Johnson Kipilimo, a 37-year-old resident of Turbo constituency in Uasin Gishu county has beaten all odds to earn a living through dairy farming.
Kipilimo, a father of three, began the farming job about ten years ago after being motivated by a friend who does farming as well.
"I began dairy farming as a career in early 2009 in Langas. Before then, I was a casual labourer in my friend's (James Keino) farm but I later resigned in order to start my own job and it is from Keino's farm that I learned dairy farming skills," he narrated.
Like any other venture, dairy farming has its challenges. For Kiplimo, some of the challenges he went through include raising capital to buy a dairy cattle and milking machines among other farm equipment.
He had to raise at least Sh200,00 as a start-up for the business. This, he was able to achieve after saving for five years which enabled him to expand his business.
Some of Kiplimo's dairy cows. [Source/Joram Lemaiyan]
"I worked for five good years and in 2013 after saving enough money, I decided to expand my already booming business. It is at this point that I bought other five pure breed cattle," said Kiplimo.
While expanding the business in 2013, Kiplimo also employed five other people to assist in running his business empire.
"My 8 dairy cattle produce about 200 litres of milk per day and I have secured tenders in several secondary schools and some universities where I supply milk daily thus earning a total of between Sh80,000 to Sh150,000 monthly," Kiplimo said happily.
"With the money, I pay school fees for my children in which two of them are in secondary school and one in university. he added.
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