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Dairy Farming in Kenya – An Overview

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CURRENT REALITY of Dairy Farming in Kenya

Calculated at international prices, cow milk is the most significant agricultural commodity for Kenya. (FAOSTAT)

The formal Dairy Farming in Kenya industry is now the fastest growing agricultural sub-sector in Kenya.

There are over thirty registered Dairy Farming in Kenya processors in the country, but four large processors dominate the industry.

  • Brookside – 39% –  East Africa leading dairy. With fully fledged operations in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Brookside Dairy has the largest farmers’ network, milk collection and storage capacity in the region.
  • New KCC – 31 % – processing and marketing milk and milk products. such as fresh milk, cheese, long life milk both flavored and unflavored, fermented milk both flavored and unflavored, yogurt, ghee and powdered milk both whole and skimmed variants.
  • SpinKnit – 13% – was founded in 1996 after the liberalization of the dairy sector.. The company started as a mini dairy processing plant in Nakuru with a distribution fleet of 3 vehicles. The fleet has now grown rapidly, to over 150 vehicles at the current production site in Nairobi’s Industrial Area.
  • Githunguru – 9% – was registered in August 1961 with a membership of 31. The society started with one collection center, which have increased to 58 fully computerized to date. Currently the cooperative has grown tremendously to 17,000 registered members, annual turn over of Kshs 3 billion and an average of 170,000 liters of milk per day.

These four account for over 92% of the formal market. This group of three is constantly looking for new milk sources to fill processing plants to capacity; capacity utilization in the industry is at a low 40%.

In the informal Dairy Farming in Kenya market:

  • 70-80% of milk production comes from smallholders of which there is an estimated 1 million households producing milk.
  • Most of the dairy production is concentrated in Rift Valley and Central Province. 53% of dairy cattle is found in Rift Valley and 25% in Central Province.
  • Due to low usage of commercial feeds and high reliability on available grass, the production is highly dependent on weather.
When compared to best practices, most of Kenyan smallholders practice the opposite. They do not use AI, do not feed the cows properly, do not water them properly and use a minimum, if any, preventive health care. This results in low genetic quality of cows which substantially under-produce even in respect to their already limited potential due to poor health and insufficient nutrient intake. Complete reliance on grazing also makes milk production seasonal.
Some information on this and the following pages The Dairy Value Chain in Kenya written by the East Africa Dairy Development Program in August.

Dairy Farming in Kenya

My Story

I reside near Nyahururu town LAIKIPIA DISTRICT, Kenya, East Africa. I am a proud dDairy Farming in Kenya. I have 5 dairy cows (4 Friesians and 1 Ayreshire), 2 Heifers that have been served and three young calves (about 10 months old). I have three and a half acres of land where I graze as well as grow fodder for the dairy cows.

I have mixed system of farming or integrated farming whereby being a dairy farmer I also practice fish farming, poultry farming, sell fodder (hay) and grow subsistence crops. These farm enterprises make my overall operations more efficient and profitable. This comes about by sharing space, inputs, byproducts and labor.

However, dairy farming is my major source of income. Below are areas and activities in my dairy farm:

  1. Overview – Dairy Farming in Kenya
  2. Feeding
  3. Production
  4. Management, Insemination, De-worming, and Sales

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