Planting date:
Usually cowpea is planted in South west on or before the 15th August as the crop must be fully established before the end of the rain but climate change is here

Mid September was chosen because the varieties planted are not photoperiod sensitive meaning, the length of daylight does not affect their fruiting. Some varieties of cowpea and soybeans will begin to fruit in November irrespective of when planted.

Reason for mid September
1.Local weather has been tracked for some weeks. Good days of sunlight, rainy towards night and not too heavy. Cowpea is sun loving and require minimal but adequate water

2. Prevention of excessive vegetative growth
Excess vegetative growth gives poor seed sizes. Therefore, less likely to occur this period as rainy days are coming to an end gradually.

3. The varieties planted are semi erect (does not crawl much at all) , and seed carried over the canopy and not creeping.

Total land areas was divided into units.

Unit A
Entirely FUAMPEA 2

Land preparation:
Bush clearing was done and residuals was stocked up

Seed dressing: seed was dressed with Nodumax legume innoculant (consists majorly of rhizobium), a type of bacteria that attach themselves to the roots of legumes and help them to convert the nitrogen in air to fertilizer.

Planting:
Seeds were planted two seeds per hole at 50 by 25cm spacing

Chemical application:
Glyphosate with isopropylamine salt was used as preemergence at the rate of 200ml in 16 litres of water using knapsack sprayer (1 load). It is systemic and would have to be absorbed by the weed plants' parts to work irrespective of whether leaf is present or absent in as much the parts are alive, unlike paraquat,therefore as they die slowly, the crops thrive

Disadvantages
Glyphosate reduces the number of rhizobium present in soil, if the rate applied is much to cause damage, cowpea may have a bad start. This was the reason the seeds were pretreated with nodumax

The cultivation used zero tillage (no form of soil disturbance except during planting)

Varieties planted:
1. FUAMPEA 2
Rough to near smooth seed coat,
Brown color with brown hilium,
Medium seed size, Indeterminate
Medium maturing (70–75 days)
Short cooking time
Resistant to Striga.
Good for intercropping
Sudan, and Northern Guinea ecology loving.
Known as Honey beans number 1

2. Ife Bimpe
Mutant of Ife Brown (earliest honey beans)
Alias Branching Peduncle Cowpea
Late maturing (80-85days)
Semi Erect and uniform
maturity,
Pods held above the canopy.
Derived Savanna and Forest Zones loving
Sweeter and known well to older generation


Welcome on board........

I just received a message now from my partner. Compliance level increasing and more people subscribing. We have decided to set up follow ups for our clients for checks and I had the opportunity today to share this with a group of academics today, the reason for documentation and checks and balances on our side. We can't afford to lose focus. This in turn has really improved sales.

More updates coming............

Alright. I'll contact you via whatsapp and you can remove your contact too if you want, reason I'm not quoting you.

More power......

Can you please share your whatsapp? I would like to inquire one or two things from you

Riverville:
Nigeria market women are very dubious... One bought some of my maize farm. After agreeing on 40k. This woman came to harvest. after harvesting, this woman say she nor fit pay 40k o. I was so mad. Now before you touch my crop, you will pay me. I hate tricks

This is funny.
They could be dubious and selfish too.
if they are not we'll managed. I had to leave farm for an emergency. I just handed over the stuff to my partner

The women did comply with our agreement. I would have updated this today but I had a flat battery.

I sold another sack today 8k to them. Market has been smiling at them.

No pictures today due to flat battery.

Sales began today.

The first set of women I asked to come, did early when we got to the farm, with the way they were doing and saying stuffs, I knew this ones would never change. They seemed to have vowed with the demons in some of our politicians to make things hard.

After they harvested some samples of maize, they began to murmur that I make it five for a hundred Naira, I agreed but I decided to speak with their transport guy, man to man, the guy told me irrational stuffs these women do not only in cheating the farmers but also lying to consumers, he said he had known them for some times now and would be available to them anytime they need his service.

The thing vexed me, coupled with their predisposition and the way they were doing in farm despite our agreement, I just told them to leave and I collected the all the samples from them.

