By Caroline Wambui
They say if life hands you lemons, you make lemonade out of it. This adage rings true for a group of youth in Meru County, who could not actualise their dream of keeping dairy cowsfor lack of capital.
One needs some Sh100,000 to buy a quality Friesian cow, at least an acre of land to grow fodder and more cash to make cowsheds and buy feeds before they start earning any money from the animal.
This is money that the seven members of Dairy Ventures Self Help Group started in 2014 in Imenti North, Gankere could not afford.
Beaten, the group members chose a different path, which is shredding fodder grasses for farmers and making silageout of it at a fee.
“We saw an opportunity in fodder shortage that affects farmers every year. We then decided to take a risk and start the business of providing fodder shredding services to dairy farmers since most of them have turned to silage,” says Stanley Murithi, the group secretary explains.
Their services include harvesting maize and ferrying it to a spot where they shred it to make silage.
They are equipped with a fodder shredder, purchased at Sh34,000 with the help of SNV, a Dutch non-profit organisation.
The group shreds three tonnes of fodder in an hour or up to ten tonnes in three hours as farmers hire the chopping machine at Sh2,000 per hour.
“Each group member engaged in the fodder shredding services is then paid Sh1,000 for the day’s job,” says Murithi, adding that the shredderunlike a normal chaff cutter slices both the grain and the cobs.
Shredding both the cobs and the grains, according to experts, helps reduce wastage as all the fodder material is completely utilised by the livestock thus enhancing production.
The process also opens up the outer kernel of maize ensuring that the energy starch germ and the bran gets mixed with the fodder thus giving the farmer a balanced mixed fodder.
Dairy Ventures Self Help Group members who are trained in fodder production are not only offering themselves jobs, they also hire semi-skilled non-members at Sh500 per day to help in the silage-making process.
“In a good month, we make up to of Sh220,000. We have ensiled silagein Kajiado, Meru, Nakuru, Tharaka Nithi, Embu and Laikipia among other places. This is money that we would perhaps not be making when we were keeping dairy cows,” says Murithi.
Phillip Oketch, a dairy expert with SNV, says there are many avenues for youths to make money in agribusiness and one does not necessarily need to dirty their hands or break their bank accounts to farm.
“But training is key in any form of agribusiness. One can get training from different organisations like the Ministry of Agriculture and even individual farms,” he notes, adding the group should also advertise their services on onlinesites for wider reach.