With attention to detail and quality – plus a little help from DeLaval - a family farm in Sweden hopes to keep on providing the quality milk that it is noted for, both today, and in the future.
Bleckenstad farm, located in Mjölby, Sweden, has been in the Johansson family since 1913, and the two brothers who run the operation today hope to keep it there for future generations. But with the decreasing number of herds in Sweden, they'll have to plan carefully in order to increase the efficiency of the herd. So their idea is to continue to grow the herd; to farm ecologically in order to maintain the quality of produce that they are noted for; and to capitalize on their DeLaval VMS milking system and ALPRO herd management system.
They run a 300-strong herd of mixed Swedish Red and Holstein which average 2.6 milkings a day with four milking robots. The raw milk is held in a deLaval DXCEM 14,000 litre cooling tank via a 300 litre instant cooling buffer tank. They manage herd data through the ALPRO system. Their cows average some 27kg of milk per animal per day.
The cows are partially fed in the VMS during milking with concentrate and crushed grain, before moving to a TMR of silage and “other natural ingredients”. During the summer the herd enjoys pasture and their ration is decreased accordingly.
“We use a herd managament system to set each cow’s ration individually in the VMS. We can guide the feed to each cow according to her stage of lactation and milk yield. We also use a local ecological advisor to help figure out the feeding schedule. Apart from that we give the cows free access to TMR, which is fed every three hours. A lot of energy comes from the pasture, so harvesting is crucial to us for top quality roughage. We make our silage in long sausage shapes with organic acids and wrap it in plastic.”
The farm’s new VMS barn is constructed with “a high ceiling and large light input for good air and cow comfort”. All lactating cows rest on mattresses.
“Our cows enjoy the cow brushes and we think they have a very good environment to live in”.
Apart from the cow mattresses, cow brushes and other VMS facilities, Bleckenstad farm is managed ecologically. This form of management is excellent for cow health and of course, the environment.
“It’s important for us that our cows have access to pasture between milkings. We also remove all manure with slow moving manure scrapers so the cows aren’t stressed.”
To maintain the farm’s ecological approach, the Johansson’s do not spray any chemicals on their fields or use chemical fertilisers.
Their land consists of 430 hectares of fields, 150 hectares of grazing lands and 350 hectares of forest.
“We grow most of the feed ourselves with the station mixture of pasture seeds, according to ecological rules. There is also a lot of white clover in it which gives nitrogen to the soil, but we have limited nitrogen usage on the farm.”
“Normally in the summer our cows milk themselves in the morning and then walk out to pasture before returning back at noon when they feel like being milked. They walk approximately 500 yards to the VMS to milk themselves and then sometimes eat some concentrate from the VMS - which is restricted because of our ecological management - before returning again to pasture. We are currently adding more cows to the herd, so the yield will increase. For some reason their yield increases in the spring. We believe it’s because of the good pasture with fresh grass."
