Silage-making Kenyan Style

Winston Johnston
January 27, 2006

Many parts of Kenya are currently undergoing the most severe drought experienced since 1984. Many Kenyan dairy farmers are experiencing significant decreases in milk production due to the resultant drop in forage production.

Harvesting and storing forage during the summer for use during the following winter is second nature to Island farmers. However, harvesting cattle feed during the wet season for use in the dry season, for Kenyan dairy farmers, is a new concept. In Kenya, to alleviate drought induced forage shortages, Farmers Helping Farmers is encouraging adoption of storage methods using plastic bags to store Napier Grass, instead of corn, as on Prince Edward Island. Currently, approximately ten percent of Kenya dairy farmers in Farmers Helping Farmers project areas are developing their own system of silage making, using all hand labour instead of farm machinery as on Prince Edward Island.

This week while visiting farms near Mukurwe-ini in the central part of Kenya, I had the opportunity of observing silage making using the labour of a team of nine men instead of one or two workers with the benefit of farm equipment as on PEI. Here in Kenya, two workers cut the Napier grass with sickles and then carried it to the silage making site at the barn for drying in large sheaves which probably weigh forty kilograms each. From this site, another man carried the material to a hand operated chaff cutter where it was cut into pieces about 2 – 4 centimeters long. From here the chopped silage was placed in jute bags to again be carried to the storage area. Here the silage was placed on a plastic tarp and then dressed with molasses with a thorough mixing by hand by another two men.

Using narrow strips of rubber from tire inner tubes, one end of a large plastic tube is tied off and the resultant bag turned inside out leaving the knot on the inside. Another worker placed the dressed silage in a large plastic tub and carried it to the bag where an additional worker tramped the silage to pack the bag and eliminate air. After completely filling the bag with tramped silage, the top is twisted and tied with a second strip of inner tube rubber. The resultant product was a bag of silage weighing some 500 kilograms, and by all accounts, good storability.