Welfare in the barn, preci­sion in the field

It is a mid-October morning when I arrive in Mediglia, near Milan, and the first thing that strikes me at the farm is the sense of urgency that comes with the end of the season. Today the silage maize harvest will be completed, and some fields will be prepared for ryegrass seeding. The air smells of urgency and freshly turned earth.

Work at the Lovati Agri­cul­tural Company has been relent­less for more than a month and today the weather is favourable. “We should take advan­tage of it,” says the owner, Umberto Lovati, who greets me with a smile in an almost deserted court­yard before taking me a few kilo­me­tres away to show me some trac­tors doing a range of jobs.

The company oper­ates a fleet of 12 machines, all John Deere, including a self-propelled forage harvester regarded as essen­tial for deliv­ering outstanding produc­tivity and ensuring contin­uous, reli­able oper­a­tions. When the harvest season begins, every­thing here seems to revolve around the fields, in a race against time that agri­cul­ture knows all too well; however, upon returning to the head­quar­ters, the atmos­phere becomes more relaxed.

Along­side its agri­cul­tural oper­a­tions, the Lovati family has devel­oped a major cattle breeding busi­ness over recent decades. The herd currently comprises 2,300 head of mainly Friesian dairy cows with a smaller amount of Belgian Blue beef cattle. Of the first group, 1,100 are in-milk. The contrast with the surrounding farm­land is striking: Outside there is constant activity while inside the barns – despite their scale – the envi­ron­ment remains excep­tion­ally quiet, broken only by the steady airflow of the fans and the rhythmic sound of the cattle at rest.

Umberto apol­o­gises and bids me farewell: He returns to work on the trac­tors to assist some of the 20 employees and his son Alessandro, who has been driving the devel­op­ment and manage­ment of the company for over six years. Before doing so, however, he places me in the care of his daughter.

Cow comfort is the guiding prin­ciple

Francesca is just 22, but she speaks with the matu­rity of someone who has earnt her place through hard work. “Our story is, first and fore­most, a family story, which for three gener­a­tions has spoken of passion for the land and our animals,” she says proudly. Manage­ment of the busi­ness is now shared with her brother, a qual­i­fied agri­cul­tural tech­ni­cian whom she describes as a key pillar, fully aware that together they embody the future of the farm.

“After a year studying Economics and spending time abroad, I started working in the family busi­ness, initially supporting admin­is­tra­tion along­side my mother, and focusing on calf manage­ment,” she reveals. After­wards, there was the sick pen to manage, then the main housing, in a journey that increas­ingly involved her.

“I worked along­side an expe­ri­enced breeder and attended several courses” she continues. “When I realised, I had devel­oped a passion for the profes­sion, my father – just as he did with my brother for managing the machinery side – granted me full autonomy in deci­sion-making. With that came respon­si­bility and the desire to improve.”

The light in Francesca’s eyes as she speaks words of appre­ci­a­tion for her father reflects an ideal passing of the baton, supported by a steady pres­ence of expe­ri­ence that is constant yet never intru­sive.

“He was a pioneer in the sector, and a great example for us,” she observes. “Still very young, following the passing of his father and uncle, he took on respon­si­bility of the busi­ness and, over the years, by nurturing his curiosity, trav­el­ling abroad, and engaging with an open mind, he built an inno­v­a­tive and high-performing dairy farming model, espe­cially in terms of animal comfort. He demon­strated the ability to think ahead, building a team of reli­able oper­a­tors who are contin­u­ously trained and regu­larly kept up to date. Today, the welfare of the cows remains our guiding prin­ciple.”

The barns are large but well organ­ised struc­tures, where every­thing is designed with animal comfort in mind.

From 20 days old, the calves are fed using a Förster-Technik auto­mated feeder.

This is not an abstract concept, but a daily working method, one that Francesca – currently enrolled in the Faculty of Animal Produc­tion Sciences, describes as we visit the facil­i­ties dedi­cated to housing and milking.

