KENYA – Quality is translating to better pay in dairy industry after processor start paying bonuses of up to 30 per cent to farmers for milk with exceptionally high-fat content and solids and low bacteria.
Dairy company Bio Foods is spearheading quality-based milk payments by paying farmers from Sh58 to Sh65 per litre, depending on the quality of the milk. The payments are up to 17 shillings higher per litre than the current Sh48-50 buying prices.
“We give farmers bonuses based on their milk’s total plate count values. Below 100,000, we give them a two-shilling bonus a litre, and for butterfat and protein we give them another bonus,” explained Amos Maina, the quality team lead at Bio Food Products.
The company is also working to supply select farmers with free antibiotic test kits that will test the safety and quality of their milk before they deliver it.
To supply milk to Bio Foods Maina explains that farmers need to deliver extremely hygienic milk that has a less than 400,000 TPC count compared to the Kenya Bureau of Standard’s recommended two million TPC count.
The standard plate count, sometimes also referred to as the total plate count, of a producer raw milk samples gives an indication of the total number of aerobic bacteria present in the milk at the time of pickup.
The most common causes of a high SPC is dirty milking equipment, poor cooling, poor udder preparation and poor milk storage at the farm level. Mastitic cows shedding bacteria can also cause high counts.
According to the Kenya Dairy Board, milk quality is judged on its composition, i.e., fat content and milk solids (the milk powder left after water is removed) as well as the bacterial count in milk.
The higher the bacterial count the more diseases the milk carries and the faster it spoils. Judging milk on its quality rather than quantity will avoid milk being diluted and ensure that the milk produced by farmers is safe and of the highest quality.
Maina explained the company also performs aflatoxin tests on all the raw milk supplies so farmers must be keen not to store their feed in a moist area with exposure to sunlight as this promotes aflatoxin fungus in feeds which is translated into the cow and its milk.
In addition, hydrogen peroxide tests are conducted to ensure that no water is mixed into the milk. As for protein and butterfat content in milk, it is mainly influenced by the breed of a cow and what it is fed on.
Whole milk from Friesian cows contains on average 3.6 per cent whole milk while milk from Jersey cows contains a much higher five per cent butterfat content.
