Brookside banks on high-yield fodder to up output

Milk processor Brookside Dairy yesterday started distribution of special high-yield fodder planting material to farmers in an initiative targeted at raising milk output across its catchment areas.

The initiative seeks to address challenge of seasonality where milk production drops significantly during dry weather on depressed forage cover.

Brookside said the distribution of the fodder planting material dubbed Super Napier follows successful trials at its various resource centres.

“After successful trials, we are glad to share cuttings of Super Napier with our farmers for onward establishment on their farms. This is a sustainability project that seeks to address the effects of vagaries of weather on milk production,” said Mr Emmanuel Kabaki, Brookside’s milk procurement general manager during launch of the project in Nakuru yesterday.

“We are glad to play a role in this initiative, which enables farmers to access the planting material, besides learning about various cultivars of forages, which could be beneficial to the dairy industry in the long run, as we address emerging challenges resulting from climate change,” he said.

Mr Kabaki said Super Napier is a high-yielding fodder that produce up to 200 tonnes of forage per acre each year.

He encouraged farmers to apply best practices in the process of establishing the fodder, such as manure application, right spacing, top dressing, and foliar spraying to improve production.

“Our investment in fodder establishment ensures that farmers get clean planting material, which has vigour. The initiative also seeks to boost the accessibility of forage material by our farmers, thus helping bring down the cost of fodder establishment on the farms,” he said.