Man wakes up sleepy village with smart mixed farming

The Heber Farm in Mukinduri village, Kirinyaga County. The farm has sections for dairy cows, pigs, dairy goats, poultry and coffee. To supplement commercial feeds, the farm grows maize, lucerne and desmodium. [PHOTOS: JOSEPH MUCHIRI/STANDARD]

For decades, Mukinduri village in Kirinyaga County held a notorious reputation as a haven of illicit brews.

But thanks to an illustrious son of the village, this narrative is changing. Today, the village along the Kerugoya-Baricho road is full of life as residents engage in various trading activities and farms burst with fresh produce.

It took the efforts of Henry Mwaniki to turn the village into a major food producer, supplying not only Mukinduri market but also the neighbouring Kerugoya town and Nairobi City.

Mwaniki, like many others, was a part time farmer. His job as a financial consultant in Nairobi meant he spent much of his time in the city, only travelling home to Makinduri occasionally. But all this changed in 2013 when he decided to give his farm a new lease of life by increasing his livestock and crops. The results have been amazing.

Heber Farm, his enterprise, has embraced modern technology. Mwaniki is now one of the major producers of cow and goat milk, pigs and poultry products and coffee in Kirinyaga.

His farm boasts 36 herds of pedigree cattle, 15 of which are currently lactating. Two others are about to give birth.

The farm produces between 280 and 300 litres of milk daily. This milk is sold fresh at the farm's milk bar opposite Mukinduri primary school or as locally manufactured yogurt. The excess is sold to Kirinyaga Farmers Dairy Society in Kerugoya town, says farm manager John Mutiga.

A litre of milk at the dairy fetches Sh33, but the same volume fetches at least Sh100 when processed into yogurt or mala (sour milk).

"The highest producing cow gives us 30 litres every day. We have been improving our cows using imported semen such as altanato from Bermuda. We expect the in-calf heifers to produce even more," says Mutiga.

To maintain high milk production, Mutiga says, they ensure the cows are adequately fed using highly nutritious feeds. The heifers are fed on nappier silage before they are introduced to maize silage, which is more nutritious.

Heber farm makes its own silage from a mixture of hay, desmodium, lucerne, and concentrates.

Mutiga says the farm has 30 acres under green maize and three acres under lucerne and desmodium to ensure the livestock have enough food.

"The cows have access to clean drinking water at all times while a vet visits frequently. For their beddings, we source for a special type of sandy soil from Mbeere in Embu County and spread it for the cows to sleep on. The sand keeps them warm and free from mud," says Mutiga.

The farm plans to expand its herd to 150 lactating cows at any given time. It also plans to start breeding in five years’ time.

Currently, it sells eight-month old pedigree heifers at Sh70,000 each and in-calf Friesian heifers served with semen from best artificial insemination bulls in the world at Sh300,000 each.

Heber Farm is also renowned for pig farming, which Mutiga says generates a lot of income thanks to a readily available market.

Currently, there are 12 sows, 18 maturing pigs, 97 piglets and one boar. Recently, the farm sold off 100 pigs.

Mwaniki has developed an ingenious way of maintaining high standards of hygiene in their pig sty. The pigs do not just defecate anywhere on their dwellings and instead move to a position outside their pen where cleaning is easy.

The trick, the Smart Harvest learnt, lies in providing water through nipples on a corridor outside the pigsty such that as the pigs drink, they also relieve themselves.

"Pigs defecate while drinking water. This is the reason we located nipples outside the pigsty. Nipples also ensure water is clean to forestall diseases, especially diarrhoea which can cause death. We clean pigsties daily and disinfect them twice in a week," says Mutiga.

The pigsties provide a place for feeding and adequate sleeping room for a sow. Metal bars at one corner allows in piglets only to shield them from injuries.

The pigsty also has common rooms for weaned piglets where they are kept according to their ages to prevent fighting and reduce competition while feeding.

When not feeding, pigs nibble on chains hanged from the rafters of the pigsty, a tactic that distracts them from nibbling on timber and walls.

At any given time, the farm has only one boar, which is changed after a while to prevent inbreeding. Mutiga says they plan to start artificial insemination of pigs.

The farm sells piglets aged three months at Sh3,500, a seven-month, medium-sized male that is about to serve at between Sh20,000 and Sh25,000 and a pregnant gilt (a pig that hasn't had piglets) at Sh35,000.

A well fed pig can attain a weight of 50kgs in five months.

"Pigs are easy to rear once a farmer has kept them for a while. They are profitable and have ready markets. We sell ours locally at Sh320 per kilogramme of live pig and once in a while to Farmers Choice in large scale," reveals Mutiga.

The farm's goal is to increase the number of pigs to between 800 and 1,000 in the next five years.

To tap on the growing demand for goat milk, Heber started a dairy goat farm in 2014 and has a flock of sanen, Kenyan alpine and toggenburg breeds.

Milk production per goat averages between 2.5 and three litres, with highest producer at four litres.

Heber also boasts of a poultry section where it rears more than 1,500 chicken and hundreds of pigeons, quails, turkey, geese and ornamental birds.

The chicken are mainly kari improved, kuroilers and rainbow roosters.

Apart from selling eggs to the local market, Mutiga says they have incubators and brooders and sell chicks and mature birds.

The livestock section of the farm covers five acres.

Heber also boasts of a coffee plantation that currently has 10,000 stems. The farm produced 40,000kgs of berries from 2,000 mature stems last season.

To reap maximum profits from coffee, Mutiga says they are in the process of buying a high capacity milling machine.

"We ensure our stems are well fed by applying manure and fertilisers in the right quantities, and pruning and spraying as required. We average 20kgs per coffee bush, but as more of our stems mature, we project to attain a production of 200,000kgs in the next two years," he says.

The varieties grown include SL28, Batian and Ruiru.

The farm has seven permanent employees but engages about 50 casuals to work on coffee or maize farms from time to time.