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We milk 140 cows on two DeLaval voluntary milking system (VMS) machines just outside of Castro in Paraná state Brazil.
On average, the cows milk 40l/day and in total produce 5,600l/day.
In 2010, I started milking cows using the bucket system
Before dairying I was growing crops and kept pigs here. I still keep some pigs and rear them to finish. In 2010, I started milking cows using the bucket system – a portable set of clusters with buckets attached. I milked them like this for two years.
I got into dairying for three reasons; I wanted to get an income from the land, I had plenty of grass and making corn silage and using it was a better option that selling corn grain at the time.
I went to Holland and Sweden to see robots in action, looking at how they worked and what construction was needed
I then started to think about improving my income from milk. So in October 2012, I started milking with robots.
The idea of a confined system came into my head and DeLaval had the solution for me in the form of milking robots.
I went to Holland and Sweden to see robots in action, looking at how they worked and what construction was needed.
My farm was the first farm with a DeLaval milking system in Brazil and at the time when I installed it my neighbours thought I was crazy.
We have an SCC of between 170,000 and 230,000 and a total bacterial count of between 7,000 and 15,000
They said that I didn’t have the experience, but compared with more experienced dairy farmers, I am getting good results.
Excluding the cost of the cows, the milking robots and shed construction cost me 2.9m Brazilian real (BRL) (€650,000).
We have an SCC of between 170,000 and 230,000 and a total bacterial count of between 7,000 and 15,000.
On average, we get 2.3 lactations per cow and at the moment cows are milking at 3.55% fat and 3.15% protein. The cows are milked on average between 2.3 and 2.6 times a day.
We are aiming for at least three milkings a day per cow. My cost of production is BRL 1.35c/l (0.30c/l) and the milk price is BRL 1.55c/l (0.34c/l).
We artificially inseminate all of the heifers here with sexed semen and use a bull on the cows. Heifers have their first service at 13 to 14 months and we calve all year round.
Challenges
The biggest challenge we have is how the economy is going. We are completely reliant on the domestic market, if people have less money that means we earn less.
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