Matsiko quit job for farming

The future of the country is going nowhere if we cannot wake up and strategically engage the youth in production, production has been left to the old people and the youth are engaged in useless activities such as riding boda bodas, gambling and abusing drugs. It’s against this background that Nicholas Matsiko has decided to turn his High mark dairy farm into mindset change and skills development Centre, writes Rajab Mukombozi.

The name Nicholas is synonymous with most people in Kashari County, Mbarara District that even when you are tracing his High mark dairy farm you cannot get lost.
As we approach the affluent High Mark dairy farm on the outskirts of Kashaka town in Kashari County, a serene environment welcomes you.

We are headed to the home of Nicholas Matsiko and we find the 44-year-old farmer inspecting his herd of dairy cows.
At 10am, the cows are already fed and are resting under trees in the farm. On the left is a lush Napier grass plantation glistening in the morning sun.

Starting
Matsiko a graduate from Makerere University in Agricultural engineering started farming 10 years ago after retiring from public office. He decided to try his luck in dairy farming.
When he looks back today, he knows turning to dairy farming was one of the best decisions of his life. In 2008, Matsiko started with only three cows and slowly mastered the activity.

And within a short period, he grew to become the owner of High mark dairy farm in Kashari boasting a herd of 48 Friesian cows. The cost of one Friesian cow is between Shs1.2m and Shs1.5m.
When you visit his farm, you will always notice Matsiko giving instructions to his employees. Every day he makes sure that 15 of his cows are milked at 5am and 5pm.

Better returns
He obtains about 450 litres of milk per day, 300 litres in the morning and 150 litres in the evening.
“There is a ready market for my milk locally, but my main outlet is hotels in Mbarara and sometimes we transport to bigger markets in major towns of Uganda,” he says.
To feed his cows, 10 acres of land have been set aside for growing maize solely for making silage. On another 10 acres he has planted Napier grass.

His cattle are kept in a zero-grazing unit which is more economical and allows for easy disease and pest control.
Matsiko says for one to succeed in dairy farming, you need to ensure there is enough water and feeds for the cattle.

“Once you have enough pasture, stock hay, silage, Napier grass and dairy meal and you will reap big,” he said.
Water is pumped into a big tank with capacity to store 630,000 liters. A spring in his farm ensures there is enough water during the dry season. He ensures that his cows are feed thrice a day. “We normally mix the ratio of feeds with enough silage, hay and Napier grass every morning and supplement them at around noon and also in the evening,” he said.

Sometimes, he obtains the dairy meal from the agricultural outlets in Mbarara which have the highest yielding dairy meal that gives better returns than other animal feeds.
In terms of breeding, Matsiko does not keep bulls, saying it is expensive to manage bulls in the farm. He instead he serves his cattle with semen from MBAZARDI.
“Once you serve them with quality semen you will be assured of getting a good calf which will be get used to your farm and will give you more milk,” he explains.

Not only dairy
At High Mark, Matsiko has decided to engage in other income generating activities that include a6.5 acre banana plantation which he says gets considerable harvests. He has also started at a zero grazing goat/sheep project, rabbittary and is leasing out a 60 acre land where he plants maize for feeds but also uses it to grow beans and soya bean.
Matsiko says these projects supplement his income in meeting demands to commercialise his farm.

Challenges
Mr Matsiko says one of the challenges they face is lack of committed and skilled labour especially in this region. He says the young and energetic youth have shunned working and are in gambling, booze that makes labour very expensive.