I might not be the government or any body in power but I have rights on my maize. My maize is my product and I'm concerned with the well delivery to meet the demand of its consumers even their pockets.

I called the other set of women from the other town and they came, they did well a little. I sold a bag (the 50kg size used in packing flour) and quarter for them #7,900) . They begged if they could come tomorrow and I said yes

I asked if they know the rules and they agreed.
But I bet they don't know what they're into, I made findings yesterday about their sales points. In the next 2-3 hours, I'll ask someone to go buy #50 maize from them. If they deviate from the rules, no maize. At least if the common man cannot eat packaged food, he should at least enjoy what is easily processed in his local environment.

More updates coming.... .. ...

Multiple entrIes, one deleted

Please referred to my thread on my maize farm cultivation.

After I was done at school, I left for the sales outlet we had an agreement to come and purchase my maize at once but those guys wanted to reap more than the sower so I told them that won't be possible because I was very analytical with them. I already made the calculations from home, their profit, their cost and all on a presentation, and I patiently explained to them and they were surprised. I am a very principled person though flexible in consideration, so I told them not to call me, no matter how well they reconsidered it, that right there I had made my decision and it was final, my maize won't be sold to them.

Usually they were not expecting me because what they do is to get to your farm and after harvesting your crop, they begin to bargain which they know you're at their mercy because no way one can put the maize back to their original place and once I stays so long on ground, value reduces.

The reason why food is expensive is not the farmer, they buy this thing at a considerable price from us but these middle men sell it so high. Imagine buying a basket of tomatoes for 5k and you want to make a profit of 6k out of it excluding other costs eg transportation

So I got to the farm yesterday I saw how things were and I began to think. I resolved to using market women.

I made another presentation of cost and profit analysis using some rough papers and I mobilized these market women on a one and one basis, I told them we don't have to make things hard for Nigerians, I would definitely sell this maize to you a very considerate price, this and this you'd buy, your profit this, and food would be available for everyone. I told them other stuffs and I told them to remember that some people lunch is that maize, so selling it out should be very considerable too. Some of them were very receptive and began to swear to God and some were saying this is true 'one day we will give account to God, I want to give account on how well my business was not made a burden to buyers'

I choose two leaders for them and divided them into two groups. This evening, info reach other women at the other town and they came looking for me, they told me what they've had which I asked them to explain and they did.

We agreed 4 maize for #100 while they sell #50 each.

Pictures will be added when the time is right........

Jonnic1:
Thank you for this scholarly breakdown sir! Those of us who are viewing and following this highly informative write ups should please comment to keep this thread alive.

Thank you sir, I am glad you are able to get something sir.
I've been very busy so far. My final year research proposal got accepted by the research committee yesterday after many palavas, and I'm working on an ancient agriculture. The agriculture of indigofera species (those plants used in making dyes)

The maize is ready for sale and I'll be creating a thread towards that also I have been supervising the cowpea cultivation which I'll be making a thread for that too.

If you must give your goat remains of human food, it should not contain much oil or fat to reduce the chance of bloating.

We will look at goat nutritional disorders next

1. Bloat
2 Acidiosis
3. Laminitis
4. Urinary calculi
5. Milk fever
6. Enterotoxaemia

Stay tuned......

Eefosa1:
Please i want to know more about urea inclusion on their feed

Urea is actually intended for the natural set of microorganisms that live in the gut of ruminants (cattle, goat, sheep etc) . It is a non dietary source (non feed source e. g proteins) of nitrogen in their diet.

These microorganisms ferment feed materials and when urea is available, they can use it to provide energy for themselves and use them to make amino acids and some proteins which they can share with the ruminant. With these, they could also increase in number and better digestion process.

It is usually encouraged when ruminant are fed with low quality feed stuffs or forages e.g in dry season

Please note that care must be taken when given to goat and should be used as recommended as they are more sensitive to urea compared cattle. It is used in cattle more.

