6 minute read
Investing in the Next Generation
WITH FUTURE FARMERS IN MIND, THE HEPLERS INSTALL A ROBOTIC MILKING SYSTEM
Story and photos by Michelle Kunjappu
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Not too long ago, the Hepler family was at a crossroads: sell the cows and continue with chickens and raising Holstein beef, or transition away from the tie stall barn, install robotic milