Travel report from a two week stay in the USA sponsored by DeLaval - Sept.18-Sept. 30, 2003
Introduction
Visits
Dairy Development International
DHI-Dairy Herd Improvement
QMPS-Quality Milk Production Services
Cornell- College of Biological and Environmental Engineering
Cornell- College of Veterinary Medicine
Cornell T&R facility
Morrisville state college
Venture Farms
Agway
Lamb Farms- Heifer Discussion
Tayl Wind Farm
ElVi Farms
Discussion
Thank you
Contacts
Introduction
In September 2003 we received a scholarship from DeLaval which made it possible for us to go to the USA and to see and learn about American farming. We learned about the advantages and disadvantages of large scale farming and the different means of production. There are considerable differences between Swedish and American aspects of agriculture.
DDI - Dairy Development International
DDI is situated in an area where milk production is the biggest industry. There are about 850 milking cows at DDI. Heifers, calves and dry cows are located at other facilities.
The crop farming is managed by DDI but done by independent contractors. The cows are fed a total mixed ration (TMR) once a day which is a mixture of haylage, corn silage, dry hay and grain. The forages are stored in white Ag Bags ® and grains are stored in enclosed feed bins. The cows are milked three times a day. They are milked in a Double-20, DeLaval Blue Diamond EnDurance parallel parlour which allows one milker to milk forty cows simultaneously. It takes approximately 46 minutes for a cow to be milked and return to its stall. The farms milk/dry matter quotient is 155.4%. Each cow produces approximately 73 pounds/day (33 kg/day= 30 kg ECM, compared with 25 kg ECM/day average in Sweden for Holsteins). The dry matter intake is approximately 50 pounds/day (23 kg/day).
The goal for the facility is to deliver the amount of milk corresponding to one milk truck per day. That equals about 32,000 litres. Negotiation power and better dimensioning are some of the reasons to the amount of milk. To store this amount of milk, there are two high quality 8,000 gallon (30,280 litres) bulk tanks delivered by DeLaval, Mexico. This is much better than to have one single regular sized tank which fits 6,000 gallons (22,710 litres). Each tank holds 1 day's supply, so milk pickup is independent of milking times. The milk is stored at a temperature of 34 o F (1.11 oC). The somatic cell count ranges between 2,000 and 5,000 (milk quality=good).
Picture 1. There are about 850 livestock at the facilities of DDI.
There are no bulls at the facilities, so the heifers and cows are artificially inseminated. DDI has access to 1,400 tillable acres (~570 hectares) that is used for coarse feed and which 50% is used for corn and the other 50 % is used for leys.
There is an anaerobic digester on the farm. The manure stays for 21 days inside the digester until all the fermentable fibers are removed. The produced bio-gas will ultimately be used to generate electricity via micro turbines and the solids and liquids are currently used as soil amendments on crop land. The micro turbines were originally manufactured for the use of natural gas, and, at the present time only two of four are rebuilt to be able to use methane.
There are talks about changing the free stall barns to avoid problems with rainwater. Currently, there is an open roof vent which can sometimes let in too much water. Slanting the floor downwards and putting an extra roof in the middle are some of the ideas (see figure 1).
Figure 1. Slanting the floor downwards (exaggerated in the figure) and putting an extra roof in the middle is adequate to avoid problems with freezing rainwater. These improvements together with a working heating system will decrease the problems for animals and staff substantially.
Picture 2. Dairy Development International in Homer, NY.
Michael C. Barry is the Executive Director at AgModels.com and he and his team work closely with Milkproduction.com, which is a web site that provides valuable information for farmers all around the world. Farmers can turn to Milkproduction.com if they have problems or questions which they want help with. The registered farmers have access to different simulation programmes and papers which give the farmers better understanding on how to make production more profitable. Like for instance, is it better to inseminate the heifers at 12 months or 13 months, in an economical point of view? There are a lot of parameters to consider.
