Matthew and Kerri Howrigan have always put cow comfort as one of their top priorities on their Vermont dairy farm. They credit new technology with pushing their operation to be more profitable, but also helping them ensure cows are well cared for.
Black Creek Farm, located in Fairfield, Vt., was previously run by Mathew’s father, Tom, and his four sons, with Mathew being the oldest. In 1999, the farm consolidated a few tie-stall locations into one new freestall barn with a conventional parlor, which served the family for 20-plus years.
By 2021, Matthew was the only brother still working on the farm and took over the day-to-day management. After weighing many options, the family decided to move forward with 6 GEA robotic milking machines in December 2021.
Mathew says that the robots have been the biggest component to help them transition into a new barn.
“We also added an automatic feed pusher, which ensures we always have feed available for the cows,” he says.
The Howrigan’s say that they had two big factors that drove them to move forward with the installation of this new technology.
“Being a family farm, we wanted to entice at least one of our sons to continue farming,” Keri says. “We recognize that times have changed since Matthew was a teenager. Technology is everything to this generation right now. Making dairy farming a little less manual work and more at the push of a button is something much more appealing to our sons.”
The Vermont dairy family also kept cow care and cow comfort in mind and says that the technology helps them meet these goals.
“Cows being milked when their body tells them to milk is much healthier than milking them when we tell them to be milked. The sensors detecting SCC in each quarter warns us of any possible infection,” Mathew says. “That, coupled with the collars which monitor cow movement, temperature, and rumination, help us to constantly track the health of each of our animals. The data available to us thanks to this new technology is amazing and so helpful. It allows us to make informed decisions regarding our cows and operation.”
When looking to the future for their farm and family, the Howrigan’s smile wide. They have no regrets about the decision to move forward to incorporate technology that has allowed them to help meet their herd goals, as well as their family’s goals, too.
