North Dakota's First Robotic Dairy - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

North Dakota's First Robotic Dairy

Forget the days of milking by hand and old fashioned machines.
Robots are now doing the work.
Ag Reporter Sarah Gustin takes you inside the barn to show you how this new way of milking.

Things aren't the way they used to be.
Robot arms and lasers now take the place of a farmer's hands.
(Harvey and Janal Hoff / Dairy Producers) "It's not something I ever thought I would have or do, until I saw it. It took me 15 minutes on the first tour, at the first stop and I knew I loved it."
Harvey and Janal Hoff have milked cows south of Richardton all their lives.
This April the couple decided they have spent enough hours in the barn and it was time to start enjoying life.
(Harvey and Janal Hoff / Dairy Producers) "Just getting tired. We wanted to do this, but at a level that we can do it and continue to do it. Quality of life. you put a price tag on life. Being able to do things with your kids. We have missed so many sporting events or suppers. We've actually went to more sporting events in 3 months than we did in 30 years."
Not only is this high tech way of milking better for the producer, but also for cows.
(Harvey and Janal Hoff / Dairy Producers) "It's much healthier for the cow, she is milked 3-4 up to 5 times a day so her udder health is so much better because she is not waiting for us. She can go in when she wants to."
(Sarah Gustin / sgustin@kxnet.com) "Things are so advanced, that it can even tell you the cow name, her number, how much milk she is producing and it calculates her weight as she is eating the grain and the milk is coming out."
(Harvey and Janal Hoff / Dairy Producers) "It does everything when the cows comes in, it id's her, it decides if it's her turn to be milked or not. If it's her turn the process starts the brushes go in, it udder preps her, milks her and post dips her, when she is ready to leave. It's just approximately 8 minutes start to finish. Done. Next cow steps in."
Hoff says it's been a bit of a learning curve, but so far there's no regrets of leaving this...for this.
(Harvey and Janal Hoff / Dairy Producers) "It took about 14 days for the cow and we are still trying to get used to it. It's harder for us."

Hoff says if there are any problems, the machines will call Harvey and Janal's cell phones to alert them.
He says if the problem is something they can't fix, there's also a 24 hour tech support team they can call.