And please note that oral antibiotics are not encouraged for your goat at all, because most of those microorganisms are bacteria

I am this late available due to my schedules. Business, farm, and school. I hope you understand? OK back to topic

The feed I used for Charlotte contained high crude protein level and total digestible nutrients (that part of the feed or ration that could be digested by the goat e.g unprocessed palm kernel shell that got missed with the PKC during oil extraction cannot be digested by the goat) compared her age. I was thinking more of her body gained compared her health .

It was formulated as follows:
Maize 3.5kg
Wheat bran 2.5kg
Palm Kernnel Cake 1.5kg
Groundnut cake or Soya meal 1.5kg
Not too Finely grounded bone meal 200g
Weaner vitamin premix 75g
Mineral salt lick 50g
Coccidiostat as directed by the manufacturer and when necessary

Firstly in the morning, she was fed the common fruit leave, brachiaria grass (when available) and these legume commonly used for fencing (I'll attach the picture tomorrow). I usually cut in overnight and keep it to make it free from morning dew and other things that could contaminate them e. g larvae. After some break, usually finished it in about 20-30 minutes, 1-3 handful of the above formulated feed was given, water readily available. After then, any human food available, she ate (please let's be careful when we give our goats nylon rapped food, they could end up eaten the nylon with the food which is not good and could lead to reduced free low of stuffs in their intestines)

In the afternoon, forages were supplied. Different kinds this time, they might have dried and if it appears to rain, we get before then. Sometimes cassava fibres from garri or fufu processing were collected from folks involved with them and I would make sure this was collected during the rinsing process because some cassava could be high in cyanide

She was left to move around for the day and night, same as morning repeated. She sometimes eat at night too

I will be dropping it bit by bit as I want to also include nutrition disorders in goats with it. More so, people waiting to buy my maize have been calling so anytime call could just interrupt. I will try and type on my phone's note app and paste it here.

Stay tuned.

Jonnic1:
Thank you once again. We are following. I am a maize, cowpea, rice, yam and groundnut farmer. Happy to read about your experience and your depth of knowledge considering the fact that you are studying agriculture. Can you elaborate more on 'lethal necrotic disease'? and how to detect and deal with it? Thank you and keep up the good work. We your students are following with keen interest. by the way how do you deal with weed on your farm?

Maize lethal necrotic disease

I won't bore you with unnecessary talks. It is caused by a group of viruses, each with their havoc and could be interpreted as a curse in African culture. Lol. It can attack maize at any growth stage, any growth stage means any, the worst being during tarseling because it will damage the inflorescence, caused them to malform. Just any stage maybe while fruiting or preparing to fruit, while setting kernels etc.

How can I identify it roughly on spot?
The maize leaf begins to dry from the blade till it get to the main rib. That is, from outside the leaf to inside the leaf resembling a chemical burn. The spot affected will be scattered, one spot here, another there, another somewhere else and even a sick one might stand with a healthy one. So reasonably one would think chemical burn or salt stress and not even blight or any other type.
It is also quick to spread and the results are bad reason for the lethal

How can I prevent it?

Seed sanitary (Usually seeds are screened for it if from genuine supplier, seed could be treated against it too)
Farm sanitary (controlled movement of workers, choose a uniform mainly used in the farm for workers, instructions to be careful visiting places where maize monoculture is practiced, most importantly, extend the knowledge to commercial operators of farm machines, so as to keep the machines clean after each use)
Crop rotation
Not known effective chemical control
Plant resistant variety

Jonnic1:
Thanks man. This wonderful and sacrificial on your part. Thank you so much Dawson. What is 'gibberelin' and what is its work on maize plant? Thanks

What is gibberellin?

Gibberellins are plant hormones and derivatives of gibberellic acid. Gibberellins are the many forms found in plants but the one available for agriculture is gibberellic acid in forms of tablet, powder or solution. They are growth regulators and promoters in plants, and are responsible for apical growth in plants that is, they make plants grow tall, larger tuber settings etc. They're widely used in potatoes cultivation and grasses cultivation ( sorghum ,maize, etc and widely used in rice)

Sometimes our crop don't do well not because the soil nutrients and structure, or our farm practices are bad, normal plant growth could be disturbed too e.g plant coordination (hormonal control). A plant having issues with gibberellins will not grow tall no matter how good other things are, a plant also having issues with Auxins will not do well either. Both with cytokinins are very important growth hormones.

