Farm Story - Maccarese s.p.a.
Farm/dairy name: Maccarese s.p.a.
Owners: Claudio Destro
Number of milkings per day: We have three milking times
a day.
Farm Story
This used to be a public farm. In 1999 it became privatized when the Benetton Group won the highest bid. The farm has an extensive amount of land, over 8,000 acres, all adjacent and bordering 7.5 miles of coastline. It is quite a unique farm because the infrastructure has all modes of transportation, including the airport, the highway and the railroad.
When we took over in 1999 and started the reclamation there were 900 dairy cows, many of those adults.
In 2001, we started to use the pedometers. The automatic heat detection of cows provided a great solution for us, especially because it simplified the work of the personnel.
In 2003, we started the building of half of the milking parlor which was completed in 2005. So in 2005, we finally started to work at full production with a new parlor.
We immediately noticed an improvement in the control of mastitis and in the milk production. We especially noticed the immediate detection of problems that are typically related to cows.
As a consequence, the loss of cows decreased compared to times when we didn't use the system. Detection of animals with problems is immediate.
Herd management
For a farm like this one it is almost obligatory to have mastitis prevention. By having the animal in the milking parlor so frequently, the system can detect if an animal has a problem.
Speaking of milking control, before we were unable to know the individual production, now the system tells us how much each cows is producing.
It also reports the level of electrical conductibility, which is what allows the early detection of mastitis.
Customer Service
I compare the system to a tractor that has electronics.With the personnel we have today, it would be unthinkable to have manually operated tractors because electronics provide unskilled professionalism.
Today, the system does the same. It allows me to hire a mason and train him to work in the stall within a month or two, because electronics allows us to have full control of the whole herd's functionality.
I can say that today Afimilk is indispensable, especially for this type of farm. It's made it possible for us to not have to rely anymore on the stall manager or others concerning the detection of heats. We don't go by "feeling" anymore since we have everything written on a report that we can download at any moment. This way we can be aware of problems in the herd and promptly find solutions.
After 7 years, we can say it works beautifully. We've never had any problems. We also had all the support we'd expected. Therefore, I can say that the system is convenient and I feel I can recommend it. In fact, at our "sister" farm that started after this one, we adopted the same system.
