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Farm/dairy name: Dmitrov Dairy Farm
Owners: 75% by Russian Farms and 25% by Russian Dairy Farms Inc
No of dairy cows: 530
Breed of cows: Holstein-Friesian
Housing: 6 row loose-housing system
Milking system: Blue Diamond Gang Exit/Gang Index® parlour
Number of milkings per day: 3
“Thank you for all of DeLaval’s help because you have made it much easier for us.”
Dmitrov Dairy Farms (DDF) is 50% financed through equity and 50% through a U.S bank, with U.S citizen Shan Betzold as the on-site farm director. Shan and his wife Nancy say the fact that they are an American couple living in Russia has gained them media attention both locally and abroad. The farm’s modern and successful milk production approach has proved just as interesting to the international farming community.
“The International Fund Russian Farms has been in Russia trying to help the agricultural industry for over ten years – using several different avenues. Finally they decided that they need to build a project farm to prove that it would work in Russia, hence DDF. Construction started in the spring of 2002 and the first cows came in the summer of 2003,” says Shan Betzold
Dmitrov Dairy Farms operates with two milkers per shift, milking three times per day, each milker working seven shifts a week. “The parlour is a Double 12 expandable to a Double 20 for when we move from 900 to 1200 cows in the near future,” says Shan.
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Currently Dmitrov Dairy Farms has “about 530 milk cows” with approximately 400 young stock heifers. About 30% are first lactation cows and the rest of the herd is just starting their second lactation. Last year the operation sold about 8000 kgs of milk per cow and is currently averaging 31 to 32 litres per cow. ALPRO® is used as the “recording device from our transponders to get daily milk weights.” This year Dmitrov Dairy Farms hopes to sell around 9.5 to 10,000 litres per cow.
“We are about 70 km from Moscow and that allows us to deliver our milk there. Our dairy comes twice a day with two trucks, because our cooler is only a 12 tonne cooler and we ship approximately 15 tonnes per day. One truck comes in the morning and we fill one of his sections, then another large truck comes. That way we can clean our tank each day.
Our dairy processor pays mainly on fat and protein levels. Our protein level is about 3.5 % and fat about 4 %. Currently that’s the only parameters our dairy is testing for. In the United States there would be regular somatic cell and bacteria counts tested as well. Over winter we have had very good prices averaging approximately 32 U.S cents per litre. During the summer when Russian farmers are feeding on pasture and the dairies receive a glut in milk, the prices drop to around 28 cents per litre.
“Our cows are healthy and we have very little mastitis so we don’t test for that on a regular basis. We’ve tested the bulk tank about three times and it’s always been below 200,000 which is where we like to consider our maximum to be.”
Like most farms, cow cleanliness is very important to Dmitrov Dairy Farms and the stalling is always kept clean. “In the parlour we have good preparation before milking. First the cows are pre-dipped and approximately 12 to 20 seconds later cows are wiped dry with a paper towel then the unit is attached. After milking they are post-dipped with DeLaval products.”
Shan considers quick milk cooling “very important”, so the farm uses two DeLaval cooling plates - one on each milk receiver group. The milk is cooled down to four degrees within 30 to 45 minutes of milking.
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“Immediately after birth each calf receives four litres of colostrum and as soon as they are dry they go outside into individual hutches for two months – where they are fed milk replacer with a free choice of combi-corn and water.
“We feed three separate rations for high cows, middle cows and dry cows based on productivity and days in milk. The base is corn silage with hay and combi-corn based on productivity. It’s fed in a total mixed ration in the barn once per day and the feed is pushed up every two hours. We use a 12 cubic metre DeLaval Optimix and we don’t use any additives in our silage at chopping. But as we move further ahead into higher quality forages, we are thinking that we’ll probably start to inoculate our hay. The high cow ration is balanced at close to 18% protein, 1.8 mega-cals per kilogram.
“We believe we can increase our milk production considerably, mainly though improving the quality of our forages. We want to bring the protein levels up and get the fibre levels down which will in turn get the intakes of our cows up and increase yield. We also plan to increase our herd size to 1200 cow. All heifers are raised and we’ll continue to sell our bull calves.”
“We grow all our own forages. We feed 60% corn silage in our ration the remaining 40% is clover and annual grass haylage. All grains are purchased as a complete mix. Currently we have about 1000 hectares of land available and as we are looking to expansion, we’ll be planning 600 hectares to corn this year and 400 of annual plus perennial grasses.”
The farm’s manure is scraped out of the pens at every milking. “It’s hauled through the fields three to four times a week, so we have no long term storage.”