Any effect on human body?

One might say, 'you're feeding us hormones' but the truth is that hormones are over exaggerated. Plants hormones are not like animals' even in structures. Most of animals' are proteinous while those of plants are simple structured organic compounds. And do you know? Most herbicides we used are actually hormones, growth hormones e.g 2,4-D etc. It is a type of auxins. Grasses don't seemed affected because non grasses are very sensitive and susceptible to it even generally auxins e.g Indo Acetic acid. If you use it at more than the recommended dosage, it can harm your grass even at a certain growth (especially fruiting) stage of your grasses, yield could be affected but unnoticeable and danger of leaving the weed or cost of manually weeding could be more than that of applying the chemical

Therefore Gibberellins could be used to treat dwarf plants and human bodies have no receptor for them.

What kind of crops can it be used on?

Virtually all crops and even trees but some respond better to it while some respond better in the presence of Auxins. Tubers respond well to it (widely used in yams and potatoes, usually rubbed with tuber sets from seed companies), grasses, vegetables also do well

Where can I buy it?
It is readily available with agro dealers especially those dealing with rice and potatoes cultivation inputs. Some go by the name, UJALA or so, Zibberelins etc

Dougthy:
Good morning. I am patiently waiting for your feedback. Thanks

I noticed the same thing on my goats side too, especially when they are not used to OR brought up with the feed. What I do is to introduce the ingredients to them one by one or combine two together usually, more of what they will be eager to accept and that they would do otherwise as in the feed ingredients.

So I began to compound their feed myself to look more or less like poultry feed. Moreover that is what I sell. I compound it, feed them forages first and later concentrates in the morning, concentrate through the early afternoon and forages for the rest of the day. Charlotte was exempted from that rule though. And one thing to help your goats well is to give them a good start from while they are still kids bearing in mind they're from good progeny. Feed them quality and balanced ration. Good medication also. And good feeding time. This is very important.

I will also discuss the importance of urea addition to their diet (yes, urea fertilizer but in low amount) and also salt lick

I will drop both the ration and feed formulae when I'm done here

I'm on 2% now. Once I get to charge, expect it. Really sorry for the delay. It escaped my mind totally.

About the cowpea production, I want to be very careful considering our climate, disease causing organisms (pathogens) and pests make up here in the south. We have lot of them here ready for cowpea especially if you're doing it on a large scale.

We are looking at 2 hectares but we deviced splitting them up into half acres, that's about 10 parts to reduce the load and impacts of the ecosystem with a minimum of 200m radius apart separated by natural vegetation. And that could be hard but we're making progress even considering weather timing now.

And moreover, we don't want to rely entirely on chemicals and we're looking at biological control agents (Semi organic farming) and currently we have acquired two strains of different fungi for insects control, a bio nematicide, and we're working on rhizobium..... More updates to come

When we started poultry, we started with 60 birds thereabouts. And those ones after the pros and cons, we made profits and left. Next batch came, 150 thereabouts and as we were going up there, more issues started coming up and more approaches were needed and applied. An those guys we were together, would say ' shey someone can't finish learning this thing?' I would laugh and say, 'all these researches no go finish?' As a problem comes, in fact before it comes, so many people are already looking at it except it comes with a very great force. We all dey learn everyday!

That farmer now has no option but to destroy the farm, what could have been prevented by buying maize leaf lethal necrotic disease resistant variety.

I decided to on my data and I saw this

This is going to be lengthy but I've got to pour it out.

So this morning I was typing a report given to me by a lecturer I'm very cordial with. There's this project he's on. Someone came from abroad and decided to settle for farming. He had a maize field of about 21 hectares going down the drainage. They just noticed after chemical weeding, some spots on the field started dying off. It started somehow as chemical injury until it began to spread, then they started seeing it as salt stress, later blight but all measures proffered no solution and somehow he met this man, some folks from crop protection began their findings.

