Family adds robots to do the milking
By Carol Stender
cstender@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 08/11/2011 1:42 PM
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MAHNOMEN, Minn. —The building isn't complete, but it's easy to see how Jim and Sue Steinmetz are developing their Mahnomen dairy farm into an operation geared for the future.
They have renovated their tie-stall barn into a free-stall. They are finishing construction of a second barn that houses part of the herd and two Lely robotic milkers. A third milker will be used once the barn is finished and cow numbers increase.
The family talked about their operation last week when they hosted a University of Minnesota Summer Field Day.
The improvements are great for Sue, who has arthritis. Milking in a tie-stall barn in winter was difficult, she said. Sue monitors feeding, milking, health and activity via the robots' reports.
Jim was a high school senior when he purchased the farm from his grandfather in 1979. They were selling their herd through a Cooperatives Working Together buy-out when Sue talked to Jim about the operation. She had been around home when the couple's older sons were in school and she wanted to do the same for their younger ones. Sue wanted to farm and milk cows.
Sue said she could handle it if Jim took care of the feeding.
The couple attended a dairy diagnostic regional meeting where they learned about robotic milkers. Sue saw a solution.
They converted the tie-stall barn first and installed one Lely A3 robot. Two more were installed and will be used as cow numbers increase.
The couple is milking 119 cows and will increase the herd, through heifer sales, to 195 milking cows. Each robot handles up to 65 cows, she said.
Each morning she looks at the information generated by the robotic milkers. She can tell each cow's activity. She can see which cows have not been milked, if they aren't eating and if there are weight changes. All parameters the robot tracks are set up by the couple.
"It's not manual labor, but you do have to take care of business," she said.
Once she goes through the reports, she scrapes the barns, limes stalls and beds them with straw.
The cows have a somatic cell count around 100,000 to 150,000, she said. She calls herd health "awesome" under the new system.
Their daughter, Kristen, is equally enthused about dairying. Through her first Farm Service Agency youth loan, she purchased five cows. When she paid that loan off through her portion of the milk check, she took out a second loan and purchased another five, she said.
Kristen now has eight milking with a total of 12 animals.
She handles the calf barn and, through a loan from her grandfather, Dennis Scheler, purchased a calf feeder.
The high school freshman's success with the FSA youth loan program garnered her the FSA award at the state FFA convention last spring.
Kristen has seen the benefits of the system —not only for the herd but also for family time.
"They have enough time to come to my events for high school," she said.
"Someday I would like to take over this farm," she said. "I was not sure how to run the operation at one point but with the robots it makes my decision more clear."
Their son, Jeffrey, is not active with the livestock but does farm land in the area.