Dairy professionals observe robotic milkers
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 04/22/2010 9:09 AM
E-mail article | Print version
KASSON, Minn. — Doug Suhr's grandfather was a dairy trendsetter, installing the second parlor in the state of Minnesota in 1951.
Doug and his wife, Tina, are following his footsteps as trendsetter. The couple are early adopters of robotic milker technology in Minnesota. They installed two Lely Astronaunt A3 robotic milkers in September 2008.
More than 1,100 people toured their farm during a May 2009 open house when people crammed inside the office to catch a glimpse of the robot in action through large viewing windows.
Last week, a smaller crowd from the Upper Midwest Dairy Industry Association and Iowa Association for Food Protection took their time watching the robotic milkers at work and asking the Suhrs about their investment.
Cows were lined up waiting to come into the milker last week. As each cow entered, her teats were washed and cleaned with what resembled a small version of those spinning sponges from car washes. After a pre-wash, the sponges came out, were sprayed with water and went back to the udder for a final rinse.
Then the milking unit itself moved into place, red laser lights shining on the teats as each inflation was attached to a quarter. Soon the milk started flowing through the clear hoses and into the bulk tank. The milker comes off each quarter individually, allowing each quarter to be milked out.
Cows are fed a high protein energy pellet while milked. The maximum protein serving per cow per day is 12 pounds, Tina said, and their average is seven pounds. The amount of protein is based on the cow's production and where she's at in her lacatation. The rest of their diet is mostly forages, fed down the middle of the free-stall barn.
The stalls are bedded with washed lime. Doug says he has to apply lime to the fields one way or another.
A computer chip is fitted inside the collar worn by each cow and it's scanned when the cow enters the milker. It records a wealth of information including: time of milking, milk temperature, body weight, somatic cell count and steps taken. The activity number is useful in catching heats, Tina said.
The average cow comes into the robot 2.8 times per day, Tina said. They have 115 cows and had to cull one seventh lacation cow whose udder was too low. The robot requires a seven-inch clearance and her udder only allowed a three to four inch clearance. It was hard to cull her, Tina said, because she was milking 120 pounds a day.
Doug scrapes the barn with a skidloader and Tina feeds the calves. The calves are fed milk from treated cows, which the robotic milker puts in buckets. They raise all their own youngstock plus raising more than 500 acres of crops.
The robotic milker does a four to five minute rinse after milking treated cows, Tina said. It shuts down twice a day, at 1 p.m. and 1 a.m., for a complete system wash.
Tina said they now have time to manage the cows. Their heat detection has improved.
No system is without challenges, and they have encoutered their share, especially in the winter. They have in-floor heat provided by a corn burning stove in the office and into the holding area, keeping it at 120 degrees. When temperatures dropped to 20 below, ice chunks formed on the strings on the milker. They put LP white heaters in the milking room to warm the air up, Tina said.