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When Hiroki Maeda looks back on his March milk cheque, the figures are striking: at 4.1% fat and 3.25% protein, his co-op paid him 81c/l. This includes a 9c/l quality bonus for keeping SCC under 300,000 and a government subsidy of 17c/l, which Japanese farmers receive instead of area-based payments such as the BPS in Europe.
“This is the highest ever,” said Hiroki, adding that the same applies to livestock. “Last month we brought cattle to the mart. A 12-month-old heifer sold for €5,100.”
Male calves are sold to beef feedlots, with the current price approaching €1,300. “This has trebled in the past few years,” said Hiroki. “Nobody can believe the prices – this is crazy money.”
He explained that prices have been going up as the ageing farming population decreases and supply shrinks.
Hiroki milks 150 Holstein cows on 78ha with his parents, his brother-in-law and two staff from Thailand at Royal Oak Farm in Honbetsu. They use AI, with most semen imported from the US and Canada, and have several high-merit pedigree cows. Hiroki’s father won a national first prize with one of them 10 years ago.
Around 70% of the feed is grown on the farm under the form of maize and grass silage, as well as oats. They also grow wheat on 23ha, selling the grain and keeping the straw.
The most striking feature on Royal Oak Farm is the high-spec buildings. The main shed where cows are kept indoors all year round boasts two DeLaval robotic milkers. Automatic scrapers tip slurry into a duct, making clever use of the natural slop to direct slurry to an open-air tank below. There is also a robotic feeder suspended to the shed’s roof.
Hiroki said he spreads slurry and manure twice a year, without any significant environmental restrictions and no inspections. “However it is illegal to store manure outside, so every farm must build a manure shed,” he explained, showing a roofed storage area (pictured).
There are also two sets of covered silage pits, and a third one under construction. Hiroki said that all buildings had received one-third capital grant aid from the government.
In nearby Obihiro, Kenichi Kato milks 180 cows on 80ha. He was one of the first farmers to introduce Jerseys to Japan in 1973 and they now form two thirds of the herd. His setup is similar to Hiroki’s, with no grazing and feeding combining the farm’s own crops with bought-in supplements.
The farm illustrates the fast transition at work on the more progressive farms of Hokkaido. The old 6x6 milking parlour is still in use. It is straw-bedded, with no pit in the middle, and labour intensive, with several ag students doing the milking. Six people work here in total.
Across the yard, a four-year-old shed with automated ventilation and manure scraping features two Lely Astronaut robotic milkers and feed-pushing robots. “In the winter, when it is -20°C, it freezes in other buildings, but not in this one,” said Kenichi.
Another shed houses the calves, which are born all year round. Some 10% of cows are put to Wagyu bulls to get beef cross-breeds, and 30% to F1 (Wakyu-Holstein cross) bulls. “Jersey cows are easy calving dams for Wagyu-cross calves,” said Kenichi. The farms uses sexed Jersey semen for the rest of the herd to breed Jersey and Jersey cross replacement heifers.
Kenichi knows his market extremely well and has been using his Jerseys to maximise profit within the constraints of Japan’s highly regulated system. Some 10% of their milk is mixed with the Holsteins’ to boost solids and price – Kenichi currently gets 85c/l at 9% solids.
However, there is only so much you can get out of the price structure operated by Japan Agricultural (JA) Corporation, the country’s monopolistic farmers’ co-op. “The value chain doesn’t recognise the differences between the farmers,” Kenichi said. “JA is always equal. It is funded by the farmers and will not differentiate between them.”
To overcome this, the farm directs most the Jerseys’ milk to a separate tank. On paper, it is sold to JA to collect the government subsidy, then sold back to the farm. In fact, Kenichi has some of it processed into yogurt, which he sells directly to wholesalers. The rest is processed as liquid milk and bought by a high-end confectionery company for over €4/l.
Kenichi is planning to build his own processing plant to capture even more of the value and tap into the growing café market. “Some coffee shops want to have their own brand of Jersey milk for this,” he said. “Some baristas pair coffee beans with milk types.”
At a recent match-making event organised by the local bank to introduce farmers to processors, 20 companies expressed interest in his milk, with one looking for a 50t annual contract.
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