Robotic milkers have changed family's lifestyle
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 04/22/2010 9:06 AM
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KASSON, Minn. — Tina Suhr opened her laptop at a meeting "to milk the cows."
She noted which cows hadn't been milked in 14 hours, picked up her cell phone and called the neighbor who was watching the herd of Holsteins she owns with her husband, Doug. She told him which cows needed to be found and chased into the robotic milker.
Doug and Tina Suhr installed two Lely Astronaut A3 robotic milkers on their Dodge County dairy farm in September 2008. For the first three weeks, they were in the barn 24/7 chasing cows into the robotic milker. Once trained, the cows pretty much go into the robotic milker on their own, Tina said.
The cows remain on the same side of the free stall barn that they were trained on, she said. It takes about three days to train a new heifer.
Last week, the Suhrs hosted a busload of visitors from the Upper Midwest Dairy Industry Association and the Iowa Association for Food Protection, who were meeting in Rochester. The group also met in Alexandria and toured a dairy with a robotic milker in Alexandria.
Difficulty keeping hired help, who would be lured away to five-day-a-week jobs with benefits, spurred their consideration of robots, Tina said.
They researched robotic milkers for six to seven years and took a trip to Holland to see them in action before making their purchase. Their first robotic milker cost $175,000, the second $150,000. Tina said the price has increased by 10 percent, but the newer robotic milkers also have additional features.
Robotic milkers have given them flexibility. Instead of spending 10 hours a day in the barn milking, they spend 40 minutes tending to barn chores. They are able to travel with daughter Gabrielle, 10, a hockey goalie, and see daughter Sierra, 14, a golfer, in action. They do the calve chores whenever they fit into their schedule.
"The flexibility is just huge," Tina said.
The herd's somatic cell count was low before the robotic milker was installed and has stayed low, she said.
Production was up seven pounds within the first week and 14 pounds within a month of installation, Doug said.
"I wish we would have put it (the robotic milker) in years and years ago," Tina said.