What another wet quarter! We’ve been blessed with more rain, our dams are full, the crops are thriving and the livestock have masses of grazing.
Crops
We planted another crop of beans for the short rains, this includes KAT B1, KK8 and Chelelang. This is critical to replacing our stocks as bean seed sales in the south rift (Mulot, Bomet area) were strong this quarter, with smallholder farmers making the most of the extra El Nino rain we received this year.
The rain was a mixed blessing though, as there is plenty of forage across the country (especially since livestock numbers haven’t quite recovered since the last drought) so hay sales were very poor.
This quarter we also harvested grass seed from our Boma rhodes fields.
Livestock
Our Jerseys have settled in nicely and are producing great milk, we are in the process of setting up systems to professionalize the dairy, for now we are selling milk through our local Ol Rongai Milk Cooperative.
Despite vaccinating all of our cows, we had quite a bad bout of foot and mouth that, unusually for us, especially affected the cattle’s feet. Ordinarily we experience most foot and mouth symptoms in the mouth, which we are accustomed to treating. We nursed the affected livestock back to health as quickly as possible, though the rain and muddy conditions were an added challenge.
This quarter we sent a lorry of lambs to Choice Meats, we’re proud that all of our lambs received the premium grade. The sheep are all grass fed as part of our rotation, this comes through in the high quality of meat!
Life on the farm
We’ve been investing further in water infrastructure, this will be key to the farm’s resilience in future especially during drought years and will reduce our reliance on trucking water on the farm.
Our latest additions are some ridgeback puppies, who aren’t too sure about cows yet, but we know they’ll be getting along in no time!
Rajwera Farm 