Ferme Gasser: 20 years of excellent robotic milking performance

Ferme Gasser, located in Pike River, Quebec, has 470 kilos of quota in three barns—two of which are equipped with robotic milkers. It was one of Sollio Agriculture’s first clients to use the technology over 20 years ago. Today, the farm is supported by Sollio & Agiska Cooperative Agriculture ruminant agri-advisor Noémie L’Étoile, who ensures its continued excellent performance.
 

In 2022, Noémie took over helping Ferme Gasser from her agri-advisor colleagues. Since then, she’s carried on the work started by her predecessors (while adding her own personal touch) to meet the farm’s objectives:

• Increasing milk production per cow

• Increasing the income over feed cost (IOFC)

• Maintaining good breeding results

• Maintaining good management of bunker silos
   

How can milk production per cow be improved?

To achieve production objectives, Noémie follows up closely, visiting Gasser Farm every two weeks. The agri-advisor uses a robotic milking monitoring sheet, observes the herd and analyzes technical and economic data with AgConnexion | Lactascan. “We have access to a lot of data, which lets us see the changes we need to make to improve the herd’s performance,” she explains. “It also shows dairy farmers that these changes will definitely be rewarding.”

Last summer, Noémie coached the farmers through a series of small adjustments that added up to a big difference:
 

• Ventilation

Hot weather can cause the components (fat and protein) of milk to drop. To reduce the impact of heat stress on milking cows, the farmers added new fans.
 

• Feed

Again to counter the effects of heat on milk and componants production, Noémie suggested adding potassium to the existing supplement. And to facilitate handling of the powdered additive in the summer heat, she offered the idea of cubing the supplement mixture.
 

• Layout

The agri-advisor is always watching trends and what works well with her other clients, so it came naturally to her to show the farmers photos of other successful farms as inspiration for their own layout.

 Her method seems to be paying off, as milk production per cow and fat content increased slightly in 2023. And going further back in time, production has risen from 29.8 litres per cow in 2017 to 40.2 litres per cow six years later.

For farmer Sascha Marini, who runs the Pike River robotic farm, his agri-advisor’s contribution is a game changer. “The way she tracks all production data really helps us make our quota while keeping costs down.”