Featured Project
Laros Farms
The Laros family moved to Canada from the Netherlands in 2001, and Gerard’s parents bought a broiler / cow-calf operation in Arthur, Ontario. Gerard first worked full-time for several dairy farms and then worked as a long-haul truck driver for 3 years. With help from his parents, in 2009, Gerard was accepted into the new entrant’s program for dairy and moved to the farm. They bought a used Double 6 herringbone parlour and installed it themselves in an old bank barn, and they converted the old beef yard and manure storage into a free stall barn.
For a few years, Gerard worked part-time for another dairy on the side to generate some extra income to support the new dairy farm. Since starting milking, they’ve bought quota every month and almost tripled it. They were also able to buy some extra land since starting milking for cash crop purposes. Gerard is married and has two young children, ages 3 and 1. On the farm, Gerard does the majority of the work himself, along with his dad and occasional help from his mom.
With their existing setup, they knew that something had to change, and they analyzed several ideas and options. The old barn was very labour intensive, and the capacity was getting full. They ran out of dry cow space, the cow flow was not very good, and there was no ideal place for hoof trimming or other cow treatment needs.
In regards to the planning stage, Gerard said,
“Initially, I had planned to expand the old barn and put a new milkhouse with a new parlour on it. However, I found that it was going to cost almost as much as putting up a new barn. I already had my mind fixed on a different parlour until I went to visit a friend of mine, Symen Cnossen, at Cnossome Holsteins. Symen had just built a barn with Dairy Lane Systems (DLS), and I really liked the design of the parlour. I spoke with Mike van Logtenstein at DLS, and he was a big help with the barn design. I think it’s very efficient; one guy can easily manage 100 cows.”
Gerard is also friends with the Noom’s at New Morning Holsteins who built a tunnel ventilated dairy barn with DLS in 2014. This played a factor in choosing tunnel ventilation. He says,
“I’ve watched friends of mine who have had tunnel ventilated barns for years, and I always liked the environment and air quality in their barns. For us, I think it works really well with a 3 row barn since cows don’t like lying in the outside row with an open curtain barn in the summer when it’s hot.”
In their old setup, it took 1.5 hours to milk, which has been reduced to 50 minutes. They really like how simple and easy the Double 10 Vertical Lift Parlour is to use. They have also enjoyed having the stainless steel DLS Sort Gate. This has been a huge time saver for them, and they have found it to be simple to use and it communicates well with their herd management system. They said it saves them from having an extra milking group. The sort gate is currently sorting fresh cows out for the first 21 days, high activity cows over 70 DIM and sorting out cows for hoof trimming.
The free stall design is the Jourdain US stall mounted to a twin rail system. Gerard says that:
“The cows look very comfortable. I like the extra space in the front for lunging, and it gives them lots of space to get up. They seem like they have a little more freedom and are less condensed than our old stalls. Gerrit’s Ag Service installed the Jourdain stabling, and watching them install this system made it look easy. They have a phenomenal crew and were great to work with!”
Other key project features include DLS exhaust fans, DLS curtains and GEA manure equipment all controlled by a Maximus Control System.
“Overall we have cut down our chore time, the cows are showing better heat activity, and the older cows have increased their milk production. We couldn’t be happier with the DLS parlour and how simple and easy it is to operate. I’d also like to note the whole DLS installation and welding crew was awesome! They are all hard-working, knowledgeable guys that were fun to work with throughout the building process. ” (Gerard Laros).
Employee Announcements
DLS is pleased to welcome the following people to the Dairy Lane team:
Start A Career at DLS!
We have several great career opportunities. Check them out @ dairylane.ca/careers to see what may suit you!
Employee Spotlight
Kalvis Nikiforovs
Dairy Equipment Installation Technician
Joined DLS June 2020
A year and a half in, Kalvis has had quite a bit of exposure at DLS! He was hired last year as a construction labourer on the DLS Structures team to work on AHE Dairy Farms 5 GEA R9500 robot barn. When that project finished, he was trained in robotics and started to do robot service calls; he was also involved in the GEA R9500 robot retrofit installation at Macksvilla Farms. Since then, he has been doing parlour installs and many plumbing jobs with longtime DLS employee Justin Mulder and his team! Wow, Kalvis, you have made the rounds!!!
Kalvis graduated from the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies bachelor program in Civil Engineering. Since then, he’s been working in construction-related jobs.
Before DLS, he worked in construction as a project manager in his home country of Latvia. Kalvis told us his hometown is Valmiera, Latvia. An interesting fact concerning Latvia: Latvia is a small North Eastern European country that became independent from the USSR just 30 years ago. After departing Latvia, Kalvis travelled across Canada and did many different seasonal jobs at resorts and restaurants.
Basketball and travelling are Kalvis’s favourite pastimes; he’s played basketball since he was 7 and enjoys most sports. This past summer, he took up golf and has found it is not as easy as it may look! At home, Kalvis enjoys the company of his girlfriend Olivia and a Russian Blue cat named Doctor.
Kalvis aspires to work in project management or some type of engineering-related position down the road.
Product of the Month
Jourdain US Stall w/ Twin Rail Mount
Jourdain has a rich family history of developing high quality products and is a world leader in animal stabling. DLS is proud to be the North American partner for Jourdain, and over the years, Jourdain has continued to modify and improve its products to best suit the North American market. The US stalls with a twin rail mount are a recent example. The main Jourdain stall loop that DLS used prior to this is still an excellent option, and it is the most popular option. It has proved time and time again that cows lay straight and comfortable, but this newer US stall option adds another element to the Jourdain stabling product line, and it adds some flexibility to meet an increasing demand in the North American market.
There are two key advantages of this stall type. First, for the cow, it provides additional room at the front of the stall for the cow to naturally lunge to the left, right or forward and make herself more comfortable. At the same time, the shape of the loop will keep her straight within her stall at the backend, and the lower bar on the twin rail prevents the cows from crawling through the stall. Second, for the farmer, it is an easy system to install, and it is simple to make adjustments to the stall widths for cows, heifers, etc. by moving it on the twin rail. This makes it an especially popular option in heifer barns. With this stall system, there is less of a concern with corrosion as there are fewer posts.
Watch the Jourdain Company Video to learn more about Jourdain!
JOB PROGRESSION HIGHLIGHTS
Aylmer, ON
Walker Dairy
The double 20 vertical lift parallel parlour install is progressing well!
Listowel, ON
Bakker Dairy
Heifers recently moved into this new barn featuring Jourdain stabling with the US stall twin mount rail system. A great installation by Gerrit's Ag Servivce!
Monkton, ON
New Morning Holsteins
New Morning Holsteins will be starting up their new GEA 60 stall rotary in just a few weeks!
Video of the Month
Central Dairy Milking & Barn
Watch Pete Van Hemert at Central Dairy milking cows in a D-8 vertical lift parallel parlour and see how comfortable the cows are in their barn with Jourdain stabling, GEA manure equipment, Easy Swing cow brushes, DLS panel fans, Maximus controls and DLS drinkers.