A smooth transition

ALBANY, Minn. – Brian Weyer has experienced many ways of milking cows in his career, but an investment he made three years ago will extend his career for years to come.
In March 2020, Weyer installed a guided-flow DeLaval VMS V300 robotic milking system at his farm near Albany.
“I’ve never been a fan of milking cows,” Weyer said. “Working with cows is fine, but when milking, (a cow) always has to kick you or knock a milker off.”
Since the installation, Weyer has more flexibility with his schedule and has more time with family: his wife, Krissy, and children, Liam, Noah and Josy.
Weyer said he enjoys farming more.
“I get to see my kids at night now,” Weyer said. “That’s something I never used to do.”
Prior to milking with a robot, Weyer would milk the cows after supper. By the time he came back in, the kids would be in bed. With all three of their children active in sports, the Weyers stay busy attending events.
Weyer now has the time to do others things on the farm.
When there is fieldwork to be done, Weyer goes out right away in the morning, and his dad, Mike, takes over after morning chores are complete to give him a break from the tractor.
“It helps split the day up so we both don’t have to work as hard,” Weyer said. “Especially in the spring when we haul out manure, that is a two-day project, and now, I can get started on that right away in the morning.”
The Weyers farm 200 acres of corn and alfalfa, and with so many farmers in the area, Weyer said land prices are very competitive; he has just enough land to produce forage for the herd.
The addition of the robot has also provided unexpected efficiencies on the farm.
“During fieldwork, I can just keep going,” Weyer said. “I don’t have to stop to milk the cows.”
Mike considers himself retired but helps on the farm daily.
“Dad likes the robot now, but at first, he was skeptical,” Weyer said. “He learned more about the robot than he ever thought he would.”
If Weyer is away from the farm and gets an alert that something is not working correctly with the robot, he can call Mike to walk him through how to fix the problem.
Weyer’s robot was installed by Farm Systems in Melrose, and they schedule three maintenance checks a year to change inflations, rubber valves, hoses or gaskets.
The robot has a cup that cleans the teats and uses a 3-D camera to find the teat to then attach the milking unit. The system has a 25-minute wash cycle that runs twice a day.
“You can set it on a timed schedule, but I don’t have it set up that way,” Weyer said. “I want to make sure there aren’t a lot of cows waiting to get in when it runs.”
Weyer said he has been surprised by the robot’s reliability.
“It seems to work all the time,” Weyer said. “I only get a call once every couple of months.”
When Weyer does get a call from the robot, it is usually a cow-induced problem such as a cow kicking off one of the cups.
For Weyer, the robot transformed the decision to continue dairying.
Weyer came to the farm after high school. At that time, he was milking 50 cows in a stanchion barn with his dad. In 2009, Weyer and his dad put up the freestall barn and double-8 parabone parlor.
The freestall barn was renovated to accommodate the robot; cows were milked in the parlor up to the day the robot was ready.
Looking back at the transition, Weyer said he does not regret his decision.
“With the robot, it makes (chores) a one-person job instead of two like it was with the parlor,” Weyer said.
When Mike wanted to slow down with milking cows, Weyer debated other types of farming but ultimately decided dairy was for him.
“I wanted to stay in dairy to get that steady pay check, Weyer said. “I thought about other types of farming, but there doesn’t seem to be as much money in those.”
The robot was a way to make that happen and lessen the hands-on milking chores.
“When my dad wanted to retire and be done milking cows, it was either find hired help or get a robot,” Weyer said. “For us, it just didn’t make sense to find three or four part-time employees. I never liked milking cows.”       
Now, Mike does the morning chores, and Weyer does the evening chores.
The technology that comes along with the robot has made it so Weyer and Mike cannot only take a step back from milking duties, but they can also learn more about each individual animal.
The cows wear activity collars and ear tags that record production levels, robot visits and health, among other things.
Milk production has risen close to 10 pounds per cow, Weyer said.
“I mainly just watch the production levels,” Weyer said.
 Weyer said he is more aware of how the weather affects the cows.
“If there is a change in weather, they are a lot more active,” Weyer said. “They seem to have more energy when the temp changes or a drastic weather change is coming. … Once it changes, they get lazy, and you’ll have more fetch cows.”
The data can be accessed on the computer or through an app on Weyer’s phone.
“Now it’s up to the cows if they want to push themselves in production,” Weyer said. “They can get milked more if they want, and some are just fine getting milked twice a day.”
To help with the transition from parlor to robot, Weyer pushed the cows through the robot after he milked in the parlor to show the cows the pellets and encourage them to enter the robot.
Weyer said they rarely have problems with cows not going into the robot.
“Our fetch rate is about 5%,” Weyer said. “The heifers we hardly have to train in. We push them through once maybe twice, and then, they are good to go.”
Weyer has a modified guide system for his robot. The system will automatically kick out cows that keep trying to get in just to get at the pellets, saving him time and money.
“Because of that, our pellet consumption is half of the free-flow system,” Weyer said.
The robot reads the ear tag of each cow as she enters and determines how much pellet that cow should receive. On Weyer’s farm, each cow gets 5-5.5 pounds of pellets a day. Because the cows receive pelleted feed in the robot, Weyer has adjusted the herd’s ration.
Fresh and treated cows are milked separately with a vacuum pump housed off the maternity pen.
“We have a hoof trimming shoot that we never really used and have that by the maternity pen to milk the fresh cows and treated cows in,” Weyer said.  
Weyer visited a handful of robotic dairy farms in the area before deciding which style of robot to install.
“I like that I don’t have to milk cows; my time is flexible now,” Weyer said. “I would say the robot has already paid for itself with the convenience. I don’t regret it at all.”