Effects of Calliandra and Sesbania on Daily Milk Production in Dairy Cows on Commercial Smallholder Farms in Kenya
Table 2
Descriptive statistics for farm-visit level categorical variables for unconditional mixed linear regressions for variables with associations with natural log of daily milk production from 607 farm-visit observations to 80 smallholder dairy farms near Meru, Kenya, in 2016–2017.
Variable and categories
Percentage in comparison group (n = 95 farm visits)
Mean daily milk production (liters)
Percentage in nutrition group (n = 219 farm visits)
Mean daily milk production (liters)
Percentage in combined group (n = 199 farm visits)
Mean daily milk production (liters)
Percentage in reproduction group (n = 94 farm visits)
Mean daily milk production (liters)
value for difference in ln milk production
Concentrate supplementation
0.184
Yes
70.5% (67)
6.0
76.7% (168)
6.7
77.4% (154)
6.5
71.3% (67)
5.8
No
29.5% (28)
5.8
23.3% (51)
5.9
22.6% (45)
5.9
28.7% (27)
4.9
Changes in concentrate amounts
0.091
Yes
6.0% (4)
8.6
18.5% (31)
7.0
16.2% (25)
6.1
11.9% (8)
6.2
No
94.0% (63)
5.7
81.5% (137)
6.4
83.8% (129)
6.4
88.1% (59)
5.4
Napier grass fed
0.002
Yes
85.3% (81)
6.2
82.2% (180)
6.4
82.4% (164)
6.5
70.2% (66)
5.8
No
14.7% (14)
4.5
17.8% (39)
6.8
17.6% (35)
5.9
29.8% (28)
5.1
Sudden change in feed
0.002
Yes
13.8% (13)
5.9
18.7% (41)
6.4
19.1% (38)
6.4
13.8% (13)
4.7
No
86.2% (82)
5.9
81.3% (178)
6.5
80.9% (161)
6.4
86.2% (81)
5.7
Season
0.033
Dry
78.9% (75)
5.8
74.9% (164)
6.6
75.4% (150)
6.4
62.8% (59)
5.7
Wet
21.1% (20)
6.6
25.1% (55)
6.1
24.6% (49)
6.5
37.2% (35)
5.4
Reproduction farms were visited as frequently as the nutrition and combined farms. However, some farm visit entries on reproduction farms were removed from the model analysis since these farms only had dry cows on these occasions (14%).
