Casa Xan is one of the farms that is part of the AIRA delegation of Chantada. This family farm is formed by José Luis Rodríguez, his wife María Dolores Tumbeiro and his son Juan Rodríguez, who will be in charge of taking over from the next generation.
The cattle farm, located in Vilar (Adá, Chantada), has about 140 animals in total, of which 65 are milking cows; the rest are dry cows and rearing cows. Its average production is around 40 liters per cow per day, with average qualities of 3.25% protein and 3.90% fat. Cell counts are generally below 130,000 somatic cells. Last year, a total of 807,322 liters were delivered to the cooperative.
In terms of land base, they have about 32 hectares on which they plant corn and grass. Specifically, they plant 13 hectares of corn, which they rotate every two years. In this work, they count on the service of AIRA for corn harvesting.
The farm has been in operation all my life, as José Luis says “I didn’t need any course, since I was born here and I was trained from a very young age”. When he started, the number of animals was much smaller “and little by little, we grew, buying more land and also more animals until we got to where we are today”.
Six years ago, their professionalization and improvement in the quality of their work led them to incorporate the robot: “It was the best thing we could do, it is a big investment, but it is worth it for our quality of life and also for the animals”. In order to improve animal welfare, they also incorporated the collars for detecting jealousy, “which are highly recommended” because of the information they provide. In addition, they have a food dispenser and very well ventilated facilities, with curtains that go up and down according to the temperature to “offer the animals the best welfare”.
The average production is around 40 liters per cow per day, with an average quality of 3.25% protein and 3.90% fat
His objective is “to maintain our current level”, always taking care of genetics “because it is very important when you have a robot”, says the farmer, adding that “if you have animals that are not functional, you do not get the best performance out of the robot”. In terms of production, he considers that they do not need to increase further. Juan points out that if they had wanted to expand they would have needed more facilities and “right now we don’t have the space to expand”. Both agree that “we are doing very well”.
