Home feed mix key in cutting down costs for livestock production

The Lecture theatre is fully parked at the Livestock ServicesCo-operative Society in the Lusaka Agriculture and Commercial Show grounds, as a youthful Mulele Nakweti an animal nutritionist runs through the theoretical part of home feed mixing.

Participants, some retirees old enough to be his father have their eyes and ears locked on the 26 year old graduate from the University of Zambia because the direction of their next phase in life, livestock farming entirely relies on him amidst the high cost of feed.

Mulele during a lecture

This is but one of the many seminars mostly free offered at the Society’s Technical Centre designed to help farmers reduce their operation costs while increasing their profits.

Today’s (Saturday May, 20, 2017) focus is general livestock feed production a run through the major requirements of feed.

Mulele tells me in an interview after the seminar that the emphasis is thorough mixing of feed which is one thing that farmers fail to archive. He says the core of the seminar is how one can achieve feed production using available simple tools and raw materials to improve their animals’ nutrition while cutting down on costs.

“Mainly we look at the costs, it is much cheaper to make your own feed than buying. We’re talking about 30percent savings which is a lot of money over a long period of time,” says the soft spoken Mulele.

 

Rise in interests for feed production

Mulele says the over two years that the seminars have been running have seen a rise in interest on feed production as many people venture into the fast money poultry production but turn to producing their own feed in a bid to improve their profits while keeping costs low.

He says the centre offers feed production seminars for all types of livestock from poultry, goats, sheep, and cattle both for calf and dairy production.

“We’ve introduced a third new course on beef production and everyone interested should come and attend,” notes the soft spoken Mulele.

On fears by some people that the seminars cost a lot, Mulele quickly chips in emphasizing that all seminars offered at the Centre are free except for home feed mixing and meat processing which takes place at Day Break Farm owing to purchases of raw materials used for practical lessons.

 

Practical lessons

After nearly three hours of intense theory, Mulele moves his students to the lab where Philip Phiri the elderly technician in charge of the lab awaits to run through the hands on job of feed mixing. On his table are key ingredients such as fish feed, soya meal and maize meal (number three meal) alongside a digital scale and measuring bucket.

Mr. Phiri reiterates Mulele’s sentiments that home feed mixing is cheap as all raw materials required like soya beans, sunflower and maize are now available locally following an increase in the number of farmers growing them.

“I was computing per 50kg bag formulae for broiler grower and found that farmers would spend K152.15 on ingredients while buying already made feed for the same would cost them K228.98 meaning that they could be saving around K76.83,” notes Mr. Phiri.

Mr. Philip Phiri during a session with participants

 

The seminar on feed mixing provides a general guidance on use of available ingredients which should contain the exact nutritional elements and requirements but farmers can be able to produce feed for whatever livestock they are involved in rearing.

“When feed is mixed it has to meet all the necessary nutritional requirements meaning we need to have carbohydrates which become energy, we need proteins which we get from amino acids for the birds to grow and we need minerals like dicalcium phosphate for strengthening of the bones so that they are strong enough to walk around and get food and water,” he notes.

Some of the participants following the practicals

 

Mr. Phiri delves into a secret behind feed production to keep costs low such as grinding bubble fish or Kapenta which is small type of fish in Zambia in place of fish meal which may turn out to be costly. The number three maize meal can actually be found with millers in the townships while dicalcium phosphate is a by-product of cement just as soya cake is a by-product of soya beans after extraction of cooking oil. Soya cake is readily available as many people have set up cooking oil extracting machines in many townships.

The lime added is among the cheapest ingredients costing a paltry K10 per 50kg bag.

 

Motivation for participants

“I’ve been inspired to attend this course because I’ve just retired from employment and I want to migrate to the village. I’m setting base in my village in Chadiza for my next phase of life to take up farming of all types. This seminar will help me a lot especially that I noticed there was a lot of bias toward poultry production although these are general principles of feed production.” Raphael Phiri - Retiree

“I thought of doing something different, venturing into something new that’s why I came to attend this seminar so that I can learn how to mix feed on my own. I have learnt that there are so many advantages of home feed mixing because you save a lot in terms of profits. I’m now just trying to mobilize finances then will venture into poultry farming.”  Getrude Mwanza--Fridge Repairer

Upcoming seminars

Upcoming seminars for this quarter are as tabulated below:

MAY

DATE	COURSE	TIME
Wednesday 24th May, 2017	Sheep and Goat Production (Mr. Daka) -Free	08:00 to 12:00
Saturday 27th May, 2017	Pig Production (Dr. Chijikwa)- Free	08:00 to 12:00
Saturday 27th May, 2017	Meat Processing (Mr. Nchito 0977 782636) K75 Venue: Day Break Farm, Kafue Road	08:00 to 16:00
Wednesday 31st, May, 2017	Principles of Home Feed mixing (Mr. Phiri/Mulele)K50 Venue: Livestock Services Lecture room	08:00 to 12:00

 

JUNE

DATE	COURSE	TIME
Saturday 3rd June, 2017	Dairy reproduction and management, (Dr. Mutemwa) free	08:00 to 12:00
Wednesday 7th June, 2017	Fish Farming-Aquaculture (Frank Mukuka), free	08:00 to 12:00
Saturday 10th June, 2017	Crop Production (Omega), free	08:00 to 12:00
Tuesday 13th June, 2017	Beef Production, free	08:00 to 12:00
Wednesday 14th June, 2017	Pig Production, (Dr. Chijikwa), free	08:00 to 12:00
Saturday 17th June, 2017	Sheep and Goat Production (Mr. Daka) -Free	08:00 to 12:00
Wednesday 21st June, 2017	Egg Production (Dr. Zyambo), free	08:00 to 12:00
Saturday 24th June, 2017	Quail Production, (Mulele), Free	08:00 to 12:00
Saturday 24th June, 2017	Meat Processing (Mr. Nchito 0977 782636) K75 Venue: Day Break Farm, Kafue Road	08:00 to 16:00