When Mark Beer returned home after working a full-time job off the farm, he knew he wanted to get into dairy farming. However, he also knew he didn’t want to spend his time in the parlor.
“That was not my interest,” he says. “My brother had looked into robots a year or two before that. He and I had talked about it. We sent my dad to visit some farms in Wisconsin because he was probably the most skeptical when we started. After visiting those farms, he came back and said I think they will work, and we move forward with the project.”
The Beer family farm, Beer’s Robo Holsteins Dairy Farm near Mascoutah, Ill., was established in 1966, and is operated by Marvin Beer, his wife, Maria, their two sons, Marvin Dean and Mark Beer, daughter-in-law, Sara, and grandchildren Wyatt, Avery and Luke.
“My grandparents started in 1966 with a double-two parlor,” Mark says.
The parlor was updated in 1980 to a double-six herringbone and in 2011 the Beer family was one of the first in the state to milk robotically. Today, the family milks between 200 and 220 cows with four Lely A3 robots.
“We learned a lot about how to do robotic milking when we started,” Mark says. “It was a pretty big learning curve, but now we’re pretty comfortable with everything.”
The Beer farm was recently featured during the Dairy Tech Tour organization by the Illinois Milk Producers Association (IMPA) and the University of Illinois Extension earlier this month.
Changed Mindset
Mark shares both the positives and negatives of robotic milking and openly says that milking robotically isn’t for everyone.
“You have to change your mindset a little bit about cows and it’s a lot different than a parlor and you have to do more,” he says. “You get more flexibility, but there’s still a lot of work here. You still spend a lot of time with the cows, you just don’t spend it in the parlor.”
Milk Per Cow
The Beer family focuses on capitalizing milk production. Currently, they are milking approximately 50 cows per robot. Mark says he would like to keep the production on the high side and not milk as many cows. His Holsteins have responded well and have jumped from their 75 lb. average to now over 90 lbs. with a 3.9% and 3.0%, protein and fat level, respectively.
“We have some room for more cows, but our production right now is running at 90 lbs. per cow and this past winter we were between 95 and 100 lbs.,” Mark says.
Rollercoaster Ride
Mark openly admits the last few years have been a rollercoaster ride to be in the dairy business.
“It’s more fun milking cows this year than the past couple of years,” he says. “But you know, in the dairy industry, you kind of become accustomed to that and you know there’s going to be swings and you should plan the best you can.”
The Beer family remains optimistic, as this year they have had a good stretch of weather, high milk prices and cows who milk well.
No Regrets
The Beer family has no regrets about going the robot route more than a decade ago and advises other producers who are looking into it to realize that they’ll have to make some adjustments to how they milk cows.
“You need a good nutritionist. The feed ration is different because you’re separating out the TMR from a pellet,” Mark says.
He shares that the best part is the freedom with your time.
“You got a lot more flexibility with your time,” Mark says. “You can make it to more of your kid’s games and activities.”
The Beer family does admit that it was stressful making the transition to robots from a conventional milking parlor.
“There was not a lot of information about robots at that time,” Mark says. “When you first look at robots, it seems complicated. But the longer you’re around them, the simpler it gets.”
Marvin also agrees with Mark, stating that he would not go back to a traditional milking system after implementing the robotic milkers on his farm.
“You still need to be there to manage, but it’s just a different way of life,” Marvin says. “Everything in this complex was designed to make the cows happy and comfortable.”
