Revolutionizing with robots

DUBLIN, Texas — When Rancho Pepper Dairy was looking to add another milking facility for 2,000 cows, they spoke with DeLaval about an idea that was first of its kind in the United States. The dairy wanted to blend parlor milking with an automated milking system at a scale never seen before to become one of the only dairies in the nation to utilize a batch milking strategy.

“This is the right way to milk cows on a large scale,” said Dr. Juan Velez, chief agriculture officer for Rancho Pepper Dairy. “To do this with 2,000 cows was a different beast, and we took a risk doing it, but I believe the future for batch milking is very bright worldwide. I believe that animal welfare and employee well-being will play a very big role in the sustainability of dairy farming around the world.”

Rancho Pepper Dairy, an organic dairy in the heart of Texas, is in Dublin about 90 miles southwest of Fort Worth. The dairy milks 4,000 cows. Half of the herd is milked at a location with a double-27 parallel parlor, while the other half is milked in a DeLaval batch-milking facility that utilizes 22 VMS V300 units. The robot milking units are arranged in a double-11 parallel configuration, with construction completed in 2022.

On Oct. 2, attendees of a virtual farm tour at World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, had the chance to see how this farm is revolutionizing its large-scale operation.

“I was told about a project DeLaval had in Italy where they were batch milking, and I was really intrigued,” Velez said. “This could be the solution for combining grazing, access to the outdoors 24/7/365, saving labor and grazing in different groups of cows.”

Rancho Pepper Dairy was established in 1988 and transitioned to organic in 2006. Since then, it has expanded to 4,400 acres dedicated entirely to pasture. Cows are housed in freestall barns bedded with sand and in open lots with shade and compost bedding. The breeding program includes genomic-tested Jersey donor dams along with slick-gene Holstein donors.

While the farm in Italy featured eight robots, Rancho Pepper Dairy was proposing a facility nearly three times that size. The combination of parlor milking with the automated milking systems produced a different way to milk the herd and cut back on labor needed to operate efficiently. 

Velez explained how batch milking is performed at Rancho Pepper Dairy. One cow pusher brings in a pen of around 240 cows into a traditional holding area. Cows proceed with the automated milking systems as openings become available. With around 30 cows remaining in the holding area, the cow pusher brings in a new group. 

This process is repeated until all pens have been milked, then a wash cycle is run, and another shift begins. This equates to two milkings per cow per day. Cows average 5 minutes and 50 seconds per milking. The robots milk an average of about 90 cows per shift and 160 milkings per day.

Rancho Pepper also uses a single exit lane with a sorting gate, allowing the cows to be sorted for breeding, vaccinations and physical exams and to walk through a footbath. The sorting gate also enables cows to return to pasture, a focal point for Rancho Pepper Dairy and its organic herd. There are no issues with pens intermingling in the milking facility because the sorting gate releases cows to their intended pen or location.

The added technology decreased labor demands and created a more streamlined process for Velez and the farm’s assistant manager, Nelson Rodriguez.

“One of the main advantages we see when we compare the batch robotic system versus conventional parallel or rotary is twofold,” Rodriguez said. “The first is the labor, the second is the consistency of the procedures and the milking routine.”

Velez said reduced labor was a key factor for proceeding with the technology. 

“The traditional parlor that milks 2,000 cows requires 16 employees; the robotic batch milking requires seven,” Velez said. “Now we know the monthly maintenance cost for our system, and we have eliminated the unexpected issues or consequences that we couldn’t predict.”

Rodriguez noted that a smaller team has led to lower managerial stress and increased the amount of data he and his team can work with. The automated milking system sends Rodriguez two reports daily and allows the herdsman to check the list and look for sick cows or cows that need special attention or treatments.

“With everything in this system, I can be in my living room watching TV and checking on what’s happening at the farm on my phone,” Rodriguez said. “The data is incredible. If the mastitis is going up or down, if there are robots that aren’t working properly or cows that are kicking the machine, I can trust the information from the report.”

Finding consistent labor for milking has proven to be a challenging task for the farm.  

Since moving to an automated system, Rancho Pepper Dairy has seen fewer injuries for both employees and cows.

“Milking is the job with the lowest retention rate and is one of the most high-risk jobs in terms of safety,” Rodriguez said. “Eighty percent of the stress managing the farm is now gone because you are not stressing about someone showing up or getting hurt.”