TEAM MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
A family tradition, reimagined: Dieball Dairy’ s transition to robotic milking
By Austen Neaton
Staff Writer
For just over two decades, Mid-County Coop Board Member Jim Dieball has owned and operated Dieball Dairy LLC, a family-owned operation near Green Isle that milks about 240 cows.
Nearly 10 years ago, Dieball made a move that would redefine the daily rhythms of the farm established by his grandparents many years prior: he transitioned to robotic milking.
Driven by rising labor costs and the desire for a more hands-off operation, the change allowed Dieball Dairy to blend high-tech solutions with generations of farming tradition.
Dieball is the third generation to run Dieball Dairy. He’ s spent most of his life on the farm, working alongside his family to care for cows and crops. He now lives across the street from his family’ s farm with his wife Wendy – who manages the operation’ s books – while his parents remain in the original farmhouse built in the late 1950s.
The Dieballs have two daughters in college, Alyson and Shelby. The farm’ s fourth generation grew up helping out with milking and other chores, and they continue to pitch in when they return home.
Jim took over Dieball Dairy’ s day-to-day operations in the early 2000s after graduating from Ridgewater College in Willmar and returning home. Along with dairy, Dieball farms about 1,600 acres of corn and soybeans, using some for feed.
How the robots work
Robotic milking systems, also known as automatic milking systems( AMS), are automated systems that replace humans in the milking process. They utilize robotic arms that attach to cows’ teats, clean them, and milk them.
Farmers must still manage the systems and understand their capabilities while monitoring their cows’ behavior, feed intake, and health.
There are several leading manufacturers in the robotic milking industry, and among them is Lely, a Netherlands-based company that many consider to be a pioneer. It first brought robotic milkers to the market in 1995 with the debut of its Lely Astronaut system, which revolutionized the industry.
Dieball uses five Lely Astronaut A4s, a newer
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Mid-County Co-op Boardmember and Dieball Dairy owner Jim Dieball stands on the interface side of one of his farm’ s Lely Astronaut robotic milkers. The system keeps a database of information on every cow in his herd and provides detailed reports of each one’ s milk production and overall health. Dieball must keep regular tabs on these reports.
model with more features than previous iterations, to milk his cows. It uses a hybrid arm driven by electric and pneumatic components to attach milking cups to each teat.
The arm is guided by a three-layer laser detection system and a 3D camera that ensures each cow’ s comfort and precision milking.
The system keeps a database of each cow’ s teat position once they have been milked. Every cow wears a collar that the AMS uses to identify which one is in it.
The collars also track cow activity, and using this information and the data gathered during milking, the Astronaut can track a cow’ s milk quality, udder health, and other factors related to milk production and cow health.
This helps to identify health issues in cows early.
“ The collar tracks activity and rumination, and then when cows get milked the system tracks the temperature of the milk, so if the cows are off physically then it will alert us and give us a health report telling us she’ s not feeling good, or if they’ re in heat it will even tell us that it’ s time to breed them,” Dieball said.
Once cows enter the Astronaut, it dispenses a grain mix rationed specifically for them. Rationing is determined by a cow’ s milk production and lactation phase.
The grain is the incentive for the animals to enter the system’ s milking area, and Dieball said that cows eventually learn to do so on their own several times per day. The systems also handle everything from cleaning the teats to storing the milk in bulk tanks.
Once milking is complete, cows can easily exit the Astronaut. The robots milk cows around the clock.
Each robot features an intuitive user interface that provides easy access to the machine’ s functions, settings, information, and reports.
Robotic milking systems should be housed in free-stall parlors that encourage free cow traffic, which lets cows decide when they eat, drink, lie down, and are milked. Dieball said this improves cows’ well-being, maximizing milk production.
Dieball has three of his machines on one end of his parlor with the other two on the other end, which he said improves cow flow and reduces competition for the machines between higher and lower-ranking cows.
He uses sand for bedding in his parlor because it gives his cows a cool, comfortable spot to lay down.
“ It can be hard for equipment, but it’ s the best for cows – sand is the gold standard for cow comfort,” Dieball said.
Dieball Dairy typically offers tours of its facility; however, due to concerns over the avian flu, they have been put on hold.
To learn more about the family-owned operation or to see its robots in action, visit the farm’ s Facebook page.
More about the Lely Astronaut can be found at: www. lelyna. com.
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