Royal Farms Ltd, a Ugandan based feed mill company that has set its store in Nakuru Town is currently seeking to buy yellow maize for silage making from farmers to meet 30 tonnes demand from 15 tonnes by livestock keeper
Currently, the company is working with farmers from Kiambu and Murang’a counties who have been producing the corns and is now conducting awareness through social media platforms to woo more farmers to meet their targets.
“So far, we are only reaming with about 20 tonnes in our stores of yellow maize in our store in Nakuru. This is why we are calling on farmers with the grains and are willing to sell as we are set to start buying in 2-3 weeks time,” said Macharia Gitonga, Royal Farms Ltd Kenya sales representative.
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Gitonga says that the preferred varieties are pioneer and panari which matures in four months (120-150 days) and can yield up to 30 bags per acre.
Upon harvesting, the farmers should ensure that the grains are sorted well to avoid any mixture of other grains such as white maize.
We encourage farmers to deliver pure grade 2 yellow maize. The grains are rich in crude protein of 12-28 content and 3350kcal/kg (1520 kcal/lb) metabolizable energy making it the best choice for livestock farmers.
In this, Gitonga says that the grains are supposed to be dried properly in the sun or using solar dryers before contacting them to come and pick using the company lorries or the farmer may just decide to deliver the produce at their Nakuru store.
“We do not allow farmers to dry the grains using electricity because this can affect their nutritional value. They are also supposed to cater for transport costs,” said Gitonga.
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The company pays Sh5,000 per sack of 90 kilos with payments made almost immediately. The grains are then milled, packaged and sold to livestock farmers as flour or bran. Sometimes they can sell the grains without milling to the farmers who want to go and process their own animal feeds.
Gitonga can be reached on +254 722316187