From Our Side of the Fence

Simon Gubelmann

Walton, Ontario (Canada)

90 cows

Tell us about your farm. At Gubelmann Brown Swiss Farms, we milk about 90 Brown Swiss cows. We just moved out of a tie stall barn and started in the slat barn in January. It’s kind of like a pig barn with a manure pit underneath. We are now getting used to two Lely robots. I would be the third generation. My dad and grandpa came down in ’91 from Switzerland.

What about your area makes dairy farming enjoyable? I just love working with animals. I’m definitely better with animals than people.

What are some unique features of dairying in your area? Mostly managing the snow. There’s a lot of snow where we are from. We have good land in our area. Another big thing compared to America would be the quota system. We are limited to how much milk we can produce and how many cows we can have. There's a limit for the whole province, and then you buy into it. This is really hard to get into, unless you buy a new farm.

How would you describe the average operation in your area? We're unique with Brown Swiss, but I think most are under 100 cows, with 50-60 cows probably on average in our area because of the quota system. Not too many farms have over 1,000 cows. Most cows are black and white Holsteins in the area. Most are in a freestall barn, be we still have a lot in tiestall barns. We're unique once again, because we have a slat barn.

If you could change one thing about your area to make farming easier for you, what would it be? The winters are pretty tough. Last year, a couple of barns in our area collapsed because we got so much snow. That’s a big limitation in our area. We typically get 18 inches of snow or more in a year, if I had to guess.

What crops do you raise, and what does your growing season look like? We have mainly corn, beans and wheat, but we also still have the alfalfa grass fields, and then we grow a bit of mixed grains like oats and barley for our cows. The growing season is a lot like the Midwest. We plant in April, and right now, we are harvesting corn silage. We will harvest dry corn later in October and November.

Describe your housing for your animals from calf to cow. We start our calves in hutches, and then we move them into group pens around a month old. We have a freestyle barn for our heifers, which is a deep-bedded pack with an alley scraped with a Bobcat. Then, they move into the new barn where we have the slats with the deep-bedded straw and robots.

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Jun Turla

Concepcion, Tarlac (Philippines)

30 cows

Tell us about your farm. We raise Holsteins because they are heat tolerant. We’re not milking them. We're just breeding them because there is a shortage of Holstein cows in the Philippines, and we just sell them as pregnant, which is better because the price is higher than the cows that are not pregnant. We have a few buffalos, too. They are grazing on grass because we have big land. I’m the third generation to dairy farm. My parents and grandparents did it more as a hobby, and I want to continue to grow it more.

What about your area makes dairy farming enjoyable? It’s like a hobby and weekend farming with my friends. But, of course, there is now a shortage of milk in the Philippines because we import about 99% of our milk. That's why the government wanted to increase the number of dairy farmers. So, we can hopefully multiply our herd in the near future. It's satisfying at the same time, seeing all these animals grow and eating good crops. And later on, of course, additional money for us helps.

What are some unique features of dairying in your area? I think the unique features we have are the rice granary, meaning we have plenty of grass. We use a lot of different ingredients for our feed.

How would you describe the average operation in your area? Small. But there are some big dairy farms that are operating here, ranging from one to 3,000 cows. About 500 would be considered medium-sized.

If you could change one thing about your area to make farming easier for you, what would it be? I think we should have a good nutritionist in our country and some kind of feed analysis for our cows. For example, in our country, we don’t examine the blood.

What crops do you raise, and what does your growing season look like? Corn, rice paddy and sweet potato. We have good weather, especially during the rainy season. We plant maybe around June, and maybe we will harvest by September. It is about 70 days for maize for silage corn.

Describe your housing for your animals from calf to cow. We have just minimal housing. We believe that the cows would be happy when they're being grazed in the grass. We don't have snow or cold weather like here in America. So they can tolerate those rainy seasons and even hot seasons.

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Betsy Bullard (pictured with husband, Bill)

Turner, Maine

550 registered Holsteins

Tell us about your farm. My husband, Bill, and I are the 10th generation to farm here in Turner. We milk three times a day in a double-12 parallel parlor. We have sand-bedded free stalls for all cows.

What about your area makes dairy farming enjoyable? Maine certainly has a fantastic quality of place with fabulous scenery and proximity to the coast. The dairy industry in Maine isn't huge, with 137 licensed dairy farms at the moment. That comes with challenges around infrastructure and logistics, as Maine isn't really on the way to anywhere.

What are some unique features of dairying in your area? The dairy industry in Maine is small enough that it certainly does feel like a community. We have abundant water normally, and the seasons are manageable. We avoid the extreme heat of some regions, and the winters aren't quite as intense as I remember, back when I was little and the snowbanks weren't.

How would you describe the average operation in your area? Maine's 137 dairies are all sizes and shapes, from dairies milking over 1,000 cows to dairies milking well under that and taking advantage of Maine's other natural resources like maple, timber, and continued diversification in direct-to-consumer, value-added products.

If you could change one thing about your area to make farming easier for you, what would it be? Certainly, being closer to more dairies would mean a bit more robust infrastructure.

What crops do you raise, and what does your growing season look like? Our growing season is likely a bit shorter than some areas of the country, so our forages are primarily mixed grasses for haylage and most of our total mixed ration is corn silage. We are usually happy when the first cutting/planting is under control by mid to late May, with harvesting corn silage now.

