van Ruiswijk - the Netherlands

• Location: the Netherlands
• Owner: Jan van Ruiswijk
• Number of dairy cows: 55
• Breed: Holstein-Friesian
• Milk production:  500,000 kg per year
• Milking system: VMS
• Number of milkings per day: 3.2
• Farm size: 14 ha on the farm, and 10 ha elsewhere

The farm

Jan van Ruiswijk is a third-generation farmer. He is the sole owner and operator of the Van Ruiswijk farm, where his grandfather began farming in 1919. His farm is one of just two farms still in business on the Edese Zuiderkade. While in the old days most of the people in their street used to milk cows, Jan says a lot of young people choose other careers now rather than following in their parents’ footsteps. And some people chose to sell off part of their land to be built on for residential housing. However, this is not always a disadvantage for the farmers who do continue their business because of opportunities to cooperate with neighbouring farmers on the use of the land, for instance on selling or purchasing crops like corn.

Herd management

Jan owns 50 young stock. He raises them himself and has a replacement rate of about 20%. The age of first calving is two years and one month and is done through artificial insemination. Jan uses the ALPRO herd management system along with its associated software. The cows are loose-housed. Jan uses a cow brush, cow mattresses, a manure scraper and a ventilator to ensure the comfort of his herd.

Herd facts:

- average age of cows: 4 years, 9 months
- average days in milk: 330 days
- age of first calving: 2 years, 1 month

Feeding

Jan has chosen a partially mixed ration for feeding and uses concentrate in his VMS and in the feeding stations in the barn. He uses 2100 kg per cow per year of concentrate. His roughage is made up of silage, corn and sugar beet pulp . Although he purchases some of the corn, he grows his own grass; 14 ha on his own farm and 10 ha offsite. He uses manure from his cows to fertilise the grass. However, his herd does not graze outside, as Jan says the young cows especially prefer not to leave the barn as the climate in the barn is usually better than outdoors. And keeping the cows indoors makes it easier to keep the milk production on the right level because the cows are fed a constant ration.

Jan has installed a feeding alley with mobile walls that he fills every four to five days. When the cows cannot reach the feed, he presses a button to move the walls closer to the middle where the feed is.  “This is a perfect combination with the VMS” he says proudly, “because there’s always feed on the table which makes the barn more peaceful and quiet.

Manure management

Jan uses a pit to store the manure for six months. He injects the manure into the ground, which is mandatory in the Netherlands. Dutch regulation prohibits manure injection between 1 September and 1 February, and EU regulations place a limit of 170 kg nitrogen per ha. However, farmers can appeal for ‘derogation’: if they meet several requirements and maintain proper records, the limit can be increased to 250 kg nitrogen per ha.

A link to a short description of environmental regulations regarding manure and fertilisers in the Netherlands: http://www.minlnv.nl/portal/page?_pageid=116,1640378&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&p_
document_id=111066&p_node_id=193344&p_mode=BROWSE

Milking

Each year, the Van Ruiswijk farm produces about 500,000 kg of milk, with 3.46% protein and 4.46% fat. The somatic cell count is 200,000 and the total bacteria count is 4,000-6,000. The herd is milked an average of 3.2 times per day using a VMS milking robot, which Jan installed in September of 2005. He also uses a VMS cooling system. The milk is delivered three times a week and the current price is EUR 0.33.

The robot replaced a five-year-old milking parlour from SAC, where the van Ruiswijk farm had been a customer for 40 years. The investment was well worth it. Jan says that milking three times a day with the parlour was exhausting. Even though some people are initially sceptical about robotic milking, Jan thinks they will change their mind once they see it in action.

He started to visit farms, looking at different robots. He liked the VMS and the benefits that came with it: a flexible arm, the space under the cow and the user friendly software.

The robot has been in place since September 2005, and Jan couldn’t be happier. He says he saves four hours of milking time per day, which allows him to spend more time with the cows. “And sleep in!” his father adds with a laugh. Jan’s father claims that if the robot had been available earlier, before he retired, he would have been able to enjoy working for a lot longer. He used to milk in the parlour, and envies the way of working now. His son Jan bought the VMS a few years after taking over the farm.

The VMS system also allows Jan to go on holiday since he can monitor the robot remotely. While on a ski trip, he was able to keep track of the robot with his laptop and watch it via a web camera. He can even run the robot from his Smart phone.

The farm’s electricity costs have increased by 13% overall, but the increase is at night since cows choosing when they want to be milked often choose night-time. Daytime electricity costs have actually decreased by 20%. Water costs have remained the same since the VMS was installed.

When Jan rebuilt the barn to make room for the robot, he lost three milking cubicles, but he gained another seven where the old parlour was located.  “That’s an extra four cows, and a lot of milk,” he says.

He claims that the cows are extremely calm in the barn; so calm, in fact, that they won’t even move out of his way. Since he can just grab a cow when it is treatment time, a separation gate is therefore unnecessary.

Prior to installing the VMS robot, Jan used to have problems with mastitis in his herd. Now the situation has improved and the cows do not need to be treated very often. Before, to prevent mastitis, he milked three times a day, using a 1x12 side-by-side, rapid-exit parlour, but this was a lot of work. With the robot, the cows are milked 3.2 times a day. The result? The cows have fewer incidents of mastitis and Jan has a lot less work.

Another advantage with the VMS is that the integrated conductivity meters provide valuable information about cow udder health and the composition of the milk.

Equipment and service

Jan likes the user friendly software and the flexible arm. He says there is a lot of space under the cow, which is more comfortable for the cow and Jan can easily reach the udder when the cow is in the robot. This makes it easy to switch to manual milking if necessary, which is for example very useful at drying off time.  Jan, in addition, uses DeLaval services four times a year.

The phone rings and Jan’s mother comes in to tell him of a call from the robot reporting a cooling problem. He goes out and checks the cooling tank, but there is nothing seriously wrong. Jan says the robot alerts him about four times a month and he is usually able to fix the problem himself. The first alarm call goes to his mobile phone. If he doesn’t answer, the call switches over to the home telephone, and if nobody picks up there either, the call goes to the neighbours. He feels safe and secure with this system, knowing the robot will let him know if there’s something wrong.

The future

Jan is considering expanding his herd to 70 cows which can easily be realised with the VMS. He doesn’t have any children yet to take over the farm, but he and his wife are expecting a young Van Ruiswijk, so who knows….
He receives a lot of national and international visitors who are interested in automatic milking. Even a group of Chinese people knew where to find him.