15 SQUARE METRES PER COW: THE COMPOST BARN BUILT IN FOUR STAGES - PARAGUAY 🇵🇾

Thirty-eight liters per cow in forty degree heat, and forty-two in winter. Three hundred cows in a compost barn in Paraguay, shipping around 9,000 liters a day. Artificial Intelligence: https://ruminants.ai/register?ref=you... Website: https://santafeagroinstituto.com/ Store: https://tienda.santafeagroinstituto.com/ Instagram:   / santafeagroinstituto.us   Facebook:   / santafeagroinstituto.us   Erdman Schroeder built Farm 107 in stages — part of the barn in 2018, more in 2019 and 2020, finished in 2023 — and gives every cow 15 square metres of compost bedding, up from the 12 he used to allow. The nutrition segment is the one to watch. He explains why adding fat to the ration lowers milk fat rather than raising it, and why the answer is fiber. With corn silage as the only forage that was fine at 25 liters; at 39 it is not. So they now make pre-dried forage — grass cut, wilted and ensiled with no grain in it — to add fiber without adding energy. Then the office, where the management screen is read out live, and the cooperative feed plant that supplies 340 producers a week. CHAPTERS 00:00 The numbers: 300 cows, 38 liters, 9,000 a day 00:43 Erdman Schroeder and Farm 107 01:22 300 cows, 229 in production, in a compost barn 01:48 38 liters now, 42 in winter, 3.3 percent protein 02:20 Holstein genetics: Dutch embryos and imported semen 02:30 Compost turned three times a day, fans every three minutes 03:03 Heat stress: sprinklers, fans and 15 square metres a cow 03:29 The barn, built in stages from 2018 to 2023 04:00 Nine employees, three shifts and strict protocols 04:37 Sexed semen twice, then conventional, then embryos 05:00 Paid on fat: what 3.2 percent means 05:48 47 hectares of corn, and buying the rest 06:15 A 40,000 liter tank, and where the wash water goes 07:10 Why adding fat lowers milk fat 07:53 Pre-dried forage: fiber with no grain attached 08:57 One mixer, and what happens when it breaks 09:25 Ruben Martinez: fresh cows, dry cows and pre-partum 10:47 Heifers into the breeding area at ten months 11:19 Displaced abomasum: 2 percent of 250 calvings 12:28 The parlor: 18 units, 100 cows an hour 13:23 The office: cameras, collars and the morning report 13:47 On screen: 39.5 liters, 225 in lactation, 21 percent dry 14:24 An estrus at eight last night, inseminated at one today 15:00 Monitoring heat stress by respiratory rate 15:27 Drying off eight cows, and 63 calvings this month 15:58 First insemination at 70 days, palpation at 27 16:37 Calves: colostrum within three hours 17:00 Four, six, then eight liters of milk a day 18:26 The weaning area, and 700 grams of gain a day 19:05 Tifton pasture and subsurface irrigation 19:59 Alvin Dweck: inside the cooperative feed plant 21:15 Competing on quality against multinationals 22:00 22 percent protein, and the rest of the range 23:03 Logistics: weekly delivery within 45 kilometres 26:21 Field technicians and Penn State in the field 29:09 Corn, soybeans and their own expeller 29:45 From 1992 to 340 producers a week, 45 cows each WHO APPEARS Erdman Schroeder - owner, Farm 107, Paraguay Ruben Martinez - responsible for Farm 107 Alvin Dweck - commercial manager, balanced feed plant, Sommerfeld Cooperative THE NUMBERS Herd: 300 cows, 229 in production. The management screen shows 289 total and 225 in lactation Production: 38 liters per cow now, 42 in winter. Screen average 39.5 Total: about 9,000 liters a day Fat 3.2 to 3.4, protein 3.3 percent Compost barn: 15 square metres per cow, up from 12. Feed bunk 70 to 80 cm Fans: 24 hours in hot weather, cycling every three minutes Conception rate per service: 40 to 50 percent Milk payment: on fat only, base 3.2 percent Corn area: 47 hectares, mostly second crop. The rest is bought in Displaced abomasum in 2024: 3 to 4 cases in 250 calvings, about 2 percent Parlor: 18 units, 9 per side, about 100 cows per hour Dry cows: 21 percent of the herd. Calvings this month: 63 Calves: 3 to 4 liters of colostrum. Then 4 liters a day to day 5, 6 liters to day 15, 8 liters to day 60 Cooperative feed plant: founded 1992, now serving 340 producers a week Average customer: 40 to 45 cows at 25 to 28 liters TECHNICAL TOPICS Compost barn management and area per cow, bedding aeration, heat abatement in the tropics, milk fat and fiber, why added fat depresses butterfat, pre-dried forage and haylage, nutrient recycling to pasture, high moisture grain, fat-based milk payment, sexed semen strategy, embryo transfer, activity collars and estrus detection, displaced abomasum prevention, transition cow management, wash water reuse, calf milk feeding curves, subsurface irrigation, cooperative feed manufacturing, NRC 2021, Penn State sieve service. Want to know if your ration has enough effective fiber? Ruminants.AI can — first link above. Subscribe and leave a like. How many square metres per cow do you allow? Tell us below. #DairyFarming #Paraguay #CompostBarn #MilkFat #DairyNutrition