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Livestock

Forage harvester for cheaper farm feed production costs

John DoeJ
EntrepreneurPatrickLocationNairobi, Kenya
Project status
100%funded
$1,399raised
100%paid forward

Am a passionate dairy farmer and a sports coach in the sport of badminton. I practice my dairy farming in Bomet county where i focus on keeping dairy cows for production of milk for sale and breed the rest of the cows for sale.

Am currently in the process of expanding the size of the farm in order to have it as a full time job as i have to keep another job in Nairobi so as to sustain the dairy farm. Its full potential has not been realized and therefore have to continue investing for the next few months when the cows calve down and start producing milk.

While away from the farm, I also offer badminton coaching services. Sports coaching takes place in tho exclusive clubs in the Nairobi's park-lands area.

My main source of income are from the dairy farm and also the coaching services.

I make an average of between US dollars 200 and US dollars 450 per month depending on the month. At the moment, the net returns are mostly invested back into the dairy farm in order to aid the current expansion.

Most of the other income come from the business of buying and selling of badminton sports equipment which include badminton rackets, shuttles, grips and racket strings.

My intention is to fully commercialize my dairy farming business so that i can fully settle into the farm and focus in the commercial production of milk for sale.

My other major source of income will originate from the sale of cows to other farmers.

Lenders,

Thank you for entrusting me with the previous loan facility. It's with great humility that I once again submit a proposal for a financial support. 

I am seeking for a funding towards a purchase of a single row forage harvestor for the farm. So far, I have  a herd of 30 cows in the farm. Out of the 30 heads, the mature milking cows are 15. The 15 milkers though productive, income from them cannot meet all the daily farm expenditures as well as aportion a profit margin that can pay off a quality used forage machine at one go.  I hereby seek for a loan facility in order to acquire a forager for my maize fodder. The cost of hiring a contractor to chop my maize fodder is very expensive. About 10,000kshs (100USD) per acre. Since I do plant 15 acres for my cows, that totals to 150,000Kshs (1500USD) paid in two crop seasons a year. By purchasing my own machine, I'll be able to save about 60% of the contractor cost as it costs an average of 4,000Kshs (400USD) per acre with my own forage machine. The savings translates to about 90,000 (900USD) of savings every two seasons from the 15 acres!! Such big savings will buffer cashflow at the farm leading to better profitability. A well used second hand Claas 25 forage harvestor will cost about 250,000 KES( approx 2500 USD).  With the advanced loan of 140000 KES( 1400 USD), I'll be able to top up the balance with the current savings from the farm account.

Besides the reduced contactor costs in the farm, the forage harvestor will also generate extra income for the farm through provision of fodder chopping services to the many farmers in my local neighborhood. Most farmers lack efficient fodder harvesting machines and my forage harvestor will fill in the existing gap.

Thanks and looking forward to a positive feedback.