Richard Kandie, a road race athlete from Eldoret, Kenya, arrived in the United States in 2007 chasing medals — but an injury around 2011 ended his competitive career and set him on an entirely different path: managing a large-scale dairy farm in Wisconsin.
When did Kandie pick up creamery job?
Kandie sat down with Kenyan content creator Jeremy Damaris during a visit to the farm, describing a journey that has surprised many who knew him as an athlete.
After hanging up his racing shoes, Kandie began working at a creamery in 2012, where his role was to pasteurise milk after it had been collected from the cows. He never left.
Nearly a decade later, he has risen to farm manager, overseeing an operation that milks close to 700 cows and produces roughly 60,000 litres of milk every day.
Does Kandi love his job?
“Work is work,” Kandie told Damaris when asked whether people back home had judged his career change.
“Any job is about making money. This is not a bad job. It is actually a very good job.”
The farm runs on a strict process that Kandie says bears little resemblance to traditional Kenyan cattle keeping.
How many litres do each cow produce?
Each cow is individually checked for mastitis before milking, teats are treated to eliminate bacteria, and the animals are milked twice daily.
Each cow produces approximately 45 to 50 litres per day, a figure that left visiting Kenyans visibly stunned.
The milk is then pasteurised and packaged in various sizes before being distributed to retailers across Wisconsin, with both conventional and organic varieties available.
How much does one earn on entry-level position?
He was candid with young Kenyans considering similar work, cautioning against expecting quick mastery.
“You cannot learn everything in one day,” he said. “You have to learn step by step.”
Damaris brought a group of Kenyan visitors to the farm, including Reverend Stephen Kerito from San Francisco and Sara Kagori from Georgia, both of whom expressed admiration for the scale and efficiency of the operation.