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We had the pleasure to speak to Lawrence R. Jones, Ph.D.-manager of DDI; Larry is the manager of Dairy Development International that started three years ago as a DeLaval/FARME Institute project. DDI is specialized in the development and application of new science and technologies as well as new management concepts. DDI wants to focus more on long term efficiency and better working environments, instead of only looking at the short term profits. Large scale dairies in cold climates are the main target group. One of the main activities at the company is the exchange of information with foreign farmers. DDI is a good place to be to learn and educate, instead of sending foreign farmers to California with quite different climate. | At DDI there are about ten persons who work with the practical work of milking, feed management, etc. About half of the staff originates from Guatemala. Their salary is 7.5$/h and their working day is 12 hours. They work 4 days a week.
Because of the cheap labour, automatic milking systems aren't of current interest here. Another thing is the herd size; a VMS for instance is suitable for 60 cows. DDI is located in an area where milk production is the major industry and there are much larger herds. Corn is the major crop. Technically speaking, there's no reason to change the parallel parlour that is in use today
Problems at the DDI facility are mainly related to manure management. The odour is one problem. People who live nearby don't appreciate the smells from the manure. The handling of manure has had some problems. As mentioned earlier, the free stall barns have approximately 12.5 miles (19.3 km) of heating coils in the floors. Last winter the heating system in the floors failed and the manure froze. The problem increases when there's only one manure management system. If something breaks everything breaks! Another problem is the lack of control of the animals. It's not often you can predict that there's a problem with a cow. They're simply too many. Today the amount of hospitalized cows is about 3.9 per cent (about 33 cows). Mr Jones would prefer if it is below three per cent.
Picture 4. Feeding alley in one of the livestock buildings.
We interviewed Joanne Siciliano -Jones PhD, who is the president and founder of F.A.R.M.E. Institute-“Feed Analysis Research Management Education”. The company evaluates nutritional and other related products. Developing new products is not of immediate interest. One of the reasons for its existence is because projects started in universities are often lengthy to complete. F.A.R.M.E. is able to work quickly and efficiently. Some of the major customers are the US Food and Drug Administration and DeLaval. At the moment there are studies on the effects of using cottonseed as an addition to the feed. Covered cottonseeds are expected to go through the cows quite quickly and that is not good from the customers' perspective.
Testing samples to secure the quality is a quite common task for the company. At present time, the company has about 3-4 tasks and that's fewer than what's normal.
Some of the analyses are done at another location using another laboratory. Outsourcing is getting more common as workload increases.
Dairy One, contact Danny Thon
DHI-Dairy Herd Improvement - has about 7,000 customers of which 1,500-2,000 are consulted customers. They cooperate with QMPS- Quality Milk Production Services- to ensure the quality of milk products. The company also checks the quality of seed with more or less sophisticated methods, depending on how accurate it should be. They analyze and research different feeds. One example was chocolate pudding given to milking cows!
Picture 5. Danny Thon at Dairy Herd Improvement, Ithaca, NY.
The company operates in 17 states, mainly the eastern USA. There're 400 employees of which 200 are field technicians. The technicians gather information from the field, such as the weight of the milk, the quality (somatic cell count etc.), animal health and common situation at the farm. This is what it's all about-to improve the dairy herd for each farmer.
DHI has a Dairy Management Research Group which develops software and technical components for systems that are used by the farmers, like management programs. The farmers are connected by modem to DHI so that the farmers or the field technicians can operate directly with the headquarters. The work is getting more computerized. This also results in new problems. There is an office for support regarding software and hardware issues. There is also a milk laboratory. DHI makes regular visits to the farms to check the herd and to do vaccinations and such.
DeLaval, Boumatic, Afikeem and Westfalia research are some of the great customers.
QMPS-Quality Milk Production Services, contact Dr. Ruben Gonzalez - Assoc. Director, Sr. Research Veterinarian
QMPS was founded in 1946 after WWII. The reason was that antibiotics were starting to be commonly used. There was one farmer that had about hundred cows and who started to use penicillin and he was very pleased with the result, so he started a program to improve the quality and health of the dairy farmers.
