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Technological dairy marvel opens doors to public
Darryl Coote
Reporter
In nearly 30 years of mar-
riage Sandra and Geoff Far-
rell who own a dairy farm in
Huron -Kinloss off highway
21 had never gone out for
dinner.
"Expect for our anniver-
sary," Sandra said as an
amendment to her state-
ment, "if we made it out for
our anniversary because
seven o'clock we have to be
in our barn milking cows."
The cows always came
first, Sandra said, and since
cows are creatures of habit
the Farrell's schedule
revolved around their
livestock.
"So we were in here at
seven in the morning and
seven at night seven days a
week every day of the year,"
she said.
That was until the end of
last summer when Sadie
came into their life.
Sadie is a robot. And not
just any robot, but a quarter -
million -dollar Astronaut A4
robot manufactured by Lely
to milk cows 24 hours a day,
seven days a week.
Christened Sadie by San-
dra, the robot is a major part
of the high-tech retrofitting
of their barn, which had
been essentially unchanged
since its erection over a cen-
tury and a half ago.
However, about three
years ago, Sandra and Geoff,
who are the fifth Farrell gen-
eration to work the farm,
noticed their barn needed
major repairs, but instead of
just continuing with the old
ways of dairy farming, they
decided or take a bold step
into the future.
Opening on Aug. 24, 2015,
the barn is now a compost
pack facility, Sandra said on
March 17, the day she
opened her facility up to the
public to see the technologi-
cal advancements they have
implemented.
Over 100 people and sev-
eral of the dozen or so
companies involved in the
retrofitting of the barn
attended the open house to
look on this 16,000 -square -
foot environment -controlled
pasture that can hold up to
100 cows.
The ground of this pasture,
Sandra said, is a mixture of
sawdust and manure about a
foot deep that organically
stays at 120 degrees fahren-
heit, which kills bacteria.
As an indoor facility, its
climate is controlled by large
ceiling fans and curtains that
shield the cows on three
sides of the pasteur from the
sun.
"So the curtains, the fans
and chimney baffles and the
sprinklers are all connected
to a weather station that
monitors the weather and
the environment and
changes the speed of the
fans and the height of the
curtains and all that to keep
it climate control," Sandra
said.
It isn't just a barn, it's a
pasture living system, she
said.
The cows, she said, are
independent. When they
want to eat, they eat. When
they want to sleep, they lie
where they like. And when
they want to be milk, well,
that's where Sadie comes in.
Sadie is a large stationary
robot at one end of the barn.
When a cow wishes to be
milked it moseys its way over
to Sadie, which then reads
an identification collar
around the animal's neck.
"So when she goes into the
robot it reads [a black box on
the collar] and it knows this
is Lilly, and Lilly milked an
hour ago so I wont milk her
now. So it'll let her back out.
It just opens the front door
and she leaves again. If it's
been five hours since she
milked, it'll milk her," Sandra
said.
Sadie knows how much
milk the cow usually yields
and how much time the
milking will take. And it
knows this for each of the 70
Darryl Coote/Reporter
Sandra Farrell pets one of her 70 cows that roams her newly installed compost pack indoor facility that she says allows for her
livestock to live healthier, happier lives.
cows that Sandra currently
has on her farm.
"It milks 24 hours a day so
there's almost always some-
body in there. And the cows
will line up and wait for it.
They'll be four or five waiting
up there to get in," she said.
This advancement alone
saves them several hours of
their day not only milking
the cows but wrangling them
into formation, as not all
enjoy being milked.
Now, however, cows that
previously were reticence to
the practice willing enter
Sadie.
The robot also knows the
physical dimensions of
each cow. Some cows, San-
dra explained, have low -
hanging udders or are
wider than others, and
Sadie knows this and
adjusts accordingly.
When it milks the cows,
Sandra continued, it first
takes a 10 CC sample and
tests it for quality and if there
are any irregularities, such as
bacteria or high white blood
cells that indicate infection,
Sandra is alerted.
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