The age of robotic dairies has arrived in spades at Homestead Dairy in Plymouth.
The farm recently built a new 400,000 square foot confinement building along 14th Road, just off U.S. 31, south of the city. The cross-ventilated barn is very large, resembling a commercial warehouse. It is equipped with 24 Lely robots, which are milking more than 1,000 cows housed inside the facility. The robots are arranged in four groups of six, with each group servicing approximately 360 cows.
Co-owner Brian Houin said the barn has the capacity to hold as many as 3,000 animals, including milking cows, dry cows and springers. There is also space for an additional 24 robots at a future point in time.
According to Houin, the facility is one of the largest robotic dairies in the nation and the largest among those using the Lely brand. So far, he is pleased with the results.
The first set of robots began milking cows on Feb. 20, with more brought online in the succeeding weeks.
Over the past 10 years, Houin said that he has wanted to build a dairy farm from "scratch," away from the main farm at 11505 13th Rd. He and the other owners weighed their options as they compared a rotary parlor versus robots. After visiting a robotic dairy in Michigan, they eventually settled on the automated system of milking.
Houin cited three reasons for choosing a robotic system. First, there is the savings realized from replacing human labor with machines.
"The way we see it is we're paying for our labor up front," Houin said.
With a traditional parlor, the farm's labor efficiency was measured at 1,200 pounds of milk per man hour. But since they have moved to robots, that figure has gone up to 1,500 pounds of milk per man hour.
A second reason for moving to robots is to increase cow comfort. Since they have switched to robots, the Houins have seen the cows' behavior change for the better. Brian said the cows seem more relaxed and comfortable.
Finally, robots "tell a better story to consumers," Brian said, citing the third and final reason for the switch. With a robotic milking system, the cows visit the robots when they feel the natural urge to be milked.
When they were researching how to expand, Houin said the family wanted to do things in phases rather than all at once. One of the advantages to robots is that they can be added gradually, while a rotary parlor can't be enlarged once it's built.
When Homestead Dairy announced plans to build the automated dairy, the investment was an estimated $14 million that included $6 million for the facility and $8 million for 24 robots. The farm also planned to increase the herd size, which was at 3,300 cows last year and is now at 4,100 animals.
The farm received a tax abatement from the Marshall County council.
Brian said the family expects to recoup its investment over the long haul.
Manure will be stored in a 25-million-gallon lagoon, which has an eight-month storage capacity. This manure will be applied as crop nutrient or converted to electricity. Homestead is one of a handful of dairies in the state that has an anaerobic digester, capable of converting cow manure into methane gas that produces electricity for the farm.
Since going online in February, Houin said the transition to robots has gone smoothly. The cows needed a week to learn the new system.
"The cows have adapted better than expected," he said.
A big difference is seen in daily milk production average, which has increased by 6 pounds per cow.
In June, the Houins are planning a ribbon cutting and open house at the facility.