses, has a crude protein (CP) percentage of 18%, double that of traditional green fodders such as Green or Common Napier, which ranges between eight and 12 per cent.
CP which is a measure of the total protein in an animal feed, is the most important pillar in milk production. “Giving your dairy cows feeds with 16.5 per cent CP ensures that they give you the most milk they can and that it’s of the best quality,” Thiong’o, who is a self-taught dairy expert,t remarked.
After learning of Red Napier grass at the Nakuru National Agricultural Show in July of last year, the 32-year-old dairyman bought some stalks and first replaced one-quarter of his green Napier as a trial. “I cleared the existing green Napier up to ground level then uprooted its clumps of roots and shoots to prevent regrowth,” Thiong’o said.
He then plowed his land to loosen the soil, harrowed it and added two tons of decomposed manure.
At a 60 cm spacing between plants and 90cm between rows, he planted the red Napier cutting, which should have at least three nodes to allow the grass to come up quickly.
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“Each cutting was planted about 20cm deep and at a similar width by placing the stem cuttings upright in the holes with at least two nodes buried under the soil,” said the farmer with seven years of experience in dairy.
The newly planted cuttings need constant watering to grow, especially when there is no rain. Weeding should also be done to reduce competition for resources when the Napier is still young.
After each harvest, well-rotted manure or a bit of D.A.P/10.26.26 can be tossed on the farm to maintain soil fertility.
“After harvesting the red Napier after 70 days and feeding it to my poorest performing cow, I saw its milk increase from just 10 liters to 14-14.5 liters and knew I was onto a winning feed formula and replaced the entire acre with red Napier, ” he said.
Research done on the difference between Red Napier grass and Common Napier by the University Malaysia Sabah, Red Napier had CP content that was at least three per cent more than Common Napier, which had an eight per cent protein content which went up to nine per cent after use to make silage.
“Red Napier also had a lower fiber content than Common Napier, meaning it is more easily digestible,” Ian mentioned.
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According to the researchers, Red Napier also had more leaves than stems. “Red Napier had a leaf-to-stem ratio of 1.84, which is a balanced distribution between leaves and stems. Common Napier had a lower amount of stems to leaves at 0.74,” explained Mohamad Zaihan Zailan, an animal nutrition scientist at the University of Malaysia Sabah’s School of Sustainable Agriculture.
A higher leaf-to-stem ratio improves the nutrition of a feed, its taste, or what scientists refer to as palatability, to the cow and its ability to be easily digested. This all means your cow uses the feed you give it better and improves the amount of milk or meat you get from it.
Photo Courtesy: Rehoboth Organic Farms