SAT Casa Román is one of AIRA’s partner dairy cattle farms in Castroverde (Lugo). This family farm is made up of Daniel Torres, his wife Erundina Labrada and their son, Román. In addition, they have 3 workers, the last of them joined this year.
The herd has about 310 head of Holstein cattle, of which 150 cows are in milking, about 16 dry cows and the rest are rearing animals. Its average production is 38 liters per animal with an average quality of 3.8% fat and 3.3% protein and with a cell count below 150,000 and bacteriology also below 10. Last year they sold to the Cooperative about 2,100,000 liters of milk. It is one of the farms that are certified.
They have about 150 Friesian cows in milking with an average production of 38 liters per cow per day. Last year they sold more than 2 million liters of milk to the Cooperative
In the day to day running of the farm, Román is mainly in charge of the breeding and treatment of the animals, as well as the maintenance of the cattle bedding. They are bedded every six days and use a mixture of wood sawdust and calcium carbonate in equal parts, while they are cleaned twice a day. Daniel is in charge of feeding the cattle, preparing the ration with the mixer wagon, as well as managing the crops.
Erundina is responsible for the rearing of the cows. The milking of the cows is a task of the hired personnel. They perform two milkings a day and have a computerized parlor that provides them with a significant volume of data on each animal. “We try to always respect the routines and this division of labor to be more efficient,” explains Román.
The cattle ranch has 83 hectares that they work with different crops without leaving any land uncultivated. They usually cultivate about 35 hectares of corn, which they have in rotation with grass. “There are about 30 hectares that always have corn, because they are the best lands, and then the remaining 5 we rotate, taking advantage to renew them,” Román explains.
With the Cooperative they do the work of the campaign, such as much of the mowing and fertilizing, as well as the harvesting of both grass and corn silage. “In the first cuts of the grass silo I use the harvester and chopper at the same time to put the small farms with the chopper, which means an important saving”, the farmer explains.
A commitment to comfort
SAT Casa Román has a ventilated shed where they made an important commitment to the comfort and welfare of the animals. Every year they undertake some improvement in the facilities to also facilitate the handling and daily work on the farm, such as the new silos or pits for slurry, improvements in the rearing shed… “We try to ensure that the animal is always as good as possible”, says Román.
