Journal
Field notes from Isinya
The herd, the feed, the building and the weather, written by the people doing it, including the parts that go wrong.
- Written by
- The farm team
- Cadence
- As it happens
- Subjects
- Feed · stock · building
- Archive
- 6 entries
4 min
Why the feed goes in before the animals
The quickest way to grow a livestock farm is to buy more livestock. We grow grass, store water and fill a roof with hay first, and this is the arithmetic behind that order.
5 min
Eucalyptus, mabati and a cut drum
How the night housing is built: treated gum posts, a tin roof, open sides and plastic drums sawn in half for feeders. Cheap is the wrong word for it.
4 min
The evening return
The whole headquarters is laid out around one hour of the day: the herd walking home, drinking, eating and being shut in.
5 min
Galla, Dorper and the humped cow
Why these three, and not the animals that look best in a sale catalogue. Choosing stock for a dry place is mostly a list of what it has to survive.
5 min
What black cotton soil will tell you
Before a post goes in or a fodder block is sown, we dig a test pit. Heavy clay is good for grass and bad for buildings, and the pit shows both.
4 min
Two rains and a long dry
Kajiado does not have four seasons. It has two rains and a long dry, and a livestock farm here is really a plan for the dry, made during the wet.