There are about 40 employees in Ithaca. There are veterinaries, laboratory assistants, field technicians and administration. Since 1983 the company has developed a quality standard. There are different standards in different states but there's also a federal law that states the quality requirements for milk. The requirements of the federal law are almost ridiculous. The somatic cell count has a limit of 750,000 cells/ml and of colony forming units 100,000 CFU/ml! In California for instance, the somatic cell count is limited to 600,000 cells/ml!
Picture 6. Dr. Ruben Gonzalez at QMPS- Quality Milk Production Services, Ithaca, NY.
Every farmer's milk is tested each month in New York State. To check that everything is correct, QMPS makes another test just five days later. About 200,000 tests are made every year. If the farmer doesn't pass the test, he or she is forced to join QMPS' programme for at least six months. During this time there're several meetings with the farmer to ensure that the programme is working. The somatic cell count should be less than 250,000 cells/ml and the colony forming units less than 10,000 CFU/ml according to QMPS standards.
In the 1970s there were about 20,000 milking farms; in the 1990s 10,000 farms and today 2003 there are 6,800 farms of which ~65% are involved with QMPS.
QMPS has a programme to teach foreign workers to milk and to learn how to discover diseases like mastitis. Other procedures related to milking are also taught. This programme started since there were big problems with foreign labour that didn't come from the right agricultural background. The programme is subsidized by the government; the farmer pays about 40 percent of the costs.
In Ithaca there are about 40 employees. QMPS has a close cooperation with Dairy One. Dr Gonzalez's general opinion is that the number of milkings doesn't affect milk quality however the circumstances around the milking process do affect quality.
Cornell University, Norman R. Scott-Vice-President for Research and Advanced Studies
Cornell has some cooperation with the DDI facility. The manure digester at DDI has a bio filter, which is developed by Cornell University. The function of the bio filter is to clear the corrosive H 2S from the biogas. The number of biogas facilities is increasing slowly in the states. We made a trip to the College of Biological and Environmental Engineering to find out a bit more about the research that is being done about bio digesters.
Professor Norman R. Scott has done a lot of research on thermoregulation in poultry, biomechanics of machine milking of dairy cows and electronic applications in agriculture, with particular attention to automatic identification of livestock. The research today is now redirected to sustainable development issues, like sustainable agriculture and renewable energy.
Picture 6. Professor Norman R. Scott at the College of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Ithaca, NY.
Cornell University has a plug-flow methane digester, designed for a 1000-cow farm. The A&A Dairy in Candor, NY is being used for data collection and as a model farm. This study is jointly funded by Cornell University and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The digester is currently running at about half of its true potential (500 cows). The floor of the barn is continually scraped to remove the waste and send it through underground piping to the digester where it spends approximately 40 days. The digester is connected to a diesel engine. The plan, if feasible, is to eventually replace the diesel engine with fuel cell technology, increasing the efficiency dramatically.
Picture 7. The plug flow methane digester at the A&A Dairy in Candor, NY.
The separated liquids from the process are pumped to a pond. Some of the water will be used for irrigation of the surrounding fields.
Picture 8. The separated liquids are pumped into a pond.
The total cost for the installation of the methane digester was about 300,000$ and the yearly income from the digester is about 10,000$.
Cornell University , Lorin D. Warnick- DVM , PhD, Associate Professor
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We met Lorin D. Warnick who is an associate professor at the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences. He told us a little about how it is to be a veterinarian in the states. His research interests are the epidemiology of dairy cattle diseases with an emphasis on preharvest food safety. | At the moment he is investigating the antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella in New York dairy herds and the risk factors for occurrence and drug resistance of Salmonella and Campylobacter infections in dairy cattle. In the states, most of the veterinaries have their own private practices. Dairy farms with 5,000-10,000 cows have their own veterinary. Since there are more and bigger free stalls in the states, they also have bigger problems with mastitis.
It's more unusual in the northern states to have the animals tied up, like in Sweden; free stalling is the most common system in the USA. It's harder for small farmers in the states to compete with the increasing amount of big dairy farmers. This problem hasn't occurred to the same extent yet in Sweden.
BST free milk is starting to become an alternative milk product in the states.
Picture 10. A short stall with tunnel ventilation housing cows for the veterinary students to practise on at campus.
