Cheese. Cows. Wows!

La Ferme A. St-Hilaire SENC à St-Odilon-de-Cranbourne, au Québec, préparait le virage robotisé de sa production laitière depuis plus de 6 ans avant que son projet se concrétise en décembre 2018. Une décision réfléchie pour assurer l'avenir de la ferme et stimuler la relève, déjà bien établie. Audrée St-Hilaire, copropriétaire de la ferme, se joint à Guillaume Peeters pour parler de démarrage et d'automatisation.

As we enter the spring of 2020, the world finds itself in a very unique place. Many businesses have closed their doors and are finding new ways to work during the COVID-19 situation. Lely continues to keep working, learning and serving our Lely Centers and dairy producers to allow farming to keep moving forward. Our Lely Centers' Farm Management Support (FMS) and Technical Service Support (TSS) staff continue to support farms online and remotely all across North America even during this uncertain time. Bellana Putz is joined by Daan Stehouwer of Lely North America and Dave Mealy of Lely Center Leedstone to share more about the partnership between Lely corporate and Lely Centers, and how they interact with farmers.

Dan and Debbie's Creamery was the recipient of the Way to Dairy Award, and is currently in the midst of construction for their new facility. Their Lely Vector automatic feeding system and Lely Astronaut robotic milking system recently arrived on the farm, and the Takes family is very excited for start-up to begin. This week we are joined by Josie Rozum who will share her family's story, and how Lely dairy robotics fit into their dairy's future.

Heglar Creek Dairy in Cassia County, Idaho added Lely robots to their operations less than a year ago. Fast-forward to today and their cows are average 175 – 200 lbs. of milk production per day. This week we are joined by herd manager Austin Hyde and we discuss Lely Super Cows and how the operations have changed since adding Lely robots.

The Harrison family of Sweetwater Valley Farm are 5th generation farmers with over 200 years of farming. They currently have 2,000 dairy cows which makes Sweetwater Valley Tennessee's first Lely Dairy XL farm. The Harrison family use about 10% of the milk produced to make cheese which you can watch being made and sample on the farm. Listen as Mary Lyndal tells us about her family's farm, the agri-tourism business and using Lely robots for ultimate cow comfort.

Liners play a pivotal role in milk harvest because they are the only product that actually touches the cow during the milking process. With so many different options on the market, producers may have a hard time determining the proper liner for their herd. Kaden Schvaneveldt, Lely's Aftermarket Field Specialist, joins host Bellana Putz to reveal the many different liners offered by Lely, the benefits of each and what producers should consider when choosing a liner for their robot.

Discovering the true wants and needs of cows has allowed producers and robots to increase production and maximize herd potential. Listen along as Lely North America Milking Technologies Manager Paul Peetz joins host Bellana Putz to discuss perfecting the milking technique with automation and its impact on animal welfare.

As a lot of dairies look to expand their herd to remain sustainable, Twin Brook Creamery chose a different route. In 2006 when Larry Stap's daughter and son-in-law wanted to join the family dairy operation, they considered growing their herd to 1,000 milking cows. Instead, they opted to open a creamery and add value to their raw commodity with the help of robots. Listen as Larry joins us to discuss how robotics changed their dairy operation, marketing techniques for their creamery and more.

In the third installment of our June Dairy Month where we feature one family dairy each week who is producing and selling dairy products from the milk harvested from their cows, host Bellana Putz is joined by Troy Westendorp of MOO-ville Dairy. Listen along as they discuss the factors that played into their decision to open a creamery, such as kids interested in coming back to farm and the ability to control prices more consistently.

The den Haan family has cows on their farm with pedigrees they can trace back 20 generations. Because they have this type of data and can track the cows all the way through the bottling process, they chose to exclusively use A2 genetics in their herd, and one year ago, Sheldon Creek Dairy was the first dairy to bring A2 milk to Canada.