Thriving in dairy farming amid high cost of feed

Prices of maize bran (madeya), which  is the most common feed for dairy cattle are way high this year compared to same time last year.

According to Chiotsya Milk Bulking group chairperson Lazalo Mwale in Dowa district, 10-litre pail of maize bran, which used to cost K500 last year, is now selling at K1500.

As if that is not enough, it is becoming more difficult to get that type of feed, and it reaches a point that only the highest bidder stands the chance to buy the commodity.

“Last year, the supply of maize bran was high but this year it is very low due to poor maize harvest. Previously, we used to supplement maize bran with groundnut residues but both are difficult to find this year.

“This is because groundnut yield was also affected by drought and rosette disease during the 2023/24 growing season,” lamented Mwale.

In the Southern Region, which was mostly hit by drought, the situation is even worse.

A dairy farmer who is also treasurer for Matapwata Milk Bulking group in Thyolo district Agnes Kunena said she and her fellow farmers are buying a 50-kilogramme bag of maize bran, which doesn’t even weigh that much, at K24 000.

According to her, the challenge is that because of the high cost of feed, they are not realising much profit from milk sales.

“It is difficult to find maize bran at maize mills despite that people have just harvested maize; hence, we are just sharing the little available among us, so that at least everyone has something to feed their animals,”she said.

Kunena said this has forced her to start cultivating maize under irrigation to make feed for her cattle so that she can get more milk, whose production has generally been reduced by half due to challenges of feeding the animals.

Although dairy farming has been affected by shortage of feed to this extent this year, Malawi Milk Producers Asssociation of Malawi (Mmpam) national director Herbert Chagona said this has not affected milk production at country level as the figue remains at 63 million litres and per capita at 9.3 litres per person per year. 

Despite the challenges, Chagona said that farmers are still thriving because of the profits that they realise in this farming.

“If a farmer has one cow today, next year he will have two, so apart from getting milk it has self-multiplication factor and there are alternatives to keep the dairy production going such as grass, hay and masese from breweries,” he said.

However, Chagona asked farmers to stock up enough maize bran as the scarcity will worsen this year that is between December and February in 2025.

An animal feed experts based in Kasungu district, Jacob Mwasinga, advised farmers to keep more maize stalks and treat them with urea fertiliser so that they produce more protein suitable for dairy farming to compensate the shortage of maize bran.

He also explained that rice bran, especially the soft one, can substitute maize bran.