by Mamusha Lemma, Abule Erbo and Addissu Abera
Lomi Kordofa LIVES supported dairy farmer (Photo Credit:ILRI\Addisu Abera).
Lomi Kordofa is a female-headed household. She farms at Illu Aga peasant association in Ejere District, West Shoa Zone. Ten years ago, a local non-governmental organization taught her to keep dairy cows. She started by keeping 14 local-breed cows, which she later sold to buy 5 cross-bred dairy cows.
Lomi says the main challenge in improving her dairy farm is lack of knowledge and skills in dairy production. She has attended training, study tours and has received coaching and mentoring support from the Livestock and Irrigation Value chains for Ethiopian Smallholders (LIVES) project on feed preparation, frequency of feeding and watering, barn design and construction as well as growing fodder crops and conservation of locally available feed resources.
Before the LIVES training, she used to graze her dairy cows in the field, where they lost energy due to mobility. Also, they were not housed properly and were not provided with sufficient water. The cowshed she had did not have a proper floor, and it was not suitable for the cows to stand, let alone sleep. And it is difficult and time-consuming to clean the shed.
Now she has learned the importance of proper shelter, the use of hay in the off-season, the need to provide sufficient water for her cows, and the importance of forage crops for dairy feed supplements. As a result of better feeding, watering and housing of her cows, they now produce more milk.
Lomi’s participation in continuous coaching and mentoring has enabled her to set up a custom designed barn for her cows, that includes an improved floor with sleeping mats, improved feeding and watering mangers and a separate space for the calves.
She says it’s now much easier and also takes less time to clean the barn, freeing her to do other activities. The cows are now able to sleep comfortably on the mats, which have also saved her much straw, which was previously used as bedding for the cows.
‘The condition of the cows has also improved because of better housing and feeding,’ she said. She adds that this improvement has resulted in enhanced milk production for her household. Milk production has increased from 8 to 14 litres on average from each of her cross-bred cows. She sells a litre of milk at ETB 12 in the local market. In addition to getting more milk, she also now has well-conditioned heifers, which come into heat relatively early.
After seeing the benefits of proper feeding of cows, Lomi has allocated more land to fodder production. She grows alfalfa and Desho grass using fertigation.
