CONSULT CORNER

Using robots with your parlor gives you more than one way to milk a cow. Not to “Beat a dead horse,” – redundancy can be a good thing. There are some good reasons to keep the parlor going after the robots come online.

Many farms unintentionally trend towards seasonal calving. A herd might become semi-seasonal if a large group of springers is purchased to populate after an expansion. Breeding challenges associated with hot weather can also create seasonal highs and lows. Once a seasonal trend is started, it will continue because calves born during peak times enter the herd as cows 2 years later during peak times, and their calves accelerate the cycle.

All of these combined for a surplus of heifers. Eventually, dairy farmers realized it was expensive to raise heifers they didn’t plan to milk, and started producing crossbred beef calves. More recently, the beef herd has gotten smaller, the value of beef calves has skyrocketed, and we have come full circle, with dairy heifers in short supply again. Once again, reproductive efficiency is critical to maintaining a steady supply of replacements.

Rolinda Acres maximizes production per cow by providing extra robotic milking capacity.