An outlet to continue dairy

STEWARTVILLE, Minn. — For the Twoheys, robotic milking units are creating a solution that will keep them dairy farming.

“We knew we wanted to continue milking cows, but we didn’t want to be the ones milking cows,” Jacob Twohey said. “The robots have kind of provided us that outlet.”

Twohey dairy farms with his parents, Ed and Sherri, and brother, Tim. The Twoheys milk 300 cows. They also farm 1,400 acres with Twohey’s uncle, Bill. In 2022, the family started milking their herd with a guided flow system with four DeLaval VMS V300 robotic milking units.

Previously, the Twoheys had milked in a double-8 parabone parlor that was retrofitted in 2004 into a barn from the 1960s.

“The equipment wasn’t in terrible shape, but the facility itself was starting to get dated,” Twohey said.

Within their update, the Twoheys added 140 feet to their freestall barn, creating enough space for them to house their entire herd — including dry cows — under one roof.

Instead of weekly trailering to move cows on and off their site, now the cows rotate through pens. With this change, the Twoheys also have CowManager data on their cows throughout their entire pregnancy. When the cows were offsite, this was not possible.

The new dry cow area is also an improvement versus their prior offsite location which was feedlot style. In their new setup, they have fans and sprinklers to increase cow comfort.

“The energy demands from the cow are certainly a lot lower than it was before,” Twohey said. “We’re going to see long-term impacts from this as we see more and more cows go through this cycle (with) calves being born through a dry period without as much heat stress.”

The Twoheys have reduced labor with the robotic milking units. Ed, Tim and Jacob are assisted by one full-time employee and one part-time employee.

“The biggest pusher for us to do this project in general was labor,” Twohey said. “We liked the idea of being able to cut back labor and not have scheduled milkings.”

Twohey said reduced labor has been the biggest positive change the robotic milking units have produced.

“Our reliance on employees is greatly reduced,” Twohey said. “If we have an employee that can’t make it in for whatever reason now, we can divide up the tasks that employee was supposed to do fairly easily. ... It doesn’t change your whole day.”

Though they have reduced labor, a member of the family must be on call at all times.

“Before, in the parlor, when the employees left, everything was done,” Twohey said. “You weren’t going to get any calls.”

The Twoheys started considering robotic milking units about 10 years ago. In 2020, they started visiting with dealers, and in the spring of 2021, they bought their robots. That fall, the barn addition started going up. Their robotic milking units’ start up date was Aug. 8, 2022.

“The startup went as good as we could have hoped for,” Twohey said. “We had a lot of people on hand. ... Within a couple of days, we had ... some cows starting to go in on their own. ... It wasn’t a hard push to get every cow in at that point.”

The Twoheys sent all their cows through the robotic milking units the first day. Twohey said he is glad they did not keep milking some cows in the parlor. To help the cows get used to the robots, they sent the cows through the robots for a week before the transition.

Within a few weeks of startup, the majority of the cows were going in on their own. The cows now average 2.65 visits per day.

Twohey said the guided flow reduces labor on fetching and gives them flexibility on how many pounds of pellets they feed. Their cows receive an average of 5.5 pounds per day.

If he were to do it again, he said he would make some changes in the setup. He said he wishes they would have installed a buffer bulk tank so they could continue running the robots when the main bulk tanks get pumped and washed.

“That’s our biggest regret; that really interrupts cow flow,” Twohey said.

As well, he also would consider putting in two more robots so he could run fewer cows through each robot but have more cows overall. The barn has the capacity for more cows, but currently, their robots are their limiting factor.

Each member of the Twohey family has an area on the farm. Jacob works with the robotic milking unit maintenance, the cows, employees and barn maintenance.

“I do a lot of work on the robot,” Twohey said. “That’s a huge change. It’s a big, big part of my time commitment (to make) sure they’re running.”

Tim works with the calves, daily maintenance, equipment maintenance, bedding and all feeding. Ed works with the crops and oversees finances and bookkeeping.

“(I enjoy) being able to work with family,” Twohey said. “I think that’s a really great thing.”

In the future, Twohey has dreams of what could be next for his family’s farm. He said he would like to add two more robots within the next five years. He also would like to buy more land and add onto their feed pad.

“When things are working well, ... I enjoy doing (dairy farming),” Twohey said. “I enjoy working with the cows. I enjoy the variety to my day, even though the same things have to get done.”