Cornell T&R facility
The training & research facilities at Cornell have about 400 cows of which 350 is heifers. They're milked 3 times a day. They produce an average of 33.3 kg per day and cow (80 pounds/cow). The cows are dry for 45 days. Cornell has two tie stall barns and three free stall barns. Cornell has about 2,600 hectares of land, of which 1,600 hectares are harvested. 500 to 600 hectares are corn and the rest is hay.
Picture 11. Packing the corn
Trials are being done to see if anti carcinogenic dairy products can be produced at the facilities. The manure is spread every day on green areas. They store their TMR in bunker silages. AgBags ® are getting less common since they demand a great deal of work and it's hard to maintain stable moisture content.
Today there are some hoof problems and general health problems at the facilities, but nothing major. Tail docking is not practised at the university. In the tie stalls, there are short stalls, so “cow trainers” are being used.
Picture 12. Kindergarten for the heifers, youngest to the right and oldest to the left.
Morrisville State College
Mark Smith, working at the department of agricultural science and who also is the farm manager at the dairy facility showed us around the new facilities that Morrisville State College is running. It's a new state-of-the-art dairy facility. The teaching and research facility houses about 250 milking cows, but it's possible to house 300 animals in the three-row free stall barn and about 60 animals in the tie stall barn. The free stall barn has rubber mattresses and sawdust as bedding. The alleys are covered with rubber. The parlor is a 2x8 DeLaval herringbone with automatic remover. The herringbone can easily expand and become a 2x12 because of the free space that is available in the parlor today. The control-equipment was made by the Israeli company Afikeem. The high quality 5,000 gallon (~18,921 Litres) bulk tank for storage of milk was delivered by DeLaval. Students in the Dairy Management program utilize these facilities to apply what they have learned in class.
The college owns about 50,000 acres of fields and woodland (~20,200 hectares). The land is managed by contractors who deliver corn, hay and other feeds to the facilities.
Edward C. (Ted) Nichols, Ph.D., who is the dean for the college gave us his time to show us around the miniaturized dairy on campus, where they produce their own ice cream! Another income for the college is the breeding of race and riding horses.
Picture 13. Skid-Steer Loaders are used very often to handle manure.
Venture Farms
At the moment, Venture Farms is owned by three partners, but will soon be owned by two partners. They have nine employees. The business started in 1960. Today there are approximately 600 milking cows and there is a probability that there will be an increase to 700 milking cows in the near future. Each cow produces between 65-78 pounds/day (30-35 Litres) average. The parlor is a 10x2 Germania herringbone. The cows are milked twice a day, because there isn't time for more in the existing facilities. In the current circumstances they prefer to have a larger number of cows than to milk three times a day.
The feed is a mixture of corn silage/hay silage which is grown on about 600 acres (~240 hectares). The three-row free stalls contain sand with rubber mattresses underneath. The sand bedding is not causing any problems because the manure culvert is constructed so that a small tractor can drive underneath the facility and clean it up. The gases that are produced in the culvert don't seem to be a problem. The cost to build the barn has been about 1,300 $/free stall.
The dry period is 45 days. The heifers are covered at 13 months, but what really determines the time is how tall the heifer is (51 inches or 130 cm). The farm is currently struggling with hoof problems in the herd. About 50 percent of the herd has problems with hoofs. The high level of hoof problems probably leads to a decreased level of production. Another problem is that the rubber teat liners don't come off automatically on the Germania milking equipment.
Picture 14. Hugh Riehlman and Joel Riehlman. Hugh works at DDI with the management of the facilities and Joel is one of the three owners of Venture farms.
Picture 15. A 10x2 herringbone delivered by Germania.
Agway - CY Heifer Farms
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Agway is an agricultural cooperative which is a part of a larger cooperative which covers many areas within agriculture. Agway farms raise heifers, which are delivered by different farmers in the area. At the most, Agway has had up to 30 such farms. CY Heifer Farms is partnered with Agway at this facility, near Batavia, NY. | Calves are sent to the heifer facility when they are three days old and, depending on the farmer, sent home before the cover or at the age of 21-22 months, just before they calve.CY Heifer Farms owns the land but Agway owns the buildings. The company doesn't own any animals themselves and for the moment there are six farms that send their heifers to the facility. DDI is one of these farms. CY Farms staff members also bring the feed and take care of the manure from the lagoon as well as taking care of the calves. At the present time CY Heifer Farms raises 2,100 heifers, but they have a capacity of 4000 animals. The farm is a”biosecure area” which means that they have very strict demands on the hygiene.