Describe your housing for your animals from calf to cow. Calves are raised in hutches. They move through a system of bedded pack barns until they reach about 6-8 months of age, when they transition to sand-bedded free stalls that they will enjoy as cows as well.

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Bieke Mamsen (pictured with her husband, Niels Mamsen)

Denmark (country)

120 cows

Tell us about your farm. Cows are housed in a free stall, milked by two Lely robots, and fed by a Lely vector. My husband and I are the second generation on the farm. He bought the farm from his parents about three years ago.

How would you describe the average operation in your area? The average herd size in Denmark has risen to about 300 cows. This continues to rise. Many farms are working with robots, but as they get larger, we tend to see more parlors and rotaries.

If you could change one thing about your area to make farming easier for you, what would it be? Less regulation. We found out today that we are likely to lose 20% of our current arable land due to environmental reasons that the government came up with.

What crops do you raise and what does your growing season look like? We seed grass in the fall and have the grass and clover fields for about two years before rotating the crop. We generally make five cuts each year. We also grow corn, seeded in April if we are lucky, otherwise in May. We harvest around late September to late October. We also plant winter wheat, which we seed in the fall and harvest in August. It is used as cow feed. We also grow barley and fava beans, seeded in spring and harvested in September. Depending on the year, we will also have potatoes and/or canola that are both cash crops. The potatoes are used for starch and the canola is used for oil and animal feed. We do not have super warm days in Denmark as you do in Wisconsin, so the yield is not as high. All crops are non-genetically modified organisms. We also have very little darkness during the summer, so it is not uncommon that we see light stress on our plants.

Describe your housing for your animals from calf to cow? Calves are born in a calving pen, where they will spend the first 24 hours with their mom. From there, the calf moves to a single hutch inside our barn where they will get fed 5 liters of milk two times per day until they get weaned around 10 weeks of age. Calves are put into groups of a maximum of five calves at 2 weeks old and will have ad libitum grain, hay, and be continued to be fed with milk two times per day. After weaning, and around 7 months old, calves will move to the heifer groups in the cow barn where they will start on a straw pack, and eventually be moved to the heifer group that has free stalls and slatted floors. Heifers will move up in the groups as they get older. Six weeks before calving, heifers will be moved to the far-off dry pen. Three weeks before, they will be moved to the close-up pen. During the summer, we will have two groups of heifers out on pasture: young heifers, not yet breeding age (9-12 months old) and pregnant heifers (taken home four weeks before expected calving). Cows are housed in our freestall barn. We have one big group of 120 milking cows bedded housed on mattresses from Cow Welfare, which we installed just after we bought the farm. Cows are dried off at 215 days carried calf and will be moved to the dry cow group. Dry cows are housed on a large straw pack, with free access to pasture, year-round.

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Tiffany and Jeff Shilling

Distant, Pennsylvania

200 cows

Tell us about your farm. At Bostonia Farms, we are a family-owned farm. My father, two of my nephews, a neighbor kid I grew up with and I are part of the farm. Tiffany works off the farm but helps take care of the calves. We have a double-6 herringbone parlor in addition to a freestall barn. We also have a small barn for calves. We are the fifth generation.

What about your area makes dairy farming enjoyable? There are not a lot of dairy farmers left in our area. We are one of the last left. In our county, there are maybe 10 dairy farms left. I would say there were close to 50 dairy farms when I was a kid. It's enjoyable because we're one of the last ones. People don't know anything about dairy farming. You can't just go and ask anybody anymore. Milking the cows and mixing the feed are my favorite tasks. For Tiffany, being with the cows and seeing their personalities is enjoyable.

What are some unique features of dairying in your area? The worst part is trying to find land because the grain farmers are hogging up the ground. Everybody who quit milking cows in our area said they wanted to be a grain farmer, so they now go around and try to lease up all the ground. It's hard to expand in our area. We can't get bigger because of the availability of the land. We're actually buying feed every year because we can't get enough ground to make enough for ourselves. That's the downfall of our area. We could jump to 1,000 cows today if we wanted, and nobody would bother us, with not many laws. Nobody says anything about the manure trucks or silage trucks. They keep to themselves. Unless you're involved in an accident, nobody bothers you. They don't care what time of day it is, and they don't mind mud out on the road.

How would you describe the average operation in your area? Definitely the majority are Holsteins in our area. Everybody who's left has 200 or less, or 500 or more cows. Before, everybody in our area was about 35 cows. There’s now a lot of freestall barns. There are a couple of tiestall barns left. About 99% of them are parlors, with just a few robot farms.

If you could change one thing about your area to make farming easier for you, what would it be? Traffic on the roads and the ground being more available are the two biggest problems. I hate trying to get across the roads with 50 cars coming from one way, and everybody’s passing and using the turning lanes. They don't care what we do, but just don't get in their way when they're in their car.

What crops do you raise, and what does your growing season look like? Corn, alfalfa hay, orchard grass and cover crops. We plant triticale after the corn for cover crop purposes and for the extra feed in the spring. We planted in April or May and we chopped corn silage during World Dairy Expo. This week marks two weeks earlier than typical. This year, it was dry everywhere, and there were no muddy trucks pulled from fields. Our custom guys told us across what they chopped total this year, they were down in yields by about 30%.

Describe your housing for your animals from calf to cow. They start out at the calf tie stalls and then, after they are weaned off, they are pretty much in free stalls. They go to the free-range bedded pack when they are heifers. Once they are bred, they go to free stalls.