ROBOTIC FARM FEATURE: ZWIEG'S MAPLE ACRES

Since Kyle and Rachel Zwieg moved from the tie-stall barn to their robotic facility in 2020, their single DeLaval V300 has frequently been the highest producing DeLaval robot in the world. Think about that before you dismiss this accomplishment because it’s only one robot. All of the cows are milked on one robot – all of the rambunctious heifers; all of the treated cows that require a wash; all of the tail enders. Not only that, Zwieg’s Maple Acres also includes 2,000 acres of cropland, so Kyle and Rachel can’t spend all of their time in the barn. The time they do spend in the barn if focused on giving the right cows every opportunity for high production.

When I visited the farm, the average milking duration for Zwieg’s 66 cows was 5 minutes and 38 seconds, and the average yield was 35 pounds per milking. Kyle credited that fast milking to a number of things. Most importantly, he insists on “Making the cow fit the robotic milking

system rather than making the robotic milking system fit the cow.” It is true that the current models from the major robot brands are able to attach cups to less-than-ideal udders. It’s also true that, on some farms, cows will stay in the barn because of genetic merit, or other reasons. But maintaining the highest level of robot performance demands milking the right cows – the best robot-adapted cows.

Zwiegs use a unique training program to make sure their heifers have every opportunity for high production. Heifers are brought into the guided-flow milking facility 4 to 5 weeks before calving. Heifers-in-training are not given access to the robots. The smart gate always sends them to feed. Before calving, heifers know that the sort gate is the path to the feed bunk. They are also familiar with finger gates, and barn environment before calving, so they are ready to hit the ground running after calving. The risk of metabolic problems associated with feeding a milking ration to prefresh cows is much lower for heifers than it would be for mature cows. Pretrained heifers take less time in the robot than untrained heifers.

Kyle completed a 4-month trial without feed in the robots. Production per cow did not change and there was no nutritional difference. At the end of 4 months, he went back to about 3½ pounds of pellets per cow per day. He delivers the pellets quickly, to keep cows busy during prep and attachment. He observed faster attach times with pellets than without. He also felt that heifers learned to use the robots more quickly, and gate passes were higher, when pellets were fed. He acknowledged it might work differently on farms where cows had never become accustomed to pellets.

Ever since the robots went online, Kyle and Rachel have been laser focused on understanding the system, selecting the right cows, and using the system to give the right cows every opportunity to excel.