Here & Now

What Robotics Means for the Future of Wisconsin Dairy Farms

Frederica Freyberg:
In agriculture news, a small but growing number of Wisconsin dairy farmers are embracing robotic milkers amid difficulties maintaining a workforce, ongoing market swings and uncertainties over an updated Farm Bill. “Here & Now” reporter Aditi Debnath has more on what this technology means for the future of Wisconsin dairy farms.

Tina Hinchley:
It has been life changing ever since.

Aditi Debnath:
This December marked five years since the Hinchley family moved their herd of nearly 300 cows to a new barn with robotic milking machines.

Tina Hinchley:
So it’s been life changing because being able to go in and just check on what cows we need to focus on and not have to focus on every single cow has been so beneficial to my physical health, but also my mental health.

Aditi Debnath:
In addition to a few part-time student employees, the Hinchleys have just one full-time staffer since automating processes like milking and feeding.

Tina Hinchley:
Typically, we end up with high school or college students because we are close enough to Madison, but there has been times when it’s been difficult. Hopefully, she’s going to be an amazing milk girl.

Aditi Debnath:
No longer tied to milking cows herself twice a day herself, Hinchley says both she and her cows are happier with the robotic milkers operating 24 hours a day.

Chuck Nicholson:
It’s not necessarily something you would have to do in order to stay in the dairy business.

Aditi Debnath:
UW-Madison professor of animal and dairy sciences, Chuck Nicholson, says only about 8% of Wisconsin’s dairy farmers have implemented the new technology. Typically family farms that want to save on labor costs.

Chuck Nicholson:
The labor shortage is definitely a key motivating factor.

Aditi Debnath:
The high-tech collars fitted to each cow send about 130 different data points about each animal directly to Hinchey’s smart phone.

Chuck Nicholson:
There are other benefits that farms get from adopting these robotic milking systems. They can include better milk production, more milk per cow, better animal health, improved milk quality.

Aditi Debnath:
While many Wisconsin farmers are considering the impact AI may have on their dairy production, Nicholson says 75% of Wisconsin farmers said they have not and will not implement robotics on their farm.

John Rosenow:
When we built this, I told the people that were designing it and stuff that I don’t want any moving parts. You’re always here this time of year. You know that?

Aditi Debnath:
John Rosenow manages a 600-cow herd in Buffalo County.

John Rosenow:
It’s our kitchen window. I put it there because before when we were hiring local people, I needed to see the parking lot. So who didn’t show up and if somebody didn’t show up, I had to go down and cover for him.

Aditi Debnath:
He struggled to find reliable labor before hiring his first immigrant employee nearly 25 years ago.

John Rosenow:
Since we’ve hired Mexicans, I never have to do that anymore. I could live in town, because they always come on time and they’re here on time.

Aditi Debnath:
Rosenow founded the nonprofit organization Puentes which bridges the gap between farmers and their immigrant employees by sending them both to meet the employees’ families in Mexico. He says he’s never considered robotics because of his commitment to his human resources.

John Rosenow:
I like seeing — in Mexico, the different homes and stuff that they’ve built and they’ve educated their children. They’re getting healthcare, things that they weren’t able to get before. When I look at both sides, the business side and the humanitarian side, it leans real strongly to the human side of it.

Aditi Debnath:
Rosenow says the salesmen that have pitched him their technology are clever. They capitalize on old farmers he says and convince them that they’re out of touch.

John Rosenow:
A lot of times I’ve — when this first started, I would feel bad. Am I an old fuddy duddy? You question yourself.

Aditi Debnath:
Rosenow’s herd would require about eight automated milkers at about a half million dollars apiece as well as a new barn. He says modern farm equipment also requires more expensive and specialized labor to do the repairs.

John Rosenow:
Doesn’t matter if it’s new or old or whatever. It’s going to break.

Aditi Debnath:
And with the volatile nature of the dairy economy, he says old equipment that you can fix is better than new equipment you can’t, like this front-end loader.

John Rosenow:
It only cost us $25,000 40 years ago and if we bought one similar to that now, I’d be looking at $200,000 and then we wouldn’t be able to fix it. We’d have to have the dealer fix it.

Aditi Debnath:
Nicholson says that for the past nine months in particular, all dairy farmers have been losing money.

Chuck Nicholson:
The circumstances we’re in are really unusual right now.

Aditi Debnath:
That’s because for the first time in more than 20 years, the USDA is hearing proposals to amend the system that determines how milk is priced. Nicholson says the system, called the Federal Milk Marketing Orders, doesn’t have a mechanism to adapt to economic or technological changes over time.

Chuck Nicholson:
There is a lengthy and sometimes excruciating process to make that happen.

Aditi Debnath:
On Wisconsin farms, however, producers can’t afford to follow the lengthy discussions taking place in Washington.

Tina Hinchley:
We don’t know what we’re going to get. We have no idea with commodities that we are producing, we’re in a global scale. We don’t know what’s going on with China until it happens. We don’t know how much Brazil is producing. All of that affects our bottom line.

Aditi Debnath:
And so whether by machine or by hand, Wisconsin farmers press on milking their herds. For “Here & Now,” I’m Aditi Debnath.