Ozlem farm in Turkey

We asked Mr. Mustafa AKİŞ, Chairman of the Board  for Ozlem Agricultural Products  Corporation (owner of the Ozlem Milk & Milk Products Integrated Facility) about his views on sustainabillity.

What is your view on Sustainable dairying – what does it mean to you?

The important factors for us are the strategies and the targets which must be reached. The production costs is the most important factor in reaching the targets. To move the company into the future, the costs should be minimized without compromising production quality. In this context roughage production has to be considered seriously and should be realized in-plant by the company. 

Please describe your sustainable solutions or practices

We have decreased our production cost by producing %100 of the needed roughage on-farm. We are planning to increase the amount of animal and cultivable land at the same time. Our calculation is to have 1 decare (1000 m² or 0,25 acres) per animal. With good planning every farm can produce it’s roughage in those lands.

What is the motivation behind your investment in sustainable solutions or change to sustainable management practices?

The belief in success… The owners, managers and all employees make the biggest efforts to be successful in their business. Also, we believe in being patient to see the positive results of the investment, always make plans to reach the targets. The most motivating thing is to love our business and our cows.

How do you feel about the reports in media on dairy farming’s contribution to the climate change?

We think the climate change affects the dairy farming very seriously. It’s a reality that milking cows are affected by climate changes. 

Do you think the consumers are affected by this?

No we don’t think so.

Have you felt the impact of the climate change? Do you see this as a threat for your business?

Yes, absolutely. We believe that even if it is temporary, drought affects the working quality, animal welfare and raw materials negatively. Also, extreme cold climate conditions affect animal welfare and health negatively, too.

Are there environmental regulations that you need to consider?

Various regulations are in force about manure handling in Turkey. We also apply manure management in our farm. Legally, if you have a unit which is producing milk products, processing system has to be installed, too.

What are the benefits from working sustainably?          

Production costs can be decreased. Further on, costs can be kept stable. Also, work planning makes life easy.

What are the difficulties is working sustainably? What is the main difference from ‘conventional’ dairy farming?

The plans are made yearly so that sometimes the planning system brings some difficulties while reaching the targets because of flexible environment, climate and health conditions. But, the system builds the quality and it’s always better than to work without planning. The most important difference from “conventional” dairy farming is to collect & follow the farm data and realizing all the works according to the plans.

Background:

Why and when did you start dairy farming?

The project has been started in 2004. Before that the feasibility studies took 3 years to complete. The first milking was realized in August, 2005. The main business of the company was concentrated feed. So, this relation played a leading role in making this investment in animal husbandry. The project continued with imports of heifers from Sweden in June, 2005. The second part of heifer import was realized in March 2008, from Australia.

Milking

• Number of dairy cows: 1.393, totally with 615 milking cows

• Milking: 2 times per day

• Milking system: 16x2 Blue Diamond 

• Cooling: Two 6.000 Lt. cooling tank and one 1.000 Lt. cooling tank

• Yearly milk production reached 3.102 tons in 2008. We are planning to produce 5.800 tons in 2009.

• Average yield per cow is 27,1 Lt. daily.

• Average yield per cow is 9.900 Lt. yearly.

• Fat  4.20%
  Protein 3.47%

• Somatic cell count, SCC: 150.000

• Total bacteria count: 40.000
• Average age of cows is 3,6 years
• Average lactation length: 355 days

Housing

The cows are kept in a half-open and loose housing, with head locks and cow mats.
They have set up 10 m2 space in the barn and 15 m2 space outside for each cow. There is a navigation area in every barn division. Manure scrapers, cooling fans and water sprays for heat stress, rubber mats and automatic brushes to improve the cows’ conditions.

Feeding

They use TMR (Total Mixed Ration). The ration is mixed & distributed through the 12 m3 optimix mixer wagon.

Concentrated feed used inside total mixed ration and also individual feeding units. For this concentrated (pellet) feed is used.

The silage is made of dry alfa alfa, wheat stalk, dry plant, caramba (lolium), barley-vetch and corn stalk are used as forage for cows.

Forage (silage, dry alfa alfa, wheat stalk, dry plant, caramba (lolium), barley-vetch and corn stalk) is produced in-plant by Ozlem Farm. They earn 1/2, sometimes 1/3 of the market price from the costs. With decrease of milk and meat production costs the profitability increases.

There is a 50 decar (5 hectare) pasture area inside the facility. In suitable climate conditions cows and heifers are grazing there.

Crops and forages

They grow 3.000 decar (300 hectares or 740 acres) of corn as pellet or for silage, alfalafa, wheat, barley-vetch

Irrigation is realized by pumps which deliver the water from the wells. Lands are irrigated with dripping, voluntary or sprinkling system. The manure which is gathered around the barns and navigation areas are used on the grounds according to the needs. (Dry manure is used before plantation and liquid manure is used after plantation together with water.)

They sell raw milk, sometimes silage, wheat, alfalfa and veal.

Herd management

The farm uses an Alpro Herd Management System. Manure management

The manure is collected daily from the barns and delivered to the separation system via manure pumps. Liquid manure is delivered to the manure pool and the dry manure is delivered to another collecting area. The manure which is collected at those areas is used on the grounds through the pipelines or trailers, when needed.

Farm management

28 staff included management and technical departments are working 3 shifts per day.
They realize a 120 cow per hour milking routine. From the animal health side the vaccination program is implemented very well. Also, breeding process is implemented regularly.

The future

The process which started with the import of 250 heifers in 2005 continued with another import (400 heifers) in 2008. The process hereafter will be continued by developing the heifers inside farm with a breeding program.

The farm owner knows that dairy farming requires patience, and the biggest aim is to hand over the business to the next generation.

As can be understand from the full name of the enterprise (Ozlem Milk & Milk Products Integrated Facility), the most important plan is to set up a unit which process the raw milk and produce milk products in the future. Also, domestic sale of pregnant heifers is planned soon. 

Read about other farms in the Sustainability section>>