BouMatic, dairy equipment and chemical manufacturer, has been chosen as the partner for the "Research unit into animal feed most beneficial to dairy cows” at the ARVALIS Plant Institute, a French applied agricultural research organization.
ARVALIS chose the solutions provided by their BouMatic dealer Proval, and in particular the investment in a 22/24-stall Xpedia 360IX internal rotary system for their dairy unit, and has achieved impressive results since they started using this milking system.
In May, a BouMatic delegation, led by President Bob Luna, and 35 BouMatic dealers from Western Europe visited the French research centre at the ARVALIS experimental station of La Jaillière (Loire-Atlantique), as part of a training program between BouMatic and its dealerships.
Created and managed by farmers, the ARVALIS Plant Institute focuses mainly on agricultural research to improve the competitiveness and profitability of farming activities and operations.
The organization has four hundred employees on 35 sites throughout France. The ARVALIS site of La Jaillière houses an experimental dairy farm and has three main research objectives: obtain new references in the feed value of animal forage and the performance of rations most beneficial to dairy cows, optimize the organization of work on a dairy farm, and achieve a high level of environmental performance.
"The choice of a BouMatic milking system by this highly regarded research institute demonstrates that our philosophy, namely to milk cows comfortably, quickly and completely, is essential to best milking practices, and it is a goal sought by specialists in the dairy world", noted Bon Luna during his visit. "The ARVALIS research centre is considered to be a recognized and respected leader in France."
About one hundred cows are milked on the ARVALIS dairy farm of la Jaillière using a 22/24-stall Xpedia 360IX internal rotary. The milking results are impressive: over 9,500 liters per cow annually. The system is fitted with the BouMatic identification system, the new Escorter crowd gate, seven sort gates and three BouMatic scrapers.
The rotary parlor is controlled by the SmartDairy Management System that helps dairy farmers control and monitor all their activities and improve their milking results.
"Our SmartDairy herd management program will help us implement our experiments on studying the performance of rations distributed to our dairy cows," explains Pierre- Vincent Protin, ARVALIS Forage Production Manager.
