Lely Midwest tour shows farmers how robotics change lives

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Lely USA and its dealer center partner, Argall Dairy Systems in Belleville, WI, hosted a two-day tour of 5 dairy farms in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin that all milk their dairy herds with Lely Astronaut A3 robotic milking systems. The dairy farmers on the tour learned the intricacies of robotic dairy production...how cows are easily trained to freely visit the robot for milking. The group saw how one Lely robot can milk up to sixty cows three times each day, greatly reducing the manual labor stress on the farmer and his family.

We visited the farm of Doug and Tina Suhr in Kasson, MN; the dairy farm of Auggie Bauman and his son Mike and family in Buffalo Center, IA; Village Edge Farm owned and operated by Greg Hetrick and his brother Dennis in Nelson, WI; Doug Heintz's dairy farm in Houston, MN; and Keith Knutson's farm in Pine Island, MN.

At each stop, each farmer had similar experiences to share: 1) the short training period needed to get nearly all cows adapted to the free-traffic routine of entering the robot; 2) the quickly emerging increase in milk per cow generated by the free-cow traffic/robot method; 3) the volume of detailed data for each cow produced by the A3 that will help strengthen each farmer's management capabilities and success; and 4) the fact that it's just plain great not to have to chase cows throughout the day for manual milking. Reducing tedious milking labor was a universal treat, no matter what farm we visited.

Wow! This paints the dairy robotics picture as it's meant to be

Dairy Star is a trade publication written for the dairy farm business. It recently profiled a small Minnesota dairy that installed its first Lely A3 milking robot. The story does a wonderful job getting in depth with how the farm operates day to day with this new technology. A lot of people don't realize that Lely milking robotics are designed for benefit the small to mid-size dairy farm, 50 to 500 cows. You don't have to be a huge operation to benefit from this automation. 

Read the Dairy Star piece here. 

Exciting times! 

Fire up the buses for dairy barn road trip

We're firing up the bus April 16 and 17 for a barn tour of four Minnesota dairies using Lely Astronaut A3 robotic milking systems. We've got first-come-first-serve, limited seating available for this 2-day tour. If you are in the upper Midwest region and would like to take part, just let us know. Lely dealer Argall Dairy Systems of Bellville, WI is hosting this tour. You can call them at 608-424-6110 to sign up. The tour is $50 for two days, and includes food and overnight lodging. The bus leaves from Argall's at 10 a.m. April 16. We'll return early evening on April 17. If you're not in the Wisconsin/Minnesota area but are interested in a future bus tour in another region of the country, please give Chad Huyser at Lely's U.S. offices a call at 641-621-7896. We'd love to hear from you.

Winter life on a dairy farm

For people who are new to the world of dairy farms and how things work, here is an excellent overview of of a Michigan dairy farm.As you'll read, it takes a lot of sweat, planning and perseverance to own and operate even a moderate size dairy operation.

Definietly not for the meek and mild. Even just clearing snow so that people and machines can get to where they need to go on and around the farm is a major undertaking.

Mechanical engineering editors explore dairy robots

Most readers of this blog have probably never read the trade magazine Control Design. It's a publication (and web portal) for all things "automation." Companies that design, market or purchase industrial equipment, and more precisely, the sophisticated control panels that operate the equipment, are the target market.

As the magazine itself says, "When you think of Control Design's audience, think of GE, which builds the turbine-generator set that is sold to Commonwealth Edison. Think of Heidelberg, which builds the printing press that is sold to the New York Times. Think of York, which builds the refrigeration system that is sold to Budweiser."Well, Control Design has now done several editorial pieces on the Lely Astronaut A3 robotic milking system.

If you're into the nuts and bolts of automation systems design, check them out here:
Astronaut Milking Machine
Miking Robot Uses Ethernet for Data
Innovate Machines Start with Components

We mention these stories only because some folks might find the mechanical discussion interesting. The larger purpose and vision of this technology is to help dairy farmers make more money while freeing up their time and making life on the dairy farm more satisfying. But it's kind of fun to be mentioned in the same phrase with Budweiser and The New York Times.