FIELD REPORT

STA 408: DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF EXPERIMENTS II

REG NO: B137/16325/2018

NAME: Karwitha Moreen.

INTRODUCTION

This section describes the objectives, important theories and concepts underpinning the field study, it
describes the organizations nature, or settings where one is conducting the observations.
The field study was conducted at KALRO (Kenya agricultural and livestock research organization) dairy
research institute which is located in Naivasha, Nakuru county about 100km along the Nairobi-Nakuru
highway on 11th March, 2022. The field study was conducted by the students from the University of
Embu.
The institute focuses on the development and dissemination of appropriate sustainable innovations and
cost effective technologies to enhance productivity, food security and improved livelihoods. The
institute’s mandate is to conduct basic applied and adaptive dairy research for enhanced productivity
competitiveness and improved livelihoods in the country and the region.

Objectives of KALRO dairy institute

i. To generate and promote technologies and innovations for demand driven dairy products value
chains.
ii. To develop and promote markets and marketing strategies for dairy product value chains.
iii. To facilitate and advocate policy options for enhancing demand driven dairy products value
chains.
iv. To strengthen the capacity for implementing dairy product value chains research.
v. To enhance the availability of availability of knowledge information and technologies on dairy
product value chains research.

Objectives of the field study

i. To describe the balanced, unbalanced, complete and incomplete designs as used by the institute.
ii. To be able to describe how to maintain homogeneity of larking factors on the entire experimental
plots in the dairy institute.
iii. To describe how the dairy institute analyze pretest and posttest design with multiple prediction
focus on the specific statistical tool.
iv. To be able to identify a symmetric factorial or blocked two factorial design on experiments in the
dairy institute.
v. To be able to describe how KALRO dairy institute conduct factor screening for various
experimental factorial design.
Methods of data collection

The methods used in collecting data included;

i. Observation.
ii. Pictorials.
iii. Asking questions.

Description of activities
1. Chicken breeding and farming
The experimental design used in chicken breeding was factorial block design. The institute
focuses on developing chicken breeds that adapts well to the ecological conditions of different
regions in the country, it also conducts experiments that aims at improving the quality, size of the
egg and color of the yolk e.g it conducted an experiment that changes the color of the yolk to blue
and with more nutrients as compared to the indigenous type of yolk. The institute sited the
vulnerability of the chicks towards the tropical diseases as the main challenge.
2. Piggery
The experimental design used was randomized complete block designs where different breeds of
pigs were put in homogenous blocks. The breeds included; Hampshire, Durock and large white.
The oldest pig was male, about 9 months old. The institute focuses on improving the quality of
pig breeds by conducting artificial insemination. The semen collected from the different breeds in
the designs are bred with the sows to produce superior breeds that have minimal risk of diseases
and are able to produce pork with less fat to meet market standards.
Picture 1; Hampshire

3. Dairy goat breeding

The institute focuses on dairy goat breeding programme which is aimed at multiplying and
delivering superior goat genes to Kenyan small holder farmers. The goats are put in homogenous
blocks with different breeds. The types of breeds included; Togenburg, Saanen, German and
British alpine.
Picture2 picture3
4. Production of Lucerne feeds
The institute focuses on the production of dairy feeds to cut on the cost of inputs instead of
buying from the market. The institute is involved in large production of Lucerne through
irrigation by using high tech sprinklers. Lucerne is a nitrogen fixing legume which is valued for
its drought tolerance, high yields, protein content and digestible fibre which makes good forage
for ruminants and dairy farming. The Lucerne after harvesting, is dried later baled and stored.

Picture 4

5. Cattle breeding
The institute conducts cross breeding of dairy cattle that are highly resistance to diseases and
those that produce high quality and quantity of milk to produce a breed that is both highly
resistance to diseases and produces high quantity of milk. The different breeds were blocked into
homogenous blocks the breeds included; the Friesian, Sahiwal and among others.
Picture 5 picture 6

6. Napier grass
The institute carries out production of different types of Napier grass in addition to Lucerne as the
feed for the dairy farming since it is crucial for high milk production. The type of experimental
design used to study the Napier grass was balanced incomplete block design. The different types
included; Bana grass, Uganda grass and Kakamega.
Picture 5
Analysis
The institute used balanced incomplete block design in Napier grass experiment and production.
Factorial block design was used in chicken breeding while randomized complete block designs
was used in piggery, goat breeding and cattle breeding.
KALRO dairy institute conduct factor screening at the initial stages of experiment for various
experimental factorial design by narrowing down the long list of potentially important factors and
interaction to a few important effects i.e fewer experimental runs e.g when conducting Napier
grass experiment and production.
The data from various experiments in the field are collected by the experimenter and then
analyzed by the institution based statistician who uses R software as the major statistical tool.
Most of the observations did not match the objective of the study.
The major larking factor was an outbreak of tropical diseases that could easily wipe out the
vulnerable breeds hence interfering with the experiments in place, this can be maintained by
frequent sanitization at the point of entry.

Limitation of the field study

The facilitator was not familiar with planning and preparation of various experimental designs in
the field rather was specialized in the analysis of the data collected from the field. Therefore, it
become difficult to identify the procedures and methods used to construct the various
experimental designs in the field.
Conclusion
The institute majorly focuses on the improvement of the various breeds to produce superior genes
that adapts well to ecological environment and extreme climatic conditions. The most common
design used is the randomized block design. The institute also focuses internal production of
feeds to cut on the cost of inputs and lower the expenditure.
Recommendation
The facilitator should be someone who is well conversant with the procedures and methods of
developing the various experimental designs.
Since it is impossible to access some of the sensitive experimental designs, a place should be set
aside for referencing for study purposes in order to avoid interference with the experiments.