Penttilä farm

• Located in Outokumpu, Finland
• Owners: Pasi Alava and Eeva Ihalainen
• 60 cows, Holstein-Friesian 60%, Ayrshire 38%, Finncattle 2 %
• 2x5 Herringbone stall 30º
• Housing: loose house

The farm

The Penttilä dairy farm is situated in Outokumpu, on the borderland between the North Karelia and North Savo regions. Eeva and Pasi are both in their thirties and are third generation dairy farmers. Pasi’s grandparents moved to the farm in 1946. In the year 2000, the farm was transferred from Eine and Viljo Alava to Eeva and Pasi. Some of the farm’s milestones are the new loose house barn finished in 2003 and the farmers’ first child Niko, born in 2005.

In the year 2000 Eeva and Pasi began investigating ways to increase their herd size. After many farm visits, planning and thought, the idea of a loose house barn for 40 cows was formed. During the barn planning stage, functionality determined space utilisation. Stalls for 60 dairy cows were made within 22x50 square metres. Alava barn was built in eight months and is constructed of pre-cast concrete elements. The roof consists of a roof truss, the barn ceiling and insulation.

Energy saving solutions

Energy-saving solutions are integrated. The utility room has a storage tank linked with the milk heat recovery system and the water heater. Pasi says that recovering heat and getting warm water like this, reduces electricity costs. The couple also plans to install a rinse water recovery system on the cleaning unit so that the recovered water also can be used to rinse the parlour.

Milk quality

The farm’s somatic cell count is around 70,000 and the bacterial count is below 3,000 per millilitre. A separate pipeline was constructed in the middle of the parlour. “Two milking units make it easy to milk the cows which have recently calved and cows receiving treatment. The system is equipped with its own receiver and a small cooling tank so it is possible to gather colostrums handily without unnecessary carrying. A milk sample is taken from mastitis-cows for laboratory culture as early as possible and the goal is targeted treatment.”  Eeva says that using teat dip also helps keep the farm’s number of mastitis cases low.

Alava milkers previously used textile wipes and water to clean teats but in early 2006, DeLaval Biofoam was tested. Eeva and Pasi noticed a difference after one week’s use. “The dirt comes off the teats better than before and the teat skin is smoother than before. The intact and smooth skin of the teats lessens the risk of infection and it makes the work easier than before. I was surprised to see how well this Biofoam cleans and the milking time is now almost 20 minutes shorter for each milking. That’s a lot,” Eeva says.

The farm’s goal for average milk production is 10,000 kilograms.

Feeding

Grass is cultivated on 66 hectares of arable land at Alava. Silage is harvested two to three times a year and the feed is stored in drive-through bunker silos. The farm has silo space for 1300 cubic metres of silage. The silage’s good quality is maintained by renewing the grass approximately every three years. Weeds are erradicated from the grass fields. The silage is distributed with a feed wagon five times a day. Eeva and Pasi consider the feed wagon to be ”absolutely” the best purchase for the barn. ”It does the hardest work at the farm by distributing approximately one million kilograms of silage in a year, with practically no manual work.” Concentrated feed is purchased from outside the farm and is distributed from three feeding stations. Eeva and Pasi think this is a reasonable number of stations because it allows every animal to feed without disturbances. Drinking bowls and one 120 litre tip basin are also used at Alava.

Herd management

Eeva and Pasi use the ALPRO™ herd management system’s receiver in the barn and a laptop at home for analysing the data and making decisions. Feeding plans are made together with milk recording and the feed industry. In addition, another farm has created a dairy farm quality manual which Pasi says, “has been a great help in thinking about one’s own work methods and evaluating them. People can so easily become blind to their own work”.

“Thanks to the ALPRO™ activity meters, the silent estrus of heifers in particular can be seen clearly. This has helped to reach the insemination rate of 1.5 inseminations per calving. There are virtually no needless inseminations.”

Cow comfort

The loose house barn has three rows, with the feeding table in the middle. The young stock is given group boxes instead of cubicles from the age of three months. This helps the heifers learn how to live in a loose house barn from a young age. The dairy cows have a scraper to remove the manure from the slatted floor. The same scraper cleans both the young stock’s open alley and under the slatted floor of the calf boxes.

A cubicle divider is used to create a useful walkway for the cows on the edges of the barn. The cows rest on cow mattresses and the young stock on 20 mm rubber mattresses. “It's really comfortable to rest on a 40 mm thick mattress,” says Pasi. The barn’s walls and floors are painted with surface coating. “They are easy to keep clean, even after several years.”

The future

“There is space for 60 dairy cows in the Alava barn. A realistic goal to work for is 600,000 kilograms of milk per year. In the future, this will be a good amount for using a voluntary milking system. It is possible to do many tasks yourself on a dairy farm, but at some point you must stop and think about how long you will be able to go on,” concludes Pasi.