Hybrid setup, full results

BELLECHESTER, Minn. — The Bartholome family spent three years and visited many farms researching robotic milking setups before signing for robotic milking units in December 2023.

Jim and Lisa Bartholome — alongside their children Samantha, Madison, Austin and Dominic — milk 500 cows with seven Lely A5 robotic milking units. The Bartholomes switched to robotic milking units Dec. 10, 2024. They also utilize Lely Discovery Collector mobile barn cleaners and Lely Juno automatic feed pushers.

The Bartholomes said they put a lot of thought into their design up front, and through collaboration, moved forward with a robotic design that aligned with their vision and goals for their dairy farm and provided the care and comfort they desired for their cows.

Their system is a hybrid setup, which is a combination of guided and free-flow designs, which enables the Bartholomes to manage their farm efficiently, reducing their labor costs by more than half. With the addition of the robots, the Bartholomes have eliminated four full-time milker positions.

Jim and Lisa said their children have been involved in the planning and transition to robotic milking as well as being part of the farm tours and robotic start up.

To prepare for the startup, Jim and several of the children had helped at other robotic startups. Jim said being involved and helping at these startups was helpful and valuable.

“We knew somewhat what we were getting ourselves into,” Jim said.

With the hybrid design, cows go through electric sort gates at will and can go to feed whenever they want, unless they have not been milked recently. At this point, the sort gates send them through to the robotic milking units.

With the hybrid setup, Jim said they have a 3% fetch rate.

“You’re not going out there pushing cows all day,” he said.

Another unique part of their design is the four-way sort gates that allow the Bartholomes to have re-milking capabilities, foot bath access and the ability to sort cows into a special needs pen. This pen has headlocks to help care for the animals and for other daily tasks such as breeding and health checks. The Bartholomes also have a separate area for hoof trimming and a connected walkway between their barns for easily transporting cattle.

Their barns mimic a hybrid Lely setup on a Canadian dairy that has 20 A5 robotic milking units. The Bartholomes toured this farm and worked with the producer to get insight for their space, and they said he was invested in their family and helping them with their project.

“We took our blueprints to him and we studied them with him,” Jim said. “We made a few changes, but nothing major.”

To the Bartholomes’ knowledge, there are not many of these hybrid Lely setups in the U.S.; there may be another one in Texas. Building a rare setup meant extra steps of planning and collaboration.

“There were some good discussions with Lely and Leedstone about how to bring a different design,” Lisa said.

The Bartholomes direct load their milk into tankers because they haul their milk themselves. For their milkhouse setup, they mimicked a dairy near Green Bay, Wisconsin, which also has an automatic switch between their tankers. All switching happens automatically, and the system can be controlled remotely.

The Bartholomes built their robot rooms and sort pens onto the end of their barns. Jim said their site can accommodate them eventually building a second half of sand-bedded free stalls onto the end of the new robot rooms.

“We can mirror that some other day,” Jim said. “We are on the end today, but tomorrow, it could be on the center.”

The Bartholomes’ children, who represent the sixth generation on the farm, are all interested in returning to the dairy farm or being involved in some capacity.

“Everything is built for (and with) the next generation (in mind),” Jim said.

Jim has farmed his entire life.

“I enjoy working with cows,” Jim said.

The Bartholome children said they are excited about the new technology and robots coming into the operation.

Before, the Bartholomes were milking in a double-10 parabone parlor built in the 1980s. With milking being done three times a day, the facility was in use 21 hours a day.

The parlor is currently closed, but the Bartholomes may eventually milk in it again. Jim said that, if cows were less expensive, he would have bought more to continue milking in the parlor. It was and will continue to be part of the plan to buy more cattle in the future when the price is more affordable.

Looking to future projects, the Bartholomes are interested in implementing sand reclamation, such as mechanical separators. However, they are limited by their use of sugar sand which, due to regulations, is required for their 835-foot manure pumping distance with a 30-foot grade to their lagoon.

The Bartholomes robotic startup went smoothly. They said they are grateful to the friends, neighbors and ag businesses who helped them.

Thanks to the robotic milking units, the Bartholomes said they anticipate having more time with family. They also feel they will have more time to be farmers. They said the switch to robotic milking allows them more time to give needed attention and care to their cattle.

“Now, I feel like you can manage the cows instead of the people,” Jim said.

With the transition to robotic milking, the Bartholomes said they are still on the farm every day, but it is a different way of management.