Wamalwa

During the past five months I have been able to gain enormous knowledge and experience in handling and management of different animals. I have been trained on breeding, feed formulation, routine animal management, disease management in animals and marketing of animal products such as milk.

These are attributed to the CoEIB team for offering me this very opportunity to undertake my internship at the Centre.

I have been able undergo through different units and sections within the Centre and learnt the following;

At the zero grazing unit, I was able learn the dairy management practices including feeding, vaccination, cleaning, milking, calf management among many others. It is then that I learnt different ways of feeding a cow. These included hey i.e. Bomarods, dairy animal feed (which is processed within the organization) and supplements and I also realized that Feeding is done thrice a day. Early in the morning, mid-day and in the evening.

I vaccinated against several cattle diseases i.e. east coast fever and also monitored in case of an outbreak of a disease which calls for immediate attention.

My next station was at the apiary, here I participated in bee stocking, routine management and harvesting. Despite its dangerous scene, I gain a lot of experiences in bee keeping.

Mushroom production was another unit I was lucky to be exposed to. My interest grew even bigger after realizing how easy the process was. This made me have the passion to invest in this as a business.

After the mushroom unit I was subjected to the poultry unit. My roles were to learn everything concerning chicken. My supervisor tirelessly took me through debeaking, dipping, cleaning, feeding, egg collection and incubator management.

I later transferred to the goats unit. Here I was majorly concerned with the routine practices such as feeding, milking and disease control. The other interns were very supportive to get me learn more about goats, their breeds, production capacity and feeding program. This unit was a great experience in the field of agriculture.

Other than these, I was also practically exposed to fish pond section, biogas, hydroponic fodder and office operations.

With the positive feedback I personally obtained from CoEIB as an intern, I do believe many farmers and recent graduates can benefit from extension services and internship program respectively and trained in order to equip themselves with technology available in agriculture.

My heartfelt gratitude is in order to the Centre Director, all staff, other interns and all support staff who contributed greatly to my transformation while at CoELIB.
In summary, when at the Centre you don’t go wrong and if you are thinking about joining then that is the right thought.