This quarter we prepared for the short rains, and harvested the first of our 2023 crops.
Crops
Our first harvest is our bean seed crops planted in the long rains. We were delighted with our high germination rate of 96% (KEPHIS – the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service – requires a minimum of 80% for a registered seed crop).
We also planted 3 bean crops – KAT B1, Chelelang and KK8, and have a sorghum crop growing for both seed and silage.
We’ve also continued with our staple grass crop – both hay and seed Boma Rhodes, this provides crucial cash flow and is central to our crop rotations.
Livestock
Our cattle and sheep are thriving, having come out of the prolonged dry season in reasonably good health. We delivered a shipment of steers to Choice Meats, and have been continuing our work with artificial insemination (AI) to improve the genetics of our herd. You can read more about this here!
We did have some disease challenges this quarter, especially “blue tongue” in calves, which comes about when the cattle and the sheep are in close proximity. We vaccinated for foot and mouth as there were some cases in the region.
Life on the Farm
We’ve continued our tree planting efforts with eucalyptus and cyprus for timber in the future, and with fruit trees in the borehole compound, these have gone in with fairly wet conditions, and we hope the trees will be established by the dry season.
The challenges we faced in Q2 with the borehole have not yet been fixed, but we hope for a resolution soon. The rain has abated some of the water stress we faced last year, especially as we’re mostly able to depend on the fruits of investing in more water harvesting infrastructure.
Rajwera Farm 