ARUA

Dairy farmers in West Nile are still faced with a challenge of buying pasture for animals yet they can grow it on their farms.

The farmers were recently trained on how to grow pasture for their cows to reduce the cost of buying pasture and transportation and other farming practices.

The National Agricultural Research Organisation NARO through its Abi Zardi Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute in Arua trained farmers on best practices to enable them to get better returns from their dairy cows.

The farmers from various parts of West Nile, who willingly embraced the training, shared their challenge of incurring costs in buying feeds for the animals yet the option of growing pasture would reduce the burden.

The training has enlightened them to venture into growing pasture and tapping into other available feeds like banana peels, harvesting grass and fodder from crops like maize, simsim, beans and soya beans to feed the animals.

The farmers from West Nile who lacked proper knowledge of taking good care of their cattle now believe they can manage after attaining skills from the two-day training on management of dairy farming and other food crops.

Amito speaking to farmers during the training recently.

Anne Odubi Orwothto, a dairy farmer in Warr town council, Zombo district, said from the rudimental way of keeping the cows, she will now embrace the modern method and plant pasture for the animals to cut feeding cost.

“With the knowledge I have got, it will be easier for me to properly manage the animals,” Odubi said. Odubi is able to realise sh300,000 on a monthly basis from her three heifers and spends sh150,000 on feeds.

Caroline Lilly Ucanda, another dairy farmer in Arua city, did not miss the training. She is a new dairy farmer, who got three heifers from the Presidential Initiative through the Office of the Prime Minister early this year.

Ocanda has been taking care of the heifers without attaining skills but has managed to keep them alive despite other farmers losing their heifers.

She is soon getting calves and therefore she expects to make some money from the milk.

The high cost of buying pasture has been a big challenge, but with the knowledge attained, Ocanda said she was to get land to plant pasture for the animals and reduce the expense on pasture.

Her monthly operational cost is sh500,000. This includes buying pasture, paying two employees and treatment of the animals.

Advice to farmers

The farmers were advised to always consult veterinary officers to have better and correct prescription and treatment for the animals to avoid wrong treatment that kills the cows.

The livestock production technician at Abi Zardi, Agnes Amito, said most of the farmers in West Nile fail to get milk from their animals due to poor management. Many of them have lost their animals due to diseases and poor feeding.

Amito advised the farmers to always treat their animals using the recommended treatment by an expert and provide adequate feeds for the heifers if they need enough milk.

Sadik Kasim, the deputy director general in charge of technology promotion at NARO, implored the people of West Nile to always take good care of their animals whether local or the high breeds if they need better returns of milk.

He said milk has an available market not only in West Nile, but also in the neighbouring countries of South Sudan and DR Congo.