The rains have come and we’ve been busy this quarter!
The whole country faced severe flooding in April and May, we were not immune as several catchments on the farm are fed by drainage from surrounding roads. Our main dam was full for the first time, but did not overflow.
We were also really pleased to see no runoff from any of our own fields, unlike over grazed areas on neighbouring farms, proving our concept for crop rotation resulting in healthier soils able to maximise water retention.
At the same time, we have been laying pipes for distributing water to cattle troughs and other points around the farm, this will reduce the cost in distributing water.
Crops
April always means planting, planting, planting! And we’ve been busy! This season as part of our usual rotation and in anticipation of good rains, we have planted seed maize, beans, sorghum and grass. We were flat out managing field preparation, planting and subsequent scouting and pest management.
The crops are all doing well, with the maize seed crop ready for detasseling in June. We continue to monitor wildlife threats, especially reed buck and guinea fowl which love to eat shoots, and wild pigs which will eat freshly planted seeds and small cobs.
The beans harvested in Q1 have met our consistently high quality, with KEPHIS returning 99% and 98% for Kat B1 and KK8 germination tests respectively.
Livestock
We’ve had an exciting development this quarter, bringing in a new herd of dairy cattle from the Hairy Dairy. These beautiful Jersey cattle will join our existing dairy cows as we develop this aspect of our livestock program.
In another first for us, we’re going to start breeding from one of our own AI bred bulls, this young Charolais cross should fill out and provide great genetics for our beef herd.
Additionally, we’ve been managing Foot and Mouth alerts in the area, with a vaccination program for all cows.
Life on the Farm
Loloto left us again, giving us time to fix fences and collect trees he has knocked over, we hope he’ll be safe until he returns.
In 2023, we shared information on our efforts to clear Lantana, an invasive shrub that smothers pasture, we recently commissioned a wood chipper, which will enable us to further deal with this threat while producing mulch returning biomass to the soil.
Lamu
While we were planting on the farm, we were also planting at the coast! This year we planted 500 mangroves along the beach at Mnazi Mmoja, in line with broader efforts in Lamu county to conserve mangrove cover to reduce beach erosion and create more habitat for marine life.
We’ve also been planting fruit trees for several years now, and these are starting to bear (delicious!) fruit!
Rajwera Farm 