Heifers getting the nod ahead of bulls

• Breeders turn to new technology to restore national dairy herd and satisfy demand

The country needs to take up new technologies to replenish an acute shortage of heifers and meet the rapidly growing market demand, livestock breeders have said.

From a projection of a livestock census conducted in 1969, it is estimated that Kenya has about 3.5 million dairy cows which is however an arbitrarily figure.

Due to a reduction in the number of dairy cattle as a result of the post-poll crisis, local cattle breeders are now using a new system that they refer to as sex selected semen or sexed up semen to influence the sex of calves born with a bias to heifers as opposed to bulls.

This is aimed at speeding up the process of replenishing the national dairy herd.

During the post-election violence, it was estimated that farmers lost about 170,000 cows worth Sh10 billion.

Dr Josh Odhiambo the chief executive of World-Wide Sires E.A Ltd, one of the distributors of the technology. says the method has an over 90 per cent chance of producing a heifer.

To use this service, Dr Odhiambo says it requires specialised handling and the use of the most fertile animals that have the highest conception rates especially young heifers (virgin heifers).

He says the cost of sexed up semen is high and hence farmers must be very careful when handling it.

Currently, a dose of sexed semen costs between Sh5,000 and Sh8,000, which is expensive for farmers given the high cost of animal production.

“Processing this semen is expensive and equipment is costly. A normal ejaculation contains about 100 doses while you might end up with only two doses when extracting the sexed semen making the process expensive,” Dr Odhiambo says.

World Wide Sires has dispersed 1035 doses of sexed semen for three breeds of Holstein-Friesian, Ayrshire, and Jersey to farmers, meaning about 930 new heifers have been created.

Mr Odhiambo says the semen can be found at various agro veterinary shops as many companies have started to distribute it.

Mr Isaac Kamau, the firm’s regional manager for North Rift, says that the region has received 100 doses that have all worked.

“Although this form of insemination is expensive, it is working. All cows that have been inseminated have given birth to heifers,” Mr Kamau told the Sunday Nation in a telephone conversation.

“We have invested a lot of money in this process but we are seeing fruits. This service can be usually be of benefit to single hold farmers who want to increase the number of their cows since with the technology one is likely to get heifers,” said a manager at Nyairo Farm in Kitale.

Ms Nyokabi Kirika, a farmer in Nairobi, says that she bought four doses of sexed semen and her cows sired four heifers that are currently pregnant.

Mr Teurie Van Helden a member of the Kenya Livestock Breeders Organisation (KLBO) says a show dubbed Brookside Livestock Breeders is happening from June 10-12 at Jamhuri Park to showcase livestock and conduct seminars on available technologies such as sexed semen.

Mr Van Helden says that the price of health dairy cattle has shot up by over 30 per cent.