A walking miracle

OREGON, Ill. — For the past two years, the Snodgrass family’s Jersey herd at Valley-View Dairy has been milked by robots. The cows gravitated towards the technology when it was installed, quick to leave behind the parlor for a new, independent way of milking.

The Snodgrass family milks 120 cows with two DeLaval V300 robots and farms 1,700 acres near Oregon. Ron Snodgrass and his wife, Kristi, farm with his parents, Tom and Myrna. Kristi also works at Vita Plus as a financial resource specialist.

The family’s robotic milking system would become more than convenient when Ron Snodgrass suffered a double brain aneurysm Dec. 15, 2024.

“You think you have everything all planned out, but from one day to the next, you just never know,” Ron said. “The robots helped a lot when I was in the hospital and laid up. They were a blessing.”

Tom agreed.

“Everything just fell into place,” he said. “The good Lord had everything planned.”

Ron began that day with vomiting and body chills.

“I wasn’t with it, so Kristi went and did chores for me,” he said. “I thought I had the flu. I was so cold, and then I would get really hot, and I kept throwing up.”

Ron stayed in bed all day and said his head felt like it was going to explode.

“It was the worst headache I’ve ever had,” he said.

When his skin tone became white as an egg, Kristi told Ron she was taking him to the doctor when she got back from evening chores.

“We went to the hospital, and we were not there very long at all when they did an MRI and said, ‘We need to get you up to Rockford, and we’re going to fly you there via helicopter,’” Kristi said. “But, it was so foggy that they had to take him by ambulance instead.”

By 6 a.m. the next day, Ron was in surgery, where they found he had not only one aneurysm, but two aneurysms, and one had ruptured causing bleeding on the brain. Doctors successfully repaired the aneurysms during a 6-hour surgery.

“He had one of the best doctors there are,” Tom said.

Ron agreed.

“He saved my life,” he said.

Kristi took leave from her job so she could take over for Ron back at the farm.

“When Ron was admitted to the hospital, Craig Spangler from Scharine Group that put in the robots was the very first person I called,” Kristi said. “I needed somebody in my back pocket, and he was my person.”

Spangler is Ron’s go-to guy if problems arise with the robots.

“My wife got thrown at the robots, but she had great support and help,” Ron said. “Scott Casto from Scharine Group and Kristi’s brother-in-law, Tom Visser, were a big help too.”

The Snodgrasses had retrofitted the robots into the holding area in their freestall barn. They are positioned in a straight line with a free-flow system.

“The cows are doing really well,” Ron said. “We’re very proud of them. We have cows giving over 100 pounds of milk per day. It’s been fun to watch.”

As Ron recovered in the intensive care unit, he said he was referred to as a “walkie talkie” because he could walk and talk.

“Nobody else in the ICU could do that,” Ron said. “Every day was better than the day before. It was incredible. I would walk; I would make my own bed. They said with blood on the brain, the best thing to get that out is to move, so that’s what I did.”

Ron was told he would be in the hospital for 21 days no matter what, however, he was out on day 13.

“I was the first one at that hospital to ever make it out that early,” he said.

Ron’s recovery was nothing short of miraculous as doctors called him a walking phenomenon.

“I was the lucky one,” Ron said. “One-third of people who get an aneurysm don’t make it to the hospital. Another third don’t make it out of the hospital because of complications from surgery, etc. Of the third that survive surgery, one-third are a vegetable, one-third can function somewhat in life, and one-third are normal, and I’m normal.”

Ron was released from the ICU on a Saturday night, and by Sunday night, he was back in the barn, but for two weeks, he was not allowed to lift anything over 5 pounds.

“I missed the cows,” he said. “The farm was my main concern.”

Tom grew up on a beef and hog farm that was transformed into the Snodgrass dairy operation in 2003. The Snodgrasses were milking 42 cows when they moved the herd from Myrna’s home  farm, known as Smiley Farm, to its current location. The Snodgrasses continue to operate both farms.

“We thought we died and went to heaven when we went from a stanchion barn to a parlor,” Tom said. “Now, we really are in heaven. With robots, it seems like we get an extra 4-5 hours a day.”

In 2005, the Snodgrasses turned the hog barn into a heifer barn. Two hog pens remain for feeder pigs that consume the farm’s waste milk. Calves on milk and other youngstock are housed at Smiley Farm. That farm is also home to a steer yard as the family fattens all their bull calves. In addition, they run a beef cow/calf operation.

Before installing robots,  cows were milked in a double-8 parallel parlor that is still used to milk treated, fresh and dry-off cows.

“The robots can do that, but I want to know if I have a hot quarter or a hard quarter,” Ron said. “You can look at all the statistics coming out of the robot, but you still have to physically look at your cows.”

The Snodgrass herd average is 58 pounds of milk per cow per day with a butterfat test of 4.8% on three milkings per day.

“That’s good for us,” Ron said. “We never pushed our cows super hard. … We changed the feed table a little and adjusted some permissions, and now we’re about 10 pounds higher in milk than in the parlor.”

Today, Ron is functioning at 100% with no lasting setbacks from the trauma his brain endured.

“He didn’t lose any memory; he didn’t lose anything,” Kristi said.

Tom and Myrna said they are grateful for the gift of continuing to farm with their only child.

“He’s a miracle guy,” Tom said. “We didn’t know if he was going to be here anymore. We’ve been blessed, in a lot more ways than one.”