Retrofitted for robots

ATHENS, Wis. — Robert and Maria Strack know from experience that the ultimate test of a marriage is starting up a pair of robots in a retrofitted tiestall barn on your anniversary. Luckily, the Stracks passed the test with flying colors.

The Stracks began to consider robotic milking when the neighbor boy, who had worked for them throughout his middle and high school years,
graduated and decided he wanted to take over his family’s farm.

“He was going to leave, and our youngest likes the tractors more than the cows,” Robert said. “I knew we were going to have a decision to make — we’d either need to sell the cows or go to robots.”

Robert first broached the subject with Maria on a trip to World Dairy Expo.

“She didn’t want anything to do with it at first,” Robert said. “Once they were up and running, she loved them — way more than I did at first.”

Maria smiled, recalling her objections.

“To me, it seemed like too much investment, too much that was unknown,” she said. “I was surprised how quickly I changed my mind, once we started milking in the robots.”

Knowing they did not want to invest in building, the Stracks worked with Bob’s Dairy Supply Inc. to retrofit their existing tiestall barn and install two used DeLaval robotic milking machines. They went from milking 105 cows in the tiestall barn at their New Day Dairy near Athens to milking 90 cows in the robots.

With a limited number of tiestall retrofits using DeLaval robots, the Stracks were largely left to use their imaginations and knowledge of their cows to design their setup.

“There were some things we had to change or tweak since we started up,” Robert said. “But it’s all been minor stuff, both in terms of the job and the cost.”

The Stracks had planned to start the process of retrofitting in fall 2024, but the first robots that became available were the wrong size to work in barns that were scheduled ahead of the Stracks.

“Mark (Peissig) called in the spring and said he could move things around and get our robots up and running during the summer,” Robert said. “That moved our plans up three or four months. We weren’t ready, but we went with it.”

The footprint of the barn was laid out with an alleyway, separating 60 stalls in the original part of the barn from 40 stalls in an addition. Plans for the retrofit were to place the robots and feeding area in the 60-stall section of the barn, along with a few free stalls. The 40-stall section created the freestall area.

“All of the cows in the 60-stall section had to go outside,” Robert said. “They lived in a space that was built for 14 dry cows and some pasture. That year, we had terrible rain, and the mud was up to our knees. It was horrible.”

During construction, the Stracks milked cows, eight at a time, flat-parlor style.

“It was a lot of upheaval for the cows,” Robert said. “By the time the robots were ready to go, they were getting really good at it. We didn’t have to tie them up, they’d just come in, stand to be milked and then go back out — just in time to throw something new at them.”

The retrofit project that began June 20, 2024, was ready for the robots to start up Aug. 5.

“The guys from Bob’s said it was the fastest retrofit they’d ever done,” Robert said.

Milking cows through the retrofitting stage was probably a bigger test of their marriage than the actual start-up, Maria said.

Robert nodded.

“She had to deal with a grumpy me,” he said. “I was not happy at all. It took such a long time to get the cows through in the beginning, and all the training. Maria was pretty happy with it right away, but not me — I really disliked it for the first few months.”

For her initial distaste of the idea, Maria admitted that she quickly became a fan

“Robert felt like the cows were struggling to adapt, but I could see changes in their attitudes early,” Maria said. “They seemed to enjoy doing things on their own time, moving between the beds, the robots and the feed bunks.”

The drop in production at the start-up was terrifying for Robert.

“Even through the construction process, we were typically sitting right around 100 pounds a day,” Robert said. “Nothing happening in the barn seemed to phase the cows, but the day after the robots started, we were at 77 pounds. I was prepared for a drop, but not like that.”

As the first week came to an end, Strack was struggling with the number of fetch cows remaining, particularly with the guided flow system.

“Most of the fetch cows were late lactation cows,” Robert said. “I really struggled with the idea of letting them go more than 12 hours, knowing that if they weren’t getting milked, they weren’t getting to the feed bunk. I eventually had to wait them out; it was almost like it became a game for them, to see how long it would take me to come get them.”

As the cows adjusted to their new routine, the number of fetch cows dwindled. The herd average has climbed back up towards their pre-robot average, a number Strack hopes will continue to grow with a good year for forages.

Learning to manage his cows differently meant learning to rely on the data provided.

“It was probably six months before I got a groove figured out,” Robert said. “Managing by computer is so much different than touching your cows. That’s a bigger change than anyone can prepare you for. You have all this information, but you have to learn what it means and how to use it.”

The Stracks feed high oleic soybeans in their robots, allowing them to target individual cows with increased amounts of protein. Drawn by the beans, the herd is averaging 3.3-3.4 milkings per day.

As the second anniversary of the robotic milkers approaches, the Stracks said they now have no regrets.

“When you’re in the middle of it, you can’t see outside of it,” Robert said. “It’s such a difference in how you manage the cows and not being in the pens. You really have to accept that you can’t start making judgments until everyone has freshened in again and starts a new lactation in the robots.”