Robots replace expansion

HASTINGS, Minn. — With their back to critical habitat and surrounded by about 100 houses in a mile radius, the Reuters knew that expanding their dairy farm was not an option.

“You’re not building a big dairy in the middle of all that,” Dennis Reuter said. “Most of our neighbors we get along with. If we doubled or tripled the herd size, that would change drastically.”

Carl and Dennis Reuter own a 120-cow dairy farm with 650 acres of crops near Hastings. They farm with the assistance of Dennis’ son, Phil, who is the herdsman.

“We can’t really grow in size, so you have to make that up in efficiency and production,” Phil said.

Much has changed since Carl and Dennis began dairy farming in 1977 and 1981, respectively. When they joined the farm there were 25 cows milked in a stanchion barn. Today the Reuters milk their herd with two Lely Astronaut A5 robotic milking units that they started using May 4, 2021.

Phil’s return to the dairy in 2017 spurred the Reuters towards robots. Phil was interested in data collection in the parlor such as cattle ID, milk weights and more.

However, when the Reuters priced adding this into their double-6 parallel parlor built in 1999, they found the cost prohibitive.

“‘You’re nuts,’ I said (to the salesmen), ‘If you think I’m going to spend $100,000 on this stuff and still have to milk the cows,’” Dennis said. “I might as well put that $100,000 into robots, I’ll get way more information, and I won’t have to milk them.”

With cows leaking milk in their stalls, Phil also wanted to milk three times a day, but Dennis discouraged this because of labor. Dennis said their farm is too small to support full-time workers and occasional help is unreliable.

The Reuters had been intrigued by robots since the late 2000s, when Dennis went to an open house for robotic milking units and came back excited.

“It’s like, ‘This is way cool,’” Dennis said. “‘This will work someday.’ But then the parlor was in good shape and we were younger.”

The first robotic equipment arrived on their farm in 2012 in the shape of a Lely Juno automatic feed pusher. Previously, Dennis had pushed up feed at midnight or 2 a.m. The second robotic equipment was a Lely Discovery mobile barn cleaner which scrapes their slatted freestall  barn floor hourly.

When it came to milking with robots, the K-formation entry and exit on past models of Lely robotic milking units had prohibited installation in their space. However, when the Lely Astronaut A5 came out with a straight entry and exit the Reuters could move forward.

On Black Friday 2020, the Reuters signed contracts to put in robotic milking units, and in February 2021, crews began retrofitting two robotic milking units into their hospital space between the old stanchion barn and the freestall barn.

To prepare for a startup in May, the Reuters sent their late lactation cows to Square Deal Dairy LLC near Randolph. Phil said this decision was important.

“(Otherwise) you’re trying to teach cows to get milked that really don’t want to get milked,” Phil said. “You’re actually going to teach them the second time when they freshen.”

The Reuters were left with about 90 earlier lactation cows, full of milk and eager to be milked. The weekend before startup, the Reuters sent their herd through the robotic milking units to get grain.

On startup day, the Reuters kept labor to only their family and the Leedstone representative to help the cows feel relaxed.

“I don’t like outside help,” Dennis said. “Our cows are used to us. … It went pretty easy because the cows didn’t care.”

During the first milking on that Tuesday, they finished with an hour and a half to spare. By Friday, they were down to 15-20 fetch cows.

In the robotic milking units, somatic cell count decreased, dropping from an average of about 130,000 to about 50,000. Phil said the robotic milking units and connected technology such as the activity and rumination collars have helped them improve herd health.

“We find cows a lot faster that are sick,” Phil said. “We have somatic cell count down at the robots. It allows us to really have a tight, fast mastitis program to find those cows quickly.”

He said the majority of their current mastitis is subclinical. The Reuters use supportive therapy to help their cows and culture milk to isolate mastitis for treatment.

The herd averages about 2.8 visits to the robotic milking units per day.

One thing the Reuters wished they had done differently is adding in-floor heating in their robot room. The cement surrounding the robotic milking units has in-floor heat, keeping the area from freezing, but inside the robot room there is only a supplemental radiant heater.

In cold weather the heat from the radiant heater rising towards the ceiling combined with wind blowing through the robot room causes icing in the robots which could have been prevented.

After the cows exit the robotic milking units, they are sent through a copper sulfate foot bath daily as they had previously done when leaving the parlor. Their hoof trimmer recommended the practice.

“You listen to the guy that trims the feet,” Dennis said.

With the robotic milking units, Carl, who had done a lot of milking since Dennis injured his hand over 20 years ago, has more flexibility in his day. For all the Reuters, the change allows more flexibility for other work such as forage production.

“Quality from start to finish is way better and more consistent,” Dennis said.

Looking to the future, the Reuters plan to continue to improve their dairy within the confines they have.

“Instead of adding head of cows, we’ll probably make that 120 better cows,” Phil said. “The robots just make us more efficient.”