Romanian dairy farms: develop or give up!
Recently, the specialised agri magazine Revista Ferma presented an interesting story of modernisation of a Romanian dairy farm, with its challenges, dilemmas and eventually bold decisions which made the difference between bankruptcy and prosperity. An example meant to inspire other Romanian dairy farmers with development potential, at times when the country needs improvement in both quantity and quality of raw milk and a reduction of imports from other (especially neighbouring) countries. In 2024 Romania imported 38.7% more raw milk compared to 2023.
Some Romanian farmers may find the story insightful. Most Dutch farmers may not find it extraordinary. Perhaps what is indeed extraordinary is the room for development for the livestock sector that is still there, in the eastern part of Europe.
Dreams can come true, even in the shape of milking robots
"A dream come true", that's how one could call now the 5 Lely milking robots on the farm of Ervin Berde and Dezső István, although it was already 10 years ago when the farmers first thought that their only chance for survival and development of their business was milking robots in the end.
Now, with 5 Lely milking robots in operation and plans to buy one more, Milk Prod Farm in Ghidfalău, Covasna county, run by Ervin Berde and Dezső István, seems to have embarked on a "normal" course of development, as the farmers have relentlessly pursued their targets regarding modern technology.
The courage to grow from 57 to 950 animals
Ervin Berde and Dezső István set out on the road with a project supported by an old national programme ("Romanian SAPARD"), buying 57 heifers and building the first stable, all with an investment of around 750 thousand euros. "We quickly realized that it was not feasible to sustain the investment with so few animals, we were on the verge of bankruptcy, so we had to decide quickly whether to go ahead or close down. In order to move forward, we continued to do other projects and so we built another barn and bought more animals and machinery. At first we didn't think we would get here, but we always had to do additional things and modernize. We had the machinery, the farm and the easiest thing was to increase the number of milking animals, especially as we had the capacity... And we ended up with 950 animals in total," recalls Ervin Berde.
Challenges on the labour market provided a push in the right direction
After a visit to several dairy farms in the Netherlands, Ervin Berde saw how milking robots work and, as he already had labour concerns, he got the idea to go in that direction. "The first robot we bought was the calf suckling robot, the very next year after our visit to the Netherlands. Then in 2021 we submitted a project to buy five Lely milking robots. Last October, we started up the first two robots, and in December two more. This year the fifth robot will start up and we are going to get another one. We will have a total of six milking robots by the end of the year," the farmer said.
The robots in action
The first four robots were installed at one end of the state-of-the-art barn. A few modifications in barn design were needed to "make room" for the robots, as the initial design did not take this into account. This meant that some of the resting stalls were lost when the robots were installed, especially as the robot was also provided with a space for restraining of animals with problems or undergoing treatment.
Although robot milking started only some months ago and only for part of the herd for the time being, there is a clear difference in production in favour of robot milked animals. "At the moment, we are averaging 37 litres/cow/day with the robot and about 30-31 litres in the milking parlour," Ervin Berde told us. The young cows, which are in their first lactation, got used to the robot very quickly, and they go to the robot by themselves" the farmer explained.
"Milking at the milking parlour is tiring for people, but also for the animals" Ervin Berde explained. With the robot, however, the cows move easily, over a shorter distance and without spending a lot of time 'standing', thus gaining extra time for resting and feeding. "With the milking robots everything becomes easy, the cows choose how many times to come in for milking, especially as they get extra feed proportionally to their milk production," the farmer remarked. The farmer is also looking to improve conditions in the shelter and animal welfare.
These farmers opted for milking robots equipped with 'full-option', as Ervin Berde likes to say. With the Lely Horizon app, the farmer can manage the entire milking process and keep track of each individual animal. The milking system offers the possibility to provide more complex rations, including in combination with liquid feed. "We have a lot more information about each cow, we can do interventions, treatments much quicker, it helps us keep better track of the animals and in general it makes the farm run optimally" is the conclusion of Ervin Berde.
