Ojuna’s path to milking cash from cows

Dairy farming is James Alai Ojuna’s sole income earning initiative out of which he has been able to educate his two sons. He is calling upon farmers in northern Uganda to embrace dairy farming to boost the milk production in the region.

After an afternoon ride under a scorching sun to the eastern wing of Lira City for fact finding visit to the dairy farmer, one is thrilled by the zeal of the farmer who is busy grazing and tending to his cattle.

Ojuna, aged 59 a resident of Telela A cell village, Lira City is one of the farmers in northern Uganda who treasures dairy farming which is a rare characteristic among livestock farmers in the region who are interested in keeping cattle for beef.

Upon arriving on his farm, you see an average elderly man who is keen in looking after his cows although he is worried that the prolonged dry season is not favourable because there is scarcity of water and pasture.

Background

Mr Ojuna narrates to Seeds of Gold that he grew up in a cattle keeping family.  His parents kept animal breeds both for beef and dairy cows mainly the local type but well fed for purposes of producing milk. Having studied up to Senior Six and failed to proceed due to lack of school fees, he ventured into teaching French language which he had learnt during his education but along the way he opted to concentrate on dairy farming.

This was after going to attend a course on sustainable agriculture in 1995 at National Agricultural Research Organisation (Naro) agricultural research centre at Kamenyamiggo in Masaka District.

How he started

In 1992 he took over part of the family land which is not far from Lira City and started a dairy farm. He started with local breeds but later crossed to exotic breeds to obtain better breeds.

At the moment he has expanded the land to 42 acres where he resides with the main activity being dairy farming. By 1999 he already had 11 Friesian cows which were able to produce 100 litres of milk every day which was sold at Shs500 per litre.

Demand driven

Ojuna says the reason he has majored in dairy farming is because there is enormous demand for milk in the region especially for children in homesteads as well as hotels and restaurants but not many farmers are interested in keeping dairy cows.  At the moment Ojuna has 14 dairy cows which are productive and he is maintaining two on his Lira farm but he took the rest to a village in Apac District because of lack water on the city farm.

From his two lactating cows, Ojuna milks between 20 and 24 litres daily with the high-yielder offering 18 litres. He sells each litre at Shs2,000.

“The cost of producing one litre of milk is between Shs900 and Shs1,000, so I make some profit and this is because I grow and formulate the feeds on my own. The challenge is that the cost of the raw materials has gone up yet the milk prices have not improved,” observes Ojuna.

However, over the last two years he has been milking between 50 and 60 litres per day and he is intending to revamp his farm with the help from Naro experts who are currently upgrading dairy farms in northern region into modern farms.

Model farm

His farm has been a model farm where students pursuing agriculture courses in Lira University and other nearby institutions come to carry out their practical research internship activities on his farm.

He says as soon as the expected facility for modern dairy farm production is complete, he will stop taking his cows to a village setting in search for water and pasture.

The dairy farming has been his sole income earning initiative out of which he has been able to educate his two sons and he is calling upon farmers in northern Uganda to embrace dairy farming to boost the milk production in the region.

Ojuna notes that people in northern Uganda occassionally drink milk yet it is full of nutrients.

To him dairy farm is gold because one cannot fail to make money from sale of milk.

Interventions

Scientists at Naro under their project Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (Dinu) Chase Hunger and poverty are tasked with sensitising and setting model dairy farms in various villages in northern Uganda.

This is purposefully to set up dairy farms in the region to boost the milk production in the region and right now they have identified farmers and farmer groups that have been engaged in dairy farming.

Mr Ojuna is one of the beneficiary farmers since the Naro team has already constructed a modern animal stud on his farm.

It comprises a cow shed for sheltering animals, feeding section as well as facility for drinking water, water reservoir tank, bio gas facility for generating energy both for cooking and lighting using cow dung collected and a facility for making silage and hay among others.

He is expected to grow grass of various species on farm and he has already cleared four acres of land for the same.

Management

Scientists at the National Agricultural Livestock Resources Research Institute are already breeding animals from a technology where they fertilise embryo of exotic dairy cows and transfer it into cows for quick growth.

This is mainly to boost the dairy production of farmers in northern Uganda in Acholi and Lango sub region. Mr Ojuna is going to get two Friesian cows from this technology to add onto his existing dairy cows.

He notes that his farm is going to act as training ground for other farmers who are already practising dairy farming in Lango sub region. The intention is to come and learn and adopt the model which they can go and set up as individual farms or as a group.

According to Ojuna, since the Naro model comprises of water catchment facility and pasture processing, it will be easy to manage the hybrid cows.

Animal breed

The process of embryo transfers is processed from 500 pure Jersey cows and 20 bulls which the scientists acquired from Denmark for purposes of semen and embryo extraction to effect fertilisation.

There is a growing urge among scientists and cattle breeders to quicken the process of calf production.  This is possible through application of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) of embryos. This process involves harvesting oocytes (a cell in an ovary) from donor cows and creating embryos by fertilising them with semen in a laboratory. The embryo is then implanted into a recipient otherwise known as surrogate cow.

Farmers who are keen on breeding improved animals for milk production can as well practice this technology.

Since the Naro scientists have the option of transferring already fertilised embryos in a facility at Ngetta Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute, farmers such as Ojuna can take the advantage to acquire the technology for onward practice.

The advantage with this technology is that once the calf produced by the surrogate mother grows, it goes into production earlier at 15 months compared to natural birth cows which may produce after 24 months or more.

