A family farm ran by Earl Bichet in Etray, France milks 43 Montbeliardes, where his milk goes towards Comté cheese production where the farmer dictates the price.
Bichet runs the farm alone, where he has taken over from his father who had ran the farm for 20 years prior. The farm is milking all year-round, with cows calving at different times throughout the year.
Bichet is the third generation farmer on the farm and went into partnership with his father in 1998 which subsequently lead to him taking over on his own in 2006.
Since 2006, Bichet has developed the farm even further by putting in a new eight unit, one-sided parlour and new locking barriers and cubicles.
Milking on the farm starts at 6:30a.m in the morning and ends at 6:00p.m in the evening, with milking taking less than an hour. The milk is collected every day to produce fresh Comté cheese.
The cows on the farm spend around six to seven months out grazing extensively and five months inside, where they will be fed dry hay and can receive no more than 1.8t/meal/cow for the year.
The farm comprises 80ha, with 6ha consisting of crops. In total there is 100-head of cattle on the farm, and due to the Comté cheese contract, the farm is limited by the quantity of milk produced/ha, which is 4,600kg/milk/ha.
Production
The farm sends out 320,000/L milk to the cheese cooperative, which is an average of 25.7kg/cow/day .
The cows produce 8,000kg/milk a lactation at 4.07% fat and 3.45% protein, which gives them a total milk solids of 600kg/cow.
The milk is sold to a small local cheese co-op where there are 26 different farmers providing milk to the co-op and the farmers employ all the staff in the co-op and pay all of the staff’s wages, which cuts out the third party.
This allows the farmer to dictate the milk price, which allows them to manage the economy at the same level they are at without increase the workload.
By reducing numbers and having a smaller scale, the farmer can dictate the price and create a demand for the product, without working themselves into the ground.
The base price for their co-op this year was €690/t of milk, and as Bichet produced quality milk with good fats and protein percentages, and a low somatic cell count (SCC) of 77,000 cells/ml, he received an average price of €740/t, which is 74c/L.
Montbeliardes
There have been three generations of Montbeliardes on the farm, and as part of the Comté cheese contract, the cow has to be a Montbeliarde, along with other regulations.
The cows have to graze for at least six months of the year and cannot be fed any fermented feed, so dry hay or dry alfalfa is usually fed instead of silage.
The reason it has to be Montbeliarde, is because the Montbeliardes produce 80% more cheese than Holstein cows, with the same quantity of milk due to their high protein, higher levels of beta casein and kappa casein.
Bichet has an intensive system when it comes to breeding for replacements, as he has 25 heifers coming through each year, as he wants to progress the herd’s genetics drastically each year and sell on cows in-milk for good money.
When it comes the type of cow, Bichet wants a cow with good strength, that can produce a good beef calf, deliver on protein, has capacity to graze well and has longevity and hardiness.
He is vigorous when it comes to bull selection as he wants positive protein, good cell count, good body depth, good chest, a good quality udder and an ability to graze.
Hoof health is also a key element to the the production of the herd as Bichet hoof trims the cows regularly and also chooses bulls that will improve hoof health.
Young stock and breeding
All of the bull calves are sold off the farm at three-weeks-old, with Bichet receiving an average price of €340/calf last year, where they were mainly sold to Italy to get fattened.
The heifer calves receive milk for three months and will be put onto a calf milk replacer after about a week on whole milk.
The heifer calves have access to hay and ad-lib calf crunch and will also be exposed to salt lick to stop them licking and to increase their saliva production.
All yearlings are clipped as they come in for housing to maintain cleanliness,and so that when they are treated with a pour-on, that it works effectively.
Bichet uses beef straws on the cows that he does not want to breed from and often uses Belgian Blue straws as he gets great value for the calf – he will occasionally use Charolais and Blonde d’Aquitaine straws as well.
Bichet uses 50% Montbeliarde sexed semen, 25% conventional semen and the remaining 25% will be beef straws.
The heifers have only came in from grazing where they were trimmed down and treated for parasites and in another three weeks, they will receive a mineral bolus.
These heifers will be served at 18 to 20-months-old, with the average age at calving being 27 to 29-months-of-age.
This is done to spread the milk throughout the entire year, as pushing heifers to calve down before that goes against the logic of their system.
The cows and heifers have an average calving interval of 377 days. Using sexed semen on heifers and cows, the conception rate to first serve was 55% and the stock will be given two chances of sexed semen and then one last chance of conventional or beef.
All of the bull semen is bought through Coopex, Montbeliarde who also supply bulls to the Irish market, with Neil Lahart and Bó Sires being the main supplier of Coopex Montbeliarde semen in the country.
A breeding programme on this farm is carried out twice a year, where a breeding analyst comes in to to review what needs to be improved on each cow and to match appropriate bulls to the cows.
The simple farm system and small number of cows would make you wonder whether Irish farmers are only chasing cow numbers and chasing a good milk price to try and make a living.
Whereas, in the Comté region, cows are grazed extensively where there is only one cow/2ha, which creates a demand for the product and creates a good market price for the farmer.
