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Farm/dairy name: Martin's Dairy
Owners: Elvin Martin and family
No of dairy cows: 170
Breed of cows: Holstein
Housing: Loose-housing
Milking system: Champion™ parallel parlour 2x8
No. of milkings per day: 3
“Our DeLaval dealer is competitive and gets the job done. There’s no question in my mind that our dealer is one of the best.”
“Service has been more than can be expected. Installation and the professionalism that went with it, met our expectations - we expected it and we got it. They were good people to work with and we are very satisfied with them.”
“Milking three times a day with two people requires high efficiency. Timing is primary to us and we try to do everything in a timely fashion. Our labour force is my wife, my son and I. We do whatever needs to be done on time and we are willing to make the necessary sacrifices to ensure things are done. We don’t use any hired labour to milk this often, but it fits our schedule well and we are never overwhelmed by it. In fact we are grateful for this life because it keeps all the family employed, safe and together in a good working environment.”
All the housing for lactating cows is sand-bedded loose-housing stalls. 170 cows are bedded in 158 loose-housing stalls and the dry cows are also sand-bedded in a 38-stall barn.
Two people use the farm's rapid-exit milking system to milk 80 cows an hour, three times a day.
Average daily milk production is around 82 pounds per cow on Martin's Dairy, with butter fat at seven per cent and protein at 3.1 per cent. The average cow somatic cell count is currently 220,000.
Milk is transported from the farm daily and Elvin says “there are at least a dozen milk contractors that we could chose from to buy our product but we currently ship to AMPI which is 40 miles from here”. He adds; “our milk is strictly used for cheese. We have a one-year contract with AMPI at a locked price for 60 per cent of our production”.
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Martin's Dairy uses a one-group TMR system consisting of corn silage as the main forage, with wet hay and western hay. Each cow is fed around five pound of cotton seed. Shelled and dry ground corn is used to meet energy needs. Protein comes from Soya-bean meal and roasted beans which are purchased from a local mill and delivered every 10 days.
The operations feed costs account for 55 per cent of its total cost.
Most of the forage is grown on the farm and this consists of about 60 per cent corn silage. One hundred acres are allocated for growing wet hay and western hay is purchased off-farm.
Manure is treated as a semi solid and hauled daily for spraying on the crops.
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The herd’s vaccinations, dehorning, shots and overall AI breeding is contracted. Heifers are reared off the farm using a contracted arrangement which Elvin says “works well” for the family.
“For the last eight years we have sold our heifer calves to one person and then we buy them back at a pre-determined price about a month before they are due to calve. Right now we sell the calves for $200 a head and pay $1400 to buy them back.”
Elvin notes that the cow buying procedure for Martin's Dairy is well structured and efficient. “We use CMT to test cows for mastitis before buying them and we don’t buy any cows that aren’t vaccinated against various diseases. We also try to buy cows that have been SCC tested first. We also ask people coming on the property not to go in with the cows.”
“We take good care with cow comfort, feed and milking. We prioritise cow comfort with plenty of sand bedding and bed every 5 days. We don’t overcrowd the cows and we scrape the free stall barn three times a day – every time we bring the cows in to milk. Manure is scraped out to keep the cows cleaner and more comfortable. Stall size is more than adequate for even the largest cows and that goes a long way in cow comfort.”
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“Our DeLaval dealer is competitive and gets the job done. There’s no question in my mind that our dealer is one of the best. They may be far away but they are always just a phone call away too and there’s a local service person. Service has been more than can be expected. Installation and the professionalism that went with it, met our expectations - we expected it and we got it. They were good people to work with and we were very satisfied with them.
Most of the equipment in the utility room is DeLaval. The vacuum pump, free heater and so on. All the soaps, pre-dip, post dip, acid rinse and detergent are DeLaval. We stick with them because they are good products and our dealer prices them well. By buying these products we also get a good discount in our service. We use the DeLaval six month preventive maintenance programme and yearly replacement program too.
The quality of the products and services make this system work profitably. We’ve increased profit and total revenue with this system, without increasing labour and that’s a very good thing. We’ve increased our herd size without needing to allocate more time so we are undoubtedly more efficient now."
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“We’ll be trying to feed more consistent and better rations to improve milk yield. As far as milk quality is concerned, our goal is to achieve a cell count below 200,000 and keep it there. Testing the milk and doing even better, more consistent milking is one way I know to achieve this but it will require a lot of consistency and effort.
"A lot will depend on what the family wants to do in the future. We have no plans for expansion and are simply concentrating on greater efficiency right now.
We have noticed over the last 10 years that buyers are paying for quantity and are getting better at paying for quality. The related bonus is getting better and this has to do with competition amongst the buyers. Farmers are more business orientated now and aware of what is available too, which has forced contractors to improve their payment system.
Milk price is better than ever before. A year ago was the lowest for many years and the reason for that is simply supply and demand. There seems to be a shortage of producers right now for various reasons and as far as milk price is concerned, there will be more farmers contracting in the future because we need stable prices and contracting is one way to achieve this. "
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