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Dairy farmer says adjusting to robotic milking takes time

A southeast Minnesota dairy farmer says it takes time to adapt to robotic technology.

Chad Kieffer of Utica installed robotic milkers on his 500 head dairy farm in the spring of 2011 because of labor concerns.

He tells Brownfield there was an adjustment period for both him and the animals.

“The old rule of thumb is it’s three days of frustration, three weeks of a lot of trouble and three months before things are really going well.  I’ll take that out and say a full year before things are really clicking.”

Five years later Kieffer says he’s glad he went to robotic technology.

“We’re very happy (with it).  It’s allowed more social life and family time.  It’s also allowed our family to be more diversified and have other businesses.”

Kieffer was part of a farmer forum at the 2015 Midwest Dairy Conference in St. Cloud, Minnesota Tuesday.