Songa Dairy Farm

The research farm had a herd of Ankole cattle as a preserve of Ankole genetics. While milk production tends to be very low in these animals, their ability to withstand tropical heat is a genetic trait that can be useful for crossbreeding with Holstein-Friesian cows whose milk production is of course much greater.













Songa Dairy Farm was adjacent to the research station and is operated by the Ministry of Defence or MINADEF. At this farm about 90 cows are milked daily by hand yielding near 20 litres per cow or 1800 litres of daily milk production shipped for processing to a nearby processing plant in Nyanza. also operated by MINADEF.







The cows are pastured but supplemented with Napier grass and ground corn at the of milking in the barn. The milk cans are washed and dryed in the sun and delivered to the dairy after each milking.