It turned out to be the dreaded maize leaf lethal necrotic disease. I was just sorry for the person, multi-million Naira project. Just like that wasting. I was just imagining why someone would have that kind of a project and won't seek help from people from the scratch. There are so many outlets here in Nigeria that would offer awesome service. Maybe they just think because one could get away with small hold farming one could do that for large hold ones, it's wrong. Agriculture upsets the ecosystem, it upsets nature. You're favouring the growth of a specie at the expense of another one, you're interfering with natural law process of life. There are practices no agric experts will never reveal because that's where financial gain lies. And that's the Ecosystem Threshold Level and their concepts. There is a level you reach, nature fights back. Nature is just like the human homeostasis, keeping balance at a fairly constant range but for that to happen many process are involved! I'm just damn disturbed, feeling for that farmer

You can't manage one hectare like one acre, you can't manage one acre like a quarter of acre, a quarter like one plot! There are different. You're providing more food to favour some organisms (humans, armyworm, rodents, pests, pathogens) above the other, which would surely disturbed ecosystem! The more the size, the more the problems you'd see on your farm, and you want to come out with profit, you've got to fight with practical wisdom.

Naturally those thing would grow in the wild, rabbit will eat, rat will eat, pest and disease causing organisms would come eat theirs, humans too will eat, when nature pities them, they evolve to manage the assaults gradually to a level at balance! That's what whites are doing now for Genetically Modified Crops, they saw if you don't help these crops and indirectly assisting nature like an Indian giver, by conferring fighting factors right from their genetic make up, from their genes, you're practically doing nothing, you're causing more harms. See climate change. Over time, selfish human has assaulted nature to the extent nature now had no option but to demise the wisdom of man. At least if you can't guess when the next rain is, you won't go and apply herbicides or pesticides or your chemicals.

Dougthy:
I am really sorry for your loss. I think I have learned a lot from your post cos it is written is details. Kind you suggest a particular feed/concentrate you feed your goats? I feed my goats ruminant feed (feed lot ration) from Animal care but they aren't eating it very well compared to the poultry feed I give them once in a while. Thanks

I noticed the same thing on my goats side too, especially when they are not used to OR brought up with the feed. What I do is to introduce the ingredients to them one by one or combine two together usually, more of what they will be eager to accept and that they would do otherwise as in the feed ingredients.

So I began to compound their feed myself to look more or less like poultry feed. Moreover that is what I sell. I compound it, feed them forages first and later concentrates in the morning, concentrate through the early afternoon and forages for the rest of the day. Charlotte was exempted from that rule though. And one thing to help your goats well is to give them a good start from while they are still kids bearing in mind they're from good progeny. Feed them quality and balanced ration. Good medication also. And good feeding time. This is very important.

I will also discuss the importance of urea addition to their diet (yes, urea fertilizer but in low amount) and also salt lick

I will drop both the ration and feed formulae when I'm done here

Charlotte was barely two months old when she joined our enterprise. Goat Charlotte was named after Queen Charlotte, consort of king George III of the Great Britain and Ireland. The smallest of three kids born by her mother. Deemed undesirable, she was walking the pathway of African method of animal euthanasia, with her carcass thrown away.

She was suffering from bovine dermatophilosis, intestinal worm infestation and acute malnutrition, which we guessed might be due to lack of stamina to compete for milk. Her access to colostrum at birth also became a point of debate.

I decided to buy her despising all forms of discouragement and warning.

The course of treatment began and in less than a few weeks, Charlotte had changed physically, more and shining fur coat. In terms of size, she doubled her siblings.

Her feeding regiments were carefully planned and her feed, well formulated.

Charlotte was so cool with human beings and everyone would say could a goat behave like a sheep? She became emotionally attached to me, would like to follow me almost everywhere, which she sometimes did. Anytime I was back from school and she heard my voice, she would jump up and run ,just the way goat kids jump. She wouldn't sleep in her pen until coerced, and would behave just like a pet dog would do.

Because of emotion, I would treat her differently from the rest. After sometime, her feeding style changed. She would prefer human food to goat formulated feed, and from that to cut forages. Due to pity, I would serve her, her preference when I was around,and instruct that her preference be given when I was away.

