Flexibility gained through renovation

RICE, Minn. — A desire to increase staffing flexibility and innovation on the farm has lead the Schyma family to add two certified pre-owned robotic milking units to the front of their existing freestall barn.

The Schymas milk 124 cows in a retrofitted barn with sand-bedded free stalls. Previously, they milked cows in a double-6 step-up parlor. Milking used to take them six or more hours per day in the parlor, but now the robotic milking units allow them to have more flexibility to complete other tasks on the farm or even take family time.

“I think (it’s going) very well,” Bob Schyma said. “You have your problems, (but) it’s still a whole lot simpler than milking cows in the parlor.”

Bob and his son, Brenden Schyma, can usually trade off duties if needed when someone needs time off. Brenden’s main responsibilities are mixing feed, working on the robots, and entering data and monitoring the cows on the computer. Bob’s main responsibilities are scraping the barn, breeding and feeding calves. Between Brenden and Bob, they fetch cows to be milked as they get time between their other regular chores. Bob’s wife, Jolene, is the bookkeeper and helps on the farm when needed. Brenden’s fiancee, Jayna Carlson, helps when she has time outside of her full-time position.

“(We) have more time to do things and not be so tired all the time, and my body feels a lot better,” Brenden said. “It’s just less work physically.”

Jayna said she also appreciates the changes the robotic milking units have brought.

“It is nice just to be able to go do things that normal people do in the evening,” she said. “It doesn’t necessarily happen every day. You can’t do it every day, but once a week, it’s doable.”

Bob agreed.

“I enjoy being done by 6 to 6:30 in the evening without that big workload,” he said. “Otherwise, we weren’t getting in until 9 or 9:30, or 10.”

The refurbished robotic milking units the family purchased were sent back to the factory to receive new parts prior to being installed on the farm, Brenden said. This made the robots more affordable.

With the robots, the Schymas can see more data about their cows, though they still make sure they physically look at the cows every day.

“I think the technology piece is neat,” Jolene said. “That evolved from where my grandfather started to now. My grandfather milked six cows here, where he brought the cans to the creamery. Then we were in a tie stall, then a parlor and now this.”

Brenden brought the idea of upgrading to robots to his parents.

“We all supported it and felt it was a good fit for us and the next generation to grow and succeed if they so choose,” Jolene said.

Planning started roughly three years ago.

In July 2023 the family had Leedstone check the facility to see if their idea could become a reality. There were a handful of tasks they wanted to complete prior to construction starting. The Schymas kept in touch with Leedstone throughout the process. Alongside Leedstone employees, the family and building team also visited a couple other farms to solidify their plans.

In June 2024, the Schymas completed the tasks they wanted to be done prior to construction. These tasks included taking the H-bunk feed bunk out of the freestall barn to put in a single row of stalls and moving the feed lane to the lean-to side of the barn. They also replaced some of the inside posts to make some of the stalls six inches wider for the cows. Brenden said the cows prefer those stalls over the smaller ones left in the barn.

April 14, 2025, marked the start of construction to put in the robots in the freestall barn.

“Most of the mornings (aside from regular chores) were just answering questions and what everybody wanted to do for the day,” Bob said.

During construction, the return alley from the parlor to the free stalls was disturbed, meaning they had to reroute the cows.

“We had to do one group at a time, and then we had to teach them how to come back through and go out,” Bob said. “We did that mid-May (2025) until August (2025).”

Construction was completed Aug. 5, 2025, allowing the family to start pushing cows through the robots.

After the first two weeks, Brenden said the animals were pretty much trained, besides the dry cows coming in.

“It’s cool just to stay updated, keep getting better and improving,” Jayna said. “Even though it is hard and takes a lot of time knowing everything, it’s just cool to keep up with it.”

The transition from parlor to robots has not only been a learning curve for the cows, but for the Schyma family as well.

“I’m learning something new every day, (typically) what Brenden shows me how to do,” Bob said.