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Dry cows and heifers housed in
open lots and simple shelters for milking cows at Kingston Dairy
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I have been told that the first rule of blogging is to post
new stuff frequently and in a timely manner. So here on my third morning on the
ground in Chile I am already a day and a half late with my first post from
South America. Sunday night’s 10 ½ hour flight from Toronto to Santiago went
well despite a 1 hour delay in Toronto. The time here is just two hours later than
back home and I have discovered that jet lag is a time zone issue and no big
deal when travelling straight south.
Our Chilean travel agent, Terry Reagan, a 90 lb ball of
energy that is going to be a great asset for next year’s PDO tour, had three
stops planned for Monday and despite the late start we got them all in. From
Santiago to the coast there are several fertile valleys that produce an
impressive variety of agricultural products. Dairy has always been part of the
mix, but it seems that wine, citrus, and fresh market vegetables generate more
revenue per hectare than corn and alfalfa fed to dairy cows, so the number of
dairy herds is declining. But the two large dairies we visited were both
investing in new assets and they seemed committed to a fure in dairying. These
herds milked 1300 and 1500 Holsteins that will match any herd in Canada for
size, functional type and milk production. At Alpro Dairy operated by dairy
economist Guillermo Jimenez the 1370 cows milking were at 42 kg milk at 3.7 fat
on 3x milking in two olders side by side double 16 herringbone parlors. At 290
pesos per liter with volume and quality bonuses in, the milk price in Canadian
dollars is roughly 50 cents a litre. A milker earns roughly $1500 per month so both costs and income are lower than back
home. The climate here is very dry and Alpro dairy uses that to advantage with
a very simple manure system that flushes the alleys with manure liquids, separates
solids by gravity and uses the sun to dry the solids for near odourless storage
and easy field application. This dairy is switching from freestall barns to
simple shelters with a bedding pack that is tilled daily to keep it dry. Each
pack barn has two tilled dirt yards nearby that cows use on alternate nights
which are also tilled the next day and left to dry. No bedding is used now but
in winter sawdust will be added to aid drying. Cows were clean and comfortable
in the first two barns of this new design. Guillermo is weighing his options
for either a new rotary or robots in the next few years. Our other dairy stop,
Kingston Dairy made the rotary choice a year ago and is now milking 1500 cows
in 10 groups of 150 in a 60 stall rotary platform built by a Madera, a company
from Mexico. 4 people per shift are milking 320 cows per hour at 44 Kg milk per
cow 3x. This herd also raises all it’s replacements on site. The low cost of
housing cattle in this climate is pretty obvious when you see heifers and dry
cows outside with no shelter and fence line feeding completely outside year
round. Our third stop was a winery with a great view over the valley, also
owned by the Kingston family. I’ll share
more on Chilean wine in my next blog tomorrow.
interesting
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