Turning complexity into order

The lactating cows are divided into four groups across two build­ings, sepa­rated from the dry cows and calves. Around 500 replace­ment heifers are located a few kilo­me­ters away, awaiting the construc­tion of a new barn dedi­cated to them from spring onwards. The herring­bone milking parlour (25+25); the oper­a­tional heart of milk produc­tion, is centrally located between the two barns housing the lactating cows.

“We moved almost all the animals to this site seven years ago, building new sheds and a high-perfor­mance area for milk collec­tion,” Francesca explains. “It was a chal­lenging but deci­sive moment, marking a new begin­ning.”

Day to day live­stock oper­a­tions are struc­tured around simple proto­cols, clear roles, rigorous cleaning, and maximum organ­i­sa­tion. “The key is to trans­form complexity into order,” she says.

Milking is carried out in two shifts – day and night – each lasting seven to eight hours, oper­ated by three specialised staff members. In addi­tion to milk, colostrum is collected from freshly-calved cows – essen­tial for calf immune protec­tion – then imme­di­ately pasteurised and frozen, making it avail­able for newborn calves in approx­i­mately 30 minutes.

Each year around 1,000 calves are born. They are sepa­rated from their mothers imme­di­ately to prevent bacte­rial cont­a­m­i­na­tion. They are housed in indi­vidual pens for 20 days and then fed using a Förster-Technik auto­mated feeder, which ensures person­alised nutri­tion for each calf.

Each animal is digi­tally moni­tored throughout its entire life cycle. “We use the Afimilk herd manage­ment computer system from Total Dairy Manage­ment, which helps us detect any issues with the cows and, from 13 months onwards, manage the heat synchro­ni­sa­tion plans to facil­i­tate insem­i­na­tion,” Francesca explains. ”First-time calvers get sexed semen, selected to produce female offspring.”

This approach ensures a steady supply of ‘fresh’ Friesian replace­ments and supports improved genetic selec­tion – while always bearing in mind that “you can use the best genetics in the world, but without the ability to manage them prop­erly, in terms of oper­a­tions, herd manage­ment, and animal welfare, the results simply won’t follow”. 

Optimal phys­i­ology and home-produced forage

Here, the results are tangible: Since relo­cating to the new facility, average daily milk produc­tion has increased by six litres per cow, reaching a total of 40 litres per head/day. Milk quality is contin­u­ously moni­tored through sampling and is supplied to Galbani, a leading dairy processor that requires strict stan­dards in terms of somatic cell count, fat and protein content, bacte­rial load, and casein levels.

Concep­tion rates have also improved, along­side the general calm­ness in the herd and the reasons are clear. These include care­fully planned barn layouts, well-thought-out weaning plans and customised feed rations, cubi­cles guar­an­teeing ample space, 110 fans installed over feeders and cubi­cles, auto­mated showers and water jets for summer cooling, and spacious drinking troughs that ensure warm water in winter and cool water in summer.

The oper­a­tion focuses on preventing stress – partic­u­larly during milking – through rigorous health proto­cols, weekly veteri­nary checks, and a diet based largely on self-produced forage, silage, and starch. The latter is made possible by the 700ha farmed within a 10km radius of the main site.

“We carry out a rota­tion based on maize, alfalfa, and, to a lesser extent, wheat,” Francesca adds. “We purchase the protein compo­nent like soyabeans to complete the ration.”

The farm uses a range of preci­sion agri­cul­ture solu­tions, from satel­lite guid­ance on agri­cul­tural machinery to digital systems for crop moni­toring and land manage­ment – while a 400kWp photo­voltaic system covers the operation’s daily energy require­ments.

Looking ahead, the busi­ness is plan­ning an even more advanced rotary milking system, allowing for reduced milking times and the tran­si­tion to three milking shifts, offering further bene­fits in terms of effi­ciency and animal comfort. “The well-being of our live­stock and those working in the company will remain our focus.”