Abstract:
Farm level post harvest milk losses (PHL) in smallholder and pastoral milking herds that
occur at milking, pooling, evening storage or at the farm gate delivery may be associated
with many farm practices. This study tested the hypotheses that PHL results from milk
hygiene practices, that feeding practices influence production and quality of milk, and that
milk market outlets influence milk hygiene and PHL. Data was obtained in cross sectional
survey, on-farm milk and feed sampling for quality and microbiological tests and targeted
on-farm interventions to improve feeding and milk quality. Hypotheses were tested with
Chi-square tests, analysis of variance and logistic regression. Mastitis prevalence within
smallholder dairy herds was 1.69 times more in rural than in peri-urban farms while
prevalence within pastoral camel herds was 1.56 times more in rangelands than in periurban herds. Mastitis positive milk samples had higher incidences of Staphylococcus aureus
than of Streptococcus species, both in smallholder (57.9% vs 23.7%) and pastoral (41.6%vs
36.5%) herds. High SCC was associated with high prevalence of mastitis and
Staphylococcus aureus. High SCC (≥4x 105cells/ml) was associated with PHL in pastoral
(58.8%), in smallholder rural (27%) and in smallholder peri-urban (7%) herds. Feed
diversity, quantity and quality (energy and crude protein) offered were better in rural than in
peri-urban smallholder herds but had little influence on milk yields. Feeding green forages
with crop residues and concentrates attained higher milk yields (10 kg to 14 kg per cow/day)
in smallholder herds. Feeding in pastoral herds included Euphorbia tirucalli in the periurban where nutritional quality was better than in rangelands and feeds had influence on
SCC and milk composition. Targeted intervention to improve feeding and milk quality in
smallholder herds enabled the intervention group to produce 19.9 -19.2% more milk relative
to control group, but intervention did not influence change in milk quality. Smallholders
participating in both formal and informal markets produced more milk (21.9 kg/day) than
those participating only in formal (≤14.7 kg/day) or informal (≤11.3 kg/day) market outlets.
Milk quality was generally higher in informal compared to formal market outlets and milk
price less than KES 28 a litre discouraged participation in formal markets (p=0.032). These
results show that substantial PHL results from milk handling hygiene practices and that
feeding practices influence volume and quality of milk produced while markets where
farmers sell milk has influence on milk handling hygiene and PHL experienced.
