Investing in the future

RICHMOND, Minn. — March is full of anniversaries for dairy farmers Scott and Denise Gathje. On March 1, 1995, they started dairy farming. On March 4, they began milking their cows in a new robotic barn.

The Gathjes were milking their cows in a 58-stall tiestall barn. They now milk 70 cows in a freestall barn with one DeLaval robotic milking unit. They also farm 180 acres.

“I enjoy the cows being comfortable and not forcing them to go outside and come back in,” Denise said.

The transition from the old barn to the new went well.

“I was amazed the first day as the cows kept coming in to be milked,” Scott said. “I thought, ‘Oh man they are going to be coming in and kicking and everything.’ I don’t think there was one milker kicked off the whole day.”

They started by bringing 38 cows in the first day and then another six after the original cows adjusted. From there on, the cows went to the new barn as they calved.

“We had a lot of first calf heifers at that time and they transitioned wonderfully,” Denise said.

The Gathjes have taken their time learning the information provided by the robot.

“It’s a learning process,” Denise said. “You can’t learn all of that at one time. I still like eyes on the animal.”

Scott and Denise were assisted in building their new barn by their kids. Two of their six kids, Joe and Jonathon, who have full-time jobs off the farm but live at home, were especially instrumental in design and execution of the building project and on-farm operations.

“We poured a lot of cement, did all the gates, did wall insulation, (and) Jonathon and I pulled all the fans,” Joe said. “They are used fans out of a chicken barn. A lot of the square tubing used to make the gates we pulled out of a chicken barn.”

The barn is a guided flow system. It is 72 feet by 186 feet with 19 fans on the north wall. There is a feed alley and curtain on the south side. There are three rows of stalls with  mattresses, which are bedded once a day with sawdust.

Manure is handled by a JOZ Barn-E automatic manure scraper. Manure is pushed to the reception pit in the barn and then flows to the lagoon.

When deciding on a location for the barn the Gathje family said they wanted to make sure it was near the necessities.

“The place that we put the building is close to our lagoon, it’s also close to our feed, which is still in silos, and our stationary (total mixed ration) mixer,” Scott said. “I am feeding with a feed cart twice a day. We wanted to keep all that stuff in tact so that wouldn’t be a big change.”

Building the new barn was a priority Scott and Denise said so they can continue dairy farming for years to come.

“It definitely makes me feel like I can do this a lot longer,” Scott said.

The couple’s journey to a new barn with a robot was sparked by a course put on by Minnesota Dairy Initiative. They worked with MDI to put a team together and launched the planning process.

“I really wanted the guided flow for both animal and human safety,” Denise said.

To start construction for the new barn, the Gathjes had to move a corn bin, their dry cows and 70 feet of their 100-foot pole shed. This process started in March 2023, but the poles for the new barn were not in the ground until July 31, 2023.

“A lot of planning went into it,” Scott said. “We didn’t just plunk things into the ground according to a blueprint. In the end, things work really well down there.”

After the shell of the building was up, they dug the reception pit inside the barn. They started with a track skid loader until it got stuck, then rented a mini excavator to finish.

They did the plumbing for the robots and waterers themselves.

“We decided to just tackle it,” Scott said. “We learned how to plumb. We had a good teacher that came and helped us.”

The cement walls and flooring were finished Dec. 22, 2023. The Gathjes said they put in many hours and late nights to make the barn a reality.

“(The boys) have done a pile of work on the barn,” Scott said.

Since having the robots, the Gathjes have had more flexibility with chore times.

“The cows aren’t on your schedule anymore, they’re on their schedule,” Scott said. “Sometimes that makes it a little hard for us to accommodate their schedule, but it’s easy to walk away and do what you need to do.”

The Gathjes are still utilizing their old barn. As animals calve, they are milked in the old barn with a bucket until they are ready to move to the new barn. Once brought into the new barn, they are sent to the robotic milking unit. Fresh cows are watched closely for the first month to ensure they are getting milked about three times a day.

Even though buildings come and go, traditions stay the same for the Gathje family.

“It was definitely pretty cool to be there to help milk the first cow,” Jonathon said. “When we milked in the tiestall barn, we’d come home from work or school (and) talk in the middle alley in the old barn. It’s still the same, we will sit down in the office in the new barn and talk about whatever. It’s kind of nice that that still happens.”