Knowing the dangers of suddenly changing bovines' diets (goats, sheep, cattle etc) to energy (carbohydrates ,protein and fats and oil) rich feedstuffs (concentrates and lusture forages), which Charlotte was consuming from her feed and human food, I knew I needed to be careful against bloating (forages prevented constipation, and silicotine was added to her feed) and vaccinate her against ENTEROTOXEAMIA.

I never did the vaccination probably due to my tight academic and business schedules.

I was off to school for some time, a day to my leaving, she was not behaving good and had a bad appetite but because of what I was going through, I posed little attention to it. The last time I was around, I saw a sharp, neat infected cut on her back, which must have been due to a sharp object inflicted injury, I probed and couldn't be given a clear explanation. I proceeded the treatment and the wound was already healing before I left for school. I gave instructions out not to allow any of my farm animals out of their pens.

I just received a call now that Charlotte passed away, lying down after returning to her pen after I gave instructions on their movements.

My guesses:

(1) Human inflicted poison
(2) Feeding on poisonous forage (Clover leaf et
al)
(3) ENTEROTOXEAMIA

What is Enterotoxemia?

It is blood poisoning as a result of toxins produced by harmful clostridium species (Clostridium puregens, I can't remember the spellings well), usually present in the gut of bovines in low amount but could multiply to reach a disease causing level if livestock is fed with energy rich diet.

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms may be absent but there could be,
1. Loss of appetite
2. Kicking the stomach due to pains (may not always be present)
3. Bloody stained fecal droppings or diarrhoea (may not always be present too)
4. Sudden unexplainable death
5. Psychosis (only if toxins are present in the brain). This way, the animal dies with the forelimb and hindlimb stretched forward and head bent backwards)

What are treatments are available?

Antibiotics therapy, but not always successful and chance of survival slime as antibiotics can eradicate the toxins source and not the toxins themselves.

Are there vaccinations?

Yes, it is the best course of decision. This is usually given against the types C and D and tetani (which causes tetanus) species of the clostridium. Best given towards the last days of goat gestational period so that antibodies developed might be passed on, to kids through colostrum (first dirty milk at birth), booster dose also given once a year.

I would have loved to probe her death within the ' framework of autopsy ' and ascertain the cause of death and if it had been human intentional poisoning, I would investigate the person and made necessary arrest irrespective of the state's grazing law.

I know baba at the top and his entourage would have supported me, unfortunately the country is not smiling and my boys don roast the meat chop

Well, I learnt my lessons from all standing points (emotion in the way of process, procrastination in the way of progress) and I hope as a goat farmer or not reading this, you'll also get something.

That's all for now. Cowpea (Beans cultivation) loading... ...

The ones at this side of the field from the start had issues. Although the soil structure was well affected due to cassava cultivation but at the end to prevent their shortness which might affect yield , gibberelin was applied and there was improvement at least.

The upper part of the pics was the control (their row not fertilized). Immediately they noticed improper nutrients remobilization, they had to fertilize the crop while at the milking stage, though rain delayed the fertilizer application till the late milking stage but the results were still glaring. Although there is still economics to this, over cost of fertilizer to give the improve yield and the marginal profit the improve yield will give.

I checked this for assessment and my results were:
1. Most are on the blister stage

2. Nitrogen remobilization is OK. This is very important because one will think the crop is not growing now but that is not the case. Immediately tarseling sets in (VT stage) , your crop nutrients especially nitrogen and phosphorus demand begins to go up this is used for the growing part until corn kernels (the maize we eat) termination at the tip takes place. This is called nutrients remobilization. The maize cob is a modified branch. What covers them are the leaves, the kernels node sits the flowers, on the branch sits the flower. Adequate water and sunlight is a treasure at this stage.

3. Fertilization of the corn flower is good too.

I assessed their old leaves and no urgent deficiency of crop nutrients

4. No unusual fruit rot (fungal attack) and malformation

More closer look.......

More closer look..... .

When I got to farm today, this was what I saw