Serie (3): On a visit – Fam. Ter Bogt (Germany)

Fam. Ter Bogt

The family dairy farm Ter Bogt is located in Völlen in Germany since 2012. Before that, they ran a farm with 3000 dairy cows in New Zealand for 12 years. The family dairy farm Ter Bogt consists of 2 locations. The first location houses 200 dairy cows and the youngest calves, which are held in Topcalf calf hutches. The second location is a few hundred metres away, with 100 dairy cows and the young calves from 4 months up to calving.  

  The dairy cows are milked 3 times a day in Delaval’s Swing-Over milking parlours. The cows are milked 3 times a day to achieve an additional production of 4 kg of milk per cow per day. The farm has 160 hectares of grass land and 50 hectares of maize and feeds a TMR ration with 2 types of feed as well as dry by-products from 6 different silos.  

The youngest calves are housed in 4 Topcalf Quinto calf hutches, each offering place to 5 calves. All calves are kept up to a weight of 200 KG, which they reach at around 7 to 8 months. The calves are individually housed for 3 to 4 weeks, after which they are moved to 4 group hutches with free range. After 4 months, the calves are moved to the other location. There the bull calves are kept until they reach a weight of 200 kg. The heifer calves are kept on the farm until calving and are used for replacement.  

 The calves have access to fresh water and chopped straw with chunk at all times. Twice a day, the calves are given milk through teat buckets. In the group hutch, milk is fed by means of a milk bar.