Ojuna’s path to milking cash from cows

James Alai Ojuna has 11 dairy cows of the Brown Swiss, Ayrshire and Friesian breeds kept under the zero-grazing system. The animals do not only give him milk but also the manure that has come in handy as the cost of fertiliser rises.

lominda afedraru

Dairy farming is James Alai Ojuna’s sole income earning initiative out of which he has been able to educate his two sons. He is calling upon farmers in northern Uganda to embrace dairy farming to boost the milk production in the region.

After an afternoon ride under a scorching sun to the eastern wing of Lira City for fact finding visit to the dairy farmer, one is thrilled by the zeal of the farmer who is busy grazing and tending to his cattle.

Ojuna, aged 59 a resident of Telela A cell village, Lira City is one of the farmers in northern Uganda who treasures dairy farming which is a rare characteristic among livestock farmers in the region who are interested in keeping cattle for beef.

Upon arriving on his farm, you see an average elderly man who is keen in looking after his cows although he is worried that the prolonged dry season is not favourable because there is scarcity of water and pasture.

Background

Mr Ojuna narrates to Seeds of Gold that he grew up in a cattle keeping family.  His parents kept animal breeds both for beef and dairy cows mainly the local type but well fed for purposes of producing milk. Having studied up to Senior Six and failed to proceed due to lack of school fees, he ventured into teaching French language which he had learnt during his education but along the way he opted to concentrate on dairy farming.

This was after going to attend a course on sustainable agriculture in 1995 at National Agricultural Research Organisation (Naro) agricultural research centre at Kamenyamiggo in Masaka District.

How he started

In 1992 he took over part of the family land which is not far from Lira City and started a dairy farm. He started with local breeds but later crossed to exotic breeds to obtain better breeds.

At the moment he has expanded the land to 42 acres where he resides with the main activity being dairy farming. By 1999 he already had 11 Friesian cows which were able to produce 100 litres of milk every day which was sold at Shs500 per litre.

Demand driven

Ojuna says the reason he has majored in dairy farming is because there is enormous demand for milk in the region especially for children in homesteads as well as hotels and restaurants but not many farmers are interested in keeping dairy cows.  At the moment Ojuna has 14 dairy cows which are productive and he is maintaining two on his Lira farm but he took the rest to a village in Apac District because of lack water on the city farm.

From his two lactating cows, Ojuna milks between 20 and 24 litres daily with the high-yielder offering 18 litres. He sells each litre at Shs2,000.

“The cost of producing one litre of milk is between Shs900 and Shs1,000, so I make some profit and this is because I grow and formulate the feeds on my own. The challenge is that the cost of the raw materials has gone up yet the milk prices have not improved,” observes Ojuna.

However, over the last two years he has been milking between 50 and 60 litres per day and he is intending to revamp his farm with the help from Naro experts who are currently upgrading dairy farms in northern region into modern farms.

Model farm

His farm has been a model farm where students pursuing agriculture courses in Lira University and other nearby institutions come to carry out their practical research internship activities on his farm.

He says as soon as the expected facility for modern dairy farm production is complete, he will stop taking his cows to a village setting in search for water and pasture.

The dairy farming has been his sole income earning initiative out of which he has been able to educate his two sons and he is calling upon farmers in northern Uganda to embrace dairy farming to boost the milk production in the region.

Ojuna notes that people in northern Uganda occassionally drink milk yet it is full of nutrients.

To him dairy farm is gold because one cannot fail to make money from sale of milk.

Interventions

Scientists at Naro under their project Development Initiative for Northern Uganda (Dinu) Chase Hunger and poverty are tasked with sensitising and setting model dairy farms in various villages in northern Uganda.

This is purposefully to set up dairy farms in the region to boost the milk production in the region and right now they have identified farmers and farmer groups that have been engaged in dairy farming.

Mr Ojuna is one of the beneficiary farmers since the Naro team has already constructed a modern animal stud on his farm.

It comprises a cow shed for sheltering animals, feeding section as well as facility for drinking water, water reservoir tank, bio gas facility for generating energy both for cooking and lighting using cow dung collected and a facility for making silage and hay among others.

He is expected to grow grass of various species on farm and he has already cleared four acres of land for the same.

Management

Scientists at the National Agricultural Livestock Resources Research Institute are already breeding animals from a technology where they fertilise embryo of exotic dairy cows and transfer it into cows for quick growth.

This is mainly to boost the dairy production of farmers in northern Uganda in Acholi and Lango sub region. Mr Ojuna is going to get two Friesian cows from this technology to add onto his existing dairy cows.

He notes that his farm is going to act as training ground for other farmers who are already practising dairy farming in Lango sub region. The intention is to come and learn and adopt the model which they can go and set up as individual farms or as a group.

According to Ojuna, since the Naro model comprises of water catchment facility and pasture processing, it will be easy to manage the hybrid cows.

Animal breed

The process of embryo transfers is processed from 500 pure Jersey cows and 20 bulls which the scientists acquired from Denmark for purposes of semen and embryo extraction to effect fertilisation.

There is a growing urge among scientists and cattle breeders to quicken the process of calf production.  This is possible through application of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) of embryos. This process involves harvesting oocytes (a cell in an ovary) from donor cows and creating embryos by fertilising them with semen in a laboratory. The embryo is then implanted into a recipient otherwise known as surrogate cow.

Farmers who are keen on breeding improved animals for milk production can as well practice this technology.

Since the Naro scientists have the option of transferring already fertilised embryos in a facility at Ngetta Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute, farmers such as Ojuna can take the advantage to acquire the technology for onward practice.

The advantage with this technology is that once the calf produced by the surrogate mother grows, it goes into production earlier at 15 months compared to natural birth cows which may produce after 24 months or more.