This is a guest post from Lexie Reed, a Vets Without Borders volunteer who visited the Ex Lewa dairy in Kenya for a few days in August and sent along these photos and comments.
This is Lexie and her partner, Laura Michalovic, who was also one of the VWB vet student volunteers in Kenya this summer.
I met with some of the farmers on their farms for consultations and had the opportunity to talk to them. They had some wonderful feedback about how FHF volunteer and staff visits have helped them and their cows so I thought I would share the photos and the quotes.
Judy Kiendel and Rael Nkuene
Judy and Rael have been receiving advice from Farmers Helping Farmers for the past four years. Since then, their cows have gone from producing an average of 4 litres a day to 10-15 litres each. “We have learned a lot about nutrition – about Napier grass, and when to cut it, and about feeding dairy meal to the cows.”
Featured in the photos are Judy, her two farm workers, and Mischek, one of the Ex Lewa board members.
Cyrus Marete
Cyrus has been receiving advice from Farmers Helping Farmers for the past five years. Since then, his cow’s milk production has increased from 3-4 litres of milk per day to 10-12 litres of milk per day. Farmers Helping Farmers has given him advice on cow nutrition and comfort.
“They taught me a lot about how nutrition and cleanliness affect the quality of the milk.”
This is the VWB team and FHF employees during the visit to Ex Lewa.
P.E.I. Kenya 2019 