In the beginning the calves have separate boxes with sand bedding. During the winter there's also straw added to the bedding. When the boxes are cleaned out, they remove the five centimeters on the top of the sand and put on lime and new sand.
This kind of business, sending away the calves, is more common on the west coast than on the east coast of the states.
In some of the facilities there was an interesting way of handling the manure. The manure was removed with great amounts of flushing water two times a day.
Picture 17. Jeannie Wormuth, manager of the heifer facility in Elba, NY
Lamb Farms
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On our way to the Niagara Falls we stopped by at a farm owned by the Lamb family. We met one of the brothers, Jonathan Lamb who showed us around. The company has two large farms with a total of over 4,000 cows. The dairy production average is 78 pounds per cow with a somatic cell count of 150,000. They raise their own replacement heifers. | They milk three times a day. They started off with 80 cows in the 1960's.Now, on one dairy, 2,000 cows are milked in a 60 stall external Westfalia-Surge AUTOROTOR, which was installed in September 2001. Before the carousel there was a double 8 and a double 9 herringbone parlour. On the other dairy, there are about 2,000 cows which are milked in a double 9 and a double 10 herringbone. There are a total of 1300 free stalls that are arranged in a 6-row barn on each of the farms. To manage both farms there are 75 full-time employees. They farm 7,500 tillable crop acres (corn, alfalfa, beets, peas, cabbage and wheat). They have 14 miles of floor heating (~23km)!
Picture 19. Jonathan Lamb and Olof Friberg inspecting the 60 stall Autorotor.
We had the opportunity to join the “Professional Dairy Heifer Growers Association” during the evening. The topics for the evening were dehorning of calves, drawing blood samples and how to tube feed a calf.
Tayl Wind Farm
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We made a short visit for lunch one day at Tayl-Wind Farms, which is owned and managed by Glenn Taylor. It was the smallest farm that we visited. We toured the free stall facility and the retro-fitted young stock buildings which had been remodelled from a pre-existing tie stall barn. The herd consists of approximately 160 milking cows and 120 heifers. | They milk in a double six Boumatic parlor and the cows are milked twice a day. Crops are grown on about 500 acres- hay, corn and soybeans . The family has had good profitability. They have no intentions of expanding their business or increasing the times of milking. They were also a bit restrictive with the use of bST. This made them a bit different from the other farms that we visited. This was the closest we came to what a Swedish farm looks like.
Picture 21. Calf housing. A common sight in the states. Quite different from Sweden.
ElVi Farms
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Elvi Farms has been a family owned farm since 1953. It's run by four partners. The company has 16 full time employees, 10 part-time workers and two students.
The farm has about 720 milking cows and they milk between 80-88 pounds/day (~35-40 kg). They milk three times a day. The farm has two milking tanks containing 52,000 pounds(23,587 kg) and 48,000 pounds (21,772 kg) respectively. To reduce the noise in the milking parlor the milking machines are installed in the basement. | The drain water is reused and collected in a tank and then used to clean the parlor. Only the young heifers are let on pasture. The cows are sprayed with water when it gets hot in the barn; they are also able to spray water on the metal roof. Cut in half tires are being used as mattresses for the young heifers, it's a cheap and functional method. The cows have transponders on their left leg which are identified by a computer when the cows come to the parlor. The system has worked fine, without any big problems. The company plans on building a bio-digester to be able to produce biogas from the great amounts of manure.
Picture 23. Scenery from ElVi farms.
