COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • MARCH 2020
Robotic milkers make life easier for dairy farmers
But stepping away from the barn isn’t always as easy as it sounds
by DAVID SCHMIDT CHILLIWACK – When a dairy
farm moves from parlour to robotic milking, it requires the cows to change. For some cows, it’s a difficult
adjustment, although most adapt to the new protocols almost immediately and enthusiastically.
While that change is
obvious, what is often less than obvious is the change required of the dairy farm owners and operators. Owners of the four robotic farms on the 2020 Dairy Self- Tour shared their thoughts on how the change affected them as individuals. “I have my Sunday back,”
says Tony Neels of Mountain Shadow Acres in Rosedale. He noted workers did most of the milking and feeding during the week but it was left to him to do almost all the work on Sunday. Now that the cows milk themselves, he is no longer tied to the barn all Sunday. “Lifestyle flexibility” was one of the key reasons Tony and his son Jason switched to robotic milking. “We still spend the same amount of time in the barn but for us it’s a change in when and how we spend the hours,” he said. Holger Schwichtenberg of
Holberg Farm in Agassiz says it has been “difficult to find a new routine. For 50 years I’ve been in the barn and now I have a new manager and sons
who are more tech-savvy.” His comments drew
guffaws from those around him, including his sister, Dr. Kiersten Schwichtenberg, who sarcastically noted he didn’t spend nearly as much time in the previous barn as he claims. After all, Schwichtenberg devotes a lot of time to political issues. He is the current president of the BC Dairy Association after terms as president of the Mainland Milk Producers and a District of Kent alderman. Schwichtenberg notes the new barn and robots were built out of necessity. “We had a 35-year-old parlour and we were full everywhere. It was either this or get out,” he says. Although Schwichtenberg intends to keep dairying for another 10 years, it will ultimately be up to his children whether or not the farm will continue. While he hopes that will be the case, he stresses he has told his family, “it’s an opportunity, not an obligation.”
No choice For Gordon and Ruby
Peterson of Agassiz, they had no choice whether or not to build a new barn. That’s because a fast-moving fire which started in the adjacent bunker silo destroyed the old barn and parlour at about noon on September 19, 2018. “We lost the drive-through barn in 15 minutes,” the Petersons recall.
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His cows love him. BC Dairy Association president Holger Schwichtenberg and his sister, Dr. Kierstin Schwichtenberg, stand amid the herd and one of the new DeLaval robotic milkers at Holberg Farm in Agassiz. Holberg Farm was one of six stops on the 2020 BC Dairy Expo self-tour. DAVID SCHMIDT PHOTO
Thanks to neighbours, the
cows were released before the fire overtook them, resulting in the loss of only three animals. Again, with the help of friends and neighbours, the cows were relocated to a nearby dairy barn in time for their 5 pm evening milking. Although the Petersons had been planning a refit, having already ordered a new Lely robot, the fire gave them a chance to rethink their future. Should they get out or start over? They chose to start over, deciding they would rather be dairy farmers than anything else.
When they built the new barn, they chose to install two robots instead of just one, believing their 66-cow herd
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was just a little too big for one robot to handle comfortably. Two robots also gave them the opportunity to expand the herd. They changed from waterbeds to sand bedding for the milking herd and composted manure bedding for the calves and heifers when they rebuilt.
Sleeping in For Jim Sache of Jalyn
Farms in Rosedale, installing two new Lely robots in a bright new barn meant an end to getting up at 4 am each morning to milk the cows.
“It was more of an adjustment for me than for my son Geoff (who now runs the farm) because Geoff never milked the cows,” he says. “If anything, he spends more time in the barn now than he did in the past.” After having to rise so early
for over 50 years, he has not found it easy to sleep in, saying, “Now I go for an early- morning run each day.” Jim has not given up
milking completely, however. “I still milk dry-off cows in the old parlour once a day. I milked six cows today,” he says.
20t h
Annual
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