We now have one year under our belts with our robots. It feels good because we have a year of data to study, and this winter, we can dive deep into the data to analyze the results.
Milking robots are still new to all of us. For example, usually you get a 20-year construction loan from a bank, but lenders put robots on a 10-year life. Even the bankers had a learning curve. We believe we will possibly get several more years.
Even without analyzing the date, we have noticed some advantages to having the robots. Labor, feed and reproduction costs have all decreased, and water usage is down about 30 percent because cleaning the robots requires less water than our previous equipment.
We’ve had a lot of tours come through, and people love the robots. Recently, we hosted a tour group, and I recognized a woman who had been here on a tour two years ago. At that time, she expressed concern about the cows being milked three times per day. When she saw the robots on this tour and it was explained the cows get milked when they choose but four times a day, she said, “That’s so nice!” That made me smile because even though we know that our cows were very happy before we got the robots, I was glad to see she approved of our new upgrades on the farm!