Feed & fodder

Fodder equipment — a 2HP electric chaff cutter and 200–250 kg silage bags, for farms cutting and storing their own feed.

Bought dairy meal is where a smallholder's margin goes. Chopping napier, maize stover and hay short does two things: cows eat the stems they would otherwise sort out and leave, and the same bale goes further. Silage bags carry surplus from the long rains into the dry season instead of watching yields fall every January.

A chaff cutter also removes the hours somebody currently spends with a panga, which is usually the real reason one gets bought.