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All the farm’s Holstein-Friesian cows are imported from Holland and were bought in as bred heifers between five and seven months pregnant. The average lactation is around 360 days and the calving interval is about 13.5 months. “From the first round of heifers we have about 150 heifer yearlings and about 250 heifers under one year. We have a cull rate of about 15% since we have only been in operation around 1.5 years and have not yet bought any of our own heifers into the project . Our purchased heifers average about 26 months at first calving. All our cows are bred 100% artificially.”
Daily decisions are made by Shan and his wife Nancy regarding the cows and “more and more on crops”. The farm’s herdsman is responsible for all animal health issues. “Part of managing here in Russia that I miss the most is the lack of similar kinds of operations to share ideas with. There’s just starting to be similar farms where we can share similar operating, housing, health and calf care system information with.”
Dmitrov Dairy Farms developed standard operating procedures and has translated them into Russian so that every employee can benefit. “We also train each employee so that they understand the proper procedures. Every year we will also do one or two re-training seminars just to keep everybody up to date.”
Shan says it has been hard finding employees and suppliers who are willing to change. “Our building is made from steel and wood and our cows lay on sand. Initially we had a lot of trouble finding people who would accept that. But once word got out that this was a clean place to work, that the cows were well taken care of and that U.S management is not that hard to get along with – then we had three to four people a month asking to work for us.”
Nancy says the farm uses well trained people and believes this is one good reason for the farm’s success. “Our people enjoy their work and they have gained a lot of knowledge since they began farming in the American way here. We are getting to the stage where we feel we can bring in others and start teaching them. Hopefully they can then go back to their farms and start making some changes. It’s all a mindset – they have to be willing to change. People come here and see success and they want to repeat that,” she says. Nancy adds that the employees are the “highest paid milkers on average in the region”.
Shan says the farm is “profitable” but the largest cost they need to control is feed costs. “It has a lot to do with the quality of our forage not being up to the standards we would like to see yet and having to supplement with purchased grains and proteins which are expensive.”
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Shan says “it’s a huge issue” keeping the cows comfortable.
“Our cows are all housed in a mid-western style, curtain sided, sand bedded, free stall barn. It was the only option considered for this operation because we felt the Russian dairy industry needed to move from the tied-up systems to where you are managing groups of cows instead of individual cows. Cows are happier and healthier in the open air. They have the freedom to move. In north-west Wisconsin where we are from, they have been using these types of systems for almost 20 years and had no problems with them. The cows produce great and are very comfortable.
“We use sand bedding in the free-stalls and it’s like a day at the beach for them. The sand bedded free-stalls conform to the cow’s weight when they lay down and it’s also non-organic so it won’t promote the growth of bacteria. All of our cement is grooved to prevent the cows from slipping. The curtain sidewalls provide fresh air on a regular basis and we have an open ridge in our barn. The barn will stay about five degrees warmer in the winter than outside temperature and in the summer about 10 degrees cooler.”
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“Our DeLaval service representative is very good. He arrives when we call and he addresses our issues when we need him. He visits on a regular basis so our supplies are never short.”
“It’s really exciting for us to be coming from being one of the average farms in the U.S to one of the best farmers in Russia. For us that is personally exciting and as we seek to improve ourselves, we also seek to improve all of Russian agriculture. We are very happy to have the huge amount of visitors we have and we hope that each one will take home new ideas,” says Nancy.
Meanwhile Shan hopes the milk payment system will change. “They have such large volumes of poor quality milk here in Russia that they use the higher quality milk from various farms to bring the standard of everything up. We would like to see a premium for our milk because it is such good quality and because we cool our milk so quickly. The shelf life of our milk out of the tank is five days or better in the refrigerator and we’d like to see a premium payment for that level of quality but it’s currently very limited. The Russian processors we’ve talked with are seeing the need for more quality milk. The yield of the processor’s products is higher and the flavour is better with quality milk, so as the Russian consumer becomes choosier – the processors will see that need and reward the farms for it. In the future the processors will need to meet the increasingly more affluent consumer’s demands for longer shelf life and better taste, which high quality milk will give them.
Shan also hopes the Russian financing system will improve in the future and says Russia is a land of opportunity. “As the infrastructure develops and the unused land is utilised – we see no reason why Russia can not meet the productivity of the U.S.A. Russia just needs to bring its technology to the same levels as the U.S, from genetics in cows to genetics in forages. We plant genetics in our seed corn and it yields twice the level of forage per hectare as the Russian variety, but it’s difficult to get those genetics into this country. However,” adds Shan with a sigh, “the U.S is going to be on to the next technology before Russia accepts current technology”.
Shan concludes that the western companies which are doing well in Russia now are “the companies that stuck it out through the bad times – DeLaval is one of those companies and they deserve to reap the rewards”.
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