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Farm/dairy name: Bleckenstad
Owners: Magnus, Mats and Gunnar Johansson
No of dairy cows: 280
Breed of cows: 50% SRB / 50% SLB (Holstein)
Housing: Tie-stall and cubicles
Milking system: 4 DeLaval voluntary milking system VMS
Number of milkings per day: On average 3
“The VMS has allowed this farm to grow and has given us more kilograms of milk produced from the herd...”
Bleckenstad Farm has been in the Johansson family since 1913 and the brothers hope to keep it there for more generations to come. “In a sense we see ourselves as managers of this farm’s resources, borrowing from it now to make a living and secure something for our children. We also see it as a lifestyle where we don’t count the working hours too strictly.”
Magnus is the oldest of the three brothers and has three grown children. He says his oldest boy now attends an agricultural school and is a technician, which “perfectly suits this farm with all its new products and the farm shop”. Mats has three younger children and Gunnar has three boys.
The brothers say their mother and father are “still going strong” and help out to the best of their ability. “The farm is for people of all ages to enjoy,” says Magnus. He adds that with over 2000 visitors viewing the DeLaval voluntary milking system VMS system since it was installed – “it’s not only the family who enjoys it”.
Bleckenstad Farm uses a barn for dry cows and calves are also in this facility, with boxes for calving. Older heifers are housed in the VMS system’s cubicles. “We also have some old heifers in another barn and some with other farmers”. All lactating cows rest on DeLaval cow mattresses. “Our cows enjoy the cow brushes and we think they have a very good environment to live in”. The farm’s new VMS barn is constructed with “a high ceiling and large light input for good air and cow comfort”.
“Normally in the summer our cows milk themselves in the morning and then walk out to pasture before returning back at noon when they feel like being milked. They walk approximately 500 yards to the VMS to milk themselves and then sometimes eat some concentrate from the VMS - which is restricted because of our ecological management - before returning again to pasture. We are currently adding more cows to the herd, so the yield will increase. For some reason their yield increases in the spring. We believe it’s because of the good pasture with fresh grass. The average yield right now is 8400 kilograms with 4.2 per cent butter fat, 3.5 per cent protein and a SCC of around 200,000.
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The cows are partially fed in the VMS during milking with concentrate and crushed grain, before moving to a TMR of silage and “other natural ingredients”. During the summer the herd enjoys pasture and their ration is decreased accordingly. “We use ALPRO® herd management to set each cow’s ration individually in the VMS. With ALPRO® we can guide the feed to each cow according to her stage of lactation and milk yield. We also use a local ecological advisor to help figure out the feeding schedule. Apart from that we give the cows free access to TMR, which is fed every three hours. A lot of energy comes from the pasture, so harvesting is crucial to us for top quality roughage. We make our silage in long sausage shapes with amino acids and wrap it in plastic.”
To maintain the farm’s ecological approach, the Johansson’s do not spray any chemicals on their fields or use chemical fertilisers. “We haven’t bought any chemicals, pesticides or insecticides since 1998”. Produced manure is returned to the fields and the brothers believe that the better this manure is, the better the crop yield will be. “We use a liquid manure system to transport manure to the silos and we empty those at regular intervals. We also have solid manure where the heifers walk on deep straw beds.”
The operation’s 380 hectares of arable land is seeded with a mixture of grain, grasses and clover every third year, then two years of rape and rye wheat in a total five year rotation. “We grow most of the feed ourselves with the station mixture of pasture seeds, according to ecological rules. There is also a lot of white clover in it which gives nitrogen to the soil, but we have limited nitrogen usage on the farm.”
The Bleckenstad herd is aged between 24 months to seven years and averages 305 days in milk, with half the cows in first to second lactation. There are 250 young stock and the farm has a calving interval of 11.9 months, including a recruitment rate of 35 per cent. “We don’t raise all the calves ourselves – we’ve contracted another farmer to help. We send the calves away to this farmer after 10 months and we receive pregnant heifers from him. The bull calves are sent off farm at 10 to 12 weeks. We now use a combination of bulls and artificial insemination but when the herd is increased we will only use artificial insemination.”
Management decisions are discussed between the three brothers, who have equal shares in the farm. “We take different areas of responsibility including cows, crops plus feedstuffs and the book-keeping. Gunnar also operates a farm shop where we emphasis new products, etc.” The Johansson brothers also use a feeding consultant once a month and an economical consultant twice a month - along with weekly visits by a local advisory group and a veterinarian.
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“Apart from the cow mattresses, cow brushes and other VMS facilities, Bleckensta farm is managed ecologically. This form of management is excellent for cow health and of course, the environment. "
“It’s important for us that our cows have access to pasture between milkings. We also remove all manure with slow moving manure scrapers so the cows aren’t stressed.”
“We expect our service costs will decrease with our four new VMS systems and we also see the components lasting longer than for parlours."
“In the ALPRO® Windows* programme there’s a written description of how to service the VMS and we follow this when lubricating or changing parts, etc.”
The decreasing number of herds in Sweden has convinced the Johansson brothers to continue increasing their herd size. “It’s a matter of being more efficient. The VMS has allowed this farm to grow and has given us more kilograms of milk produced from the herd, per farm employee – representing good labour savings. We are aiming to milk 350 cows on this farm within the next two years and that will be no problem with four voluntary milking systems and one out-of-parlour feeding system. We expect to have a 9000 kilogram yield by the end of this time period.”
* Microsoft® Windows™ is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation, USA.
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