A Gweru-based farmer is making waves in dairy production and contributing to national milk targets after setting up a milk processing plant, in line with the Second Republic’s value addition and beneficiation thrust.
He has taken advantage of the Second Republic’s industrialisation and reindustrialisation efforts setting up a modern milking parlor that enables him to do business at ease.
The farmer who boasts of milking 400 cows per day has also set up some compressors for the preservation of milk products while anticipating growth in the near future.
“We are producing an average of 25 litres a day per cow so we are producing around 10000 liters a day.
We process a fortune of our milk and make sure there is milk and salad so that there are milk products here in Gweru and the balance of goes to Dendairy.
We would like to increase the size of our dairy cows and our aim is to reach 500 milking cows a day.
We started some five years ago and now we are at a point where we can milk 100 cows an hour.
We have invested in milk cooling compressors so those are currently being installed. Two are already running and we hope the other three are up and running in the next two or three months,” said dairy farmer, Mr Robert Anderson.
Government is impressed by efforts being made by farmers in growing the industry, pledging to support efforts to protect the industry.
“Our farmer has challenges to do with electricity. We will engage ZESA so that lines going to dairy farms are going to be disrupted.
Our Dairy farming is still expensive since they don’t have pastures and as government we are going to chip in and assist.
In a short space of time as in Africa, we will be implementing the free trade area.
This means more completion on the dairy front as more farmers will be coming to sell their milk products here,” said deputy Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water Fisheries and Rural Development, Hon Davis Marapira.
According to the Department of Dairy Services, milk production increased from 70 million litres to 115 million litres in 2023 and is projected to reach 132 million litres in 2025, above the 130 million litre target as the agriculture revival efforts by the Second Republic continue to record positive growth.