Discussion
The milk price in the USA is about the same as in Sweden. The trend of more and more farmers quitting their businesses as milk farmers is the same in both countries. It's hard to find good labour that wants to work in this kind of business. In the USA, there's still an option to hire cheap labour from Latin America, like Mexico and Guatemala. It's usually the bigger farms that have foreign labour. A very large amount of small scale farmers in the USA are being outclassed. They conclude their businesses when it's hard to compete with the growing amount of large scale farmers. The situation is similar in Sweden, more farms are concluded, but the amount of animals doesn't decrease. There are simply fewer farms with more animals- more efficient production.
There seems to be a direction towards immediate maximum gain in the USA. In Sweden there's more a demand to think of long term sustainability. Contrary to Sweden, the US has no official green movement, but there are some farmers that are starting to develop organic farming as a niche. In Sweden the green movement has spread more widely and is getting stronger and has greater influence on the government.
There are bigger possibilities to start large dairy farms in the US than in Europe. In Europe, most of the land is already bought and in most cases not used for agriculture. There aren't the same area sizes as in the US. The third reason is the amount, and type, of rules that we have in Europe. One of the limitations in Sweden is the grazing time. The highest allowed density of cows per grown hectare is 1.6 cows, which limits the potential herd sizes in Sweden.
Supervision of animals is a problem due to the large amount of animals. A good idea is to use transponders that can measure the activity of the cows-ie. how much do they move.
The phosphorous levels are steadily increasing in the states. Increasing the exports of phosphorous is something that the country has to consider and at the same time decrease the phosphorous levels in the feed.
Tail-docking is very common in the US. This is done with the belief that it keeps the cows, and workers, clean. The tail can also be in the way of the milker in a parallel parlour. In Sweden, tail-docking, is simply not an issue.
Regarding the use of bST; the use of biotechnology is carefully used in Europe. The Growth hormone-bST (artificial bovine somatotrophin ) is banned in Europe but in use in the US since 1993. Some reports say that cows injected with bST produce 10%, sometimes even 15% more milk than they would do otherwise. Other reports say that bST causes increased health problems in animals injected with it, such as: higher infertility rates, more mastitis, infection of the teat and much higher incidence of lameness. Research shows that bST-milk contains a higher level of carcinogenic substances than untreated milk, but some research also shows that the amounts are far from dangerous. The potential social and economic impact of the growth hormone is not discussed as much, but some reports say that l arge farms will benefit over small farms due to the production variables required to support bST-supplemented cows. These variables include a more concentrated feed, antibiotics and computer oriented monitoring equipment for the cows to optimize milking conditions.
AMS will probably increase in the states but as today rules and regulations prevent automatic milking systems to flourish in the states. Robotics will probably be cheaper in the future and therefore easier to apply both on small and large dairy farms, so more people will see the advantages of using a Voluntary Milking System.
Thank you
We would like to thank DeLaval and especially Anders Fagerberg who made this trip possible.
We would like to thank all personnel on DDI who took their valuable time to make our stay memorable.
A special thank you to John Reeher who showed us other parts of America on his free time.
Contacts
AgModels.com
Michael C. Barry (Executive Director AgModels Division)
John Reeher (Programmer)
Jarred Riggall (WebDesigner/Programmer)
AGWAY/CY Heifer Farm
Jeannie Wormuth (Manager)
Cornell University
Norman R. Scott, Ph. D. (Professor)
Lorin D. Warnick, DVM, Ph. D. (Associate Professor)
Cornell T & R Center
Walt Jones (manager)
DDI-Dairy Development International
Lawrence R. Jones Ph. D. (manager)
Hugh Riehlman (assistant manager)
DHi-Dairy Herd Improvement
Danny Thon (Coordinator)
ElVi Farm
Ruth (manager)
F.A.R.M.E. Institute
Joanne Siciliano-Jones, Ph. D. (President)
Carol T. Milton (Controller)
Lourdes Benitez (secretary)
Lamb Farms
Jonathan Lamb (owner)
Milkproduction.com
Chanda Lindsay (Editor)
Morrisville State College
Edward C. (Ted) Nichols, Ph.D. (dean)
Mark Smith (farm manager)
QMPS- Quality Milk Production Services
Ruben Gonzalez, Ph. D.
Tayl Wind Farm
Glenn Taylor (owner)
Venture Farms
Joel Riehlman (co-owner) |