Felix Kipchoge Limo, a decorated long-distance runner triumphed in big city marathons. After retiring from the sport in 2013, he ventured into dairy farming at his Kapseret farm in Uasin Gishu County.
“During my younger days, I stayed at my maternal grandfather’s home in Kapseret and would be assigned on weekend nights to herd cattle at the then East African Tannin and Extract Company (EATEC) farms where pasture was in plenty,” said Limo.
He would herd over 100 cows upto around 5am. The night herding was because EATEC, a private firm that used to plant wattle trees for tannin extraction, did not allow trespassers.
After high school, he continued herding at night and training to be a professional athlete during the day. His running career flourished and he made a niche nationally and internationally.
Retirement landing project
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But Limo, who retired after an illustrious 14-year career, is now practising professional dairy farming amid memories of the days he herded his grandfather’s indigenous cows that developed his passion for livestock. “Upon my retirement in 2012, I joined Kenya Methodist University in Meru for a Diploma course in Animal Health. I later proceeded to the University of Eldoret where I graduated in 2017 with a Degree in Animal Science,” said Limo.
Limo currently has a mix of Friesian and Ayrshire pedigree dairy cows that total 27. Of the herd, 13 are lactating with daily production averaging 300 litres of milk. The dairy population include 11 heifers and 3 dry cows.
Starting off
“I started off the dairy farm in 2002 but in small scale. This was after I got married and had the advantage of an extra hand and eye to manage the farm,” said Limo.
By 2007, he had identified dairy farming as one of his retirement landing projects that would keep him busy after active athletics.
“With the support of my spouse Nelly, milk production was encouraging, so I invested my time and money into it. I focused on three key factors for good production – good environment, nutrition and genetics,” said Limo during this interview in his 4.6 acre dairy farm.
He constructed housing that comfortably accommodates 36 dairy cows, good feeds and genetics through quality breeds.
Reducing the dairy herd
“I target to reduce my dairy cows to a leaner but highly productive herd. I want 11 lactating cows with a target production of 30 to 40 litres of milk each daily and will give a total of upto 400 litres a day. It will be easy to manage for better quality,” said Limo.
His farm has five workers including a trained manager. “We want to apply the knowledge we have to achieve optimal production with a smaller herd. It will achieve good returns for investment,” he said.
Of the daily 300 litres of milk produced currently, he supplies 20 litres to his Felison’s School in Kapseret, Uasin Gishu County, local hotels and some financial institutions in Eldoret town that have placed orders.
Dairy feeds formulations
To maintain production, Limo’s farm formulates its own dairymeal using hay and silage and buys supplements to enrich feeds.
“The recent dry spell posed a challenge since we exhausted hay. But we are currently using silage stored from July last year. We have 30 acres where we plant maize, not for commercial purposes, but whose stalks is cut and kept in silage for animal feed,” he said.
The supplements bought include salts, pre-mixing for dairymeal, additives including toxin binders to assist cows not to digest foreign matter in food, lime, cotton, sunflower, maize, wheat bran for concentrates among others.
“What we feed translates into production because the higher quality the feeds, the higher the production,” said Limo.
Milking schedule
The cows are milked manually thrice a day with the process commencing at 1am with feeding before the first milking at 2am. Cleanliness and hygiene at the dairy is done from 7am and another round of feeding is done at 9am and second milking at 11am. At 2pm, the cows are again fed then the final milking is done at 4pm.
He derives optimal benefits from all products from his farm. “Our soil fertility has improved because of cow manure that has also boosted vegetable production in the farm garden. We also generate income through sale of heifers and curled animals. There is also fresh cow dung bought for the production of biogas,” he said.
Limo identifies dry spells, high cost of animal feed and diseases as some of the low moments of his farm. He recently lost a cow that produced 42 litres of milk daily to disease.
