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Farm/dairy name: Santa Luzia
Owners: Maurico Coelho
No of dairy cows: 700
Breed of cows: Girolanda
Milking system: DeLaval tandem stall with MidiLine™ milking system
Number of milkings per day: Two
Santa Luzia farm is typical of Brazil’s larger farm operations, having passed through three generations of ownership. It has continued to diversify, adapt and prosper using large amounts of available land and various capitalization methods. Maurico Coelho took over the farm from his father, who received it from his father in turn. Maurico has modernised the milk production side of Santa Luzia’s operation to include the likes of improved production equipment and disease control methods, but says the rest is as it was when his grandfather worked the farm.
The farm utilises a pasture based system and milks 700 cross-bred Girolanda cows twice daily using a DeLaval tandem stall with a MidiLine™ milking system. Maurico says that while he could achieve higher yield with Holsteins, he prefers the Duralanda’s 50/50 mix of Sebu and Holstein. “The Girolanda breed has a higher resistance to local diseases and can go to pasture more effectively in the hot climate.”
Santa Luzia produces 9000 kilos of milk pre day. The herd has a somatic cell count of 208,000 in the summer and 150,000 in the winter. “This year we will have three million kilos of milk and this is a 10 per cent increase from previous years. We have also increased the number of animals and that’s good for us because they are a financial asset.”
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Maurico says the farm’s income could be much higher if he increased his feeding rates but because of increasing costs he believes it is better to operate within safe cost margins. He admits that when milk prices rise, he feeds out more concentrate to increase the yield - then reduces the concentrate when the price inevitably falls again. The Coelho family has operated in this way for 60 years and managed to increase profit every year during that time.
Maurico keeps the younger cows in pasture and says this is initially difficult because the cow is not yet fully adapted to eating off pasture. “During the first two months young stock must be fed four litres of milk twice daily and then they also receive some concentrates.” Pasture is slowly and fully introduced after five months via a little corn silage spread on the ground.
Santa Luzia’s pasture is divided into 17 lots. Each lot is separated by electric fencing and utilised for around two days. One ton of fertiliser is used per hectare, annually and this is generally laid during the rainy season to increase forage production and allow more cows to be placed in the area.
Santa Luzia’s utilises its available land to grow corn for on-farm feeding of bulls, pigs, beef cattle and cows. The farms overall profit is also strengthened by growing coffee.
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Beef cattle are chosen according to their birth dates and are offered at auction annually. Maurico says this sales selection method has given him a reputation for fairness and a “healthy collection” of returning buyers each year. The farm also sells pigs and bulls.
The herd has two individual calendared vaccinations against a variety of diseases, twice a year. Each cow is treated for worms nine times a year at the end of lactation. And like the rest of Brazil’s farmers, Maurico is legally required to test his herd for FMD twice a year. The herd is sprayed once a month to kill ticks and a footbath is used twice a week.
The rainy season is the most likely time for mastitis outbreaks in Brazil. To combat this disease, Brazilian farms place a high emphasis on hygiene, along with checking their milking equipment and their herd’s somatic cell counts monthly. Brazilian farmers do not use hormones in their milk production.
“I believe my son or my brother’s son can contain this farm in the future,” says Maurico. The cost of labour is something Maurico wants to change. He says all of his labourers are given practical courses on milking processes, artificial insemination techniques and how to use machinery like tractors. This and the fact his labourers are treated as part of what he calls the extended family, keep the workers with the farm for long periods of time – some 20 or 30 years. Yet he says the labourer’s wages are low. They are paid around $120 U.S a month and Maurico hopes the future will see greater government aid, increased milk prices or production - to help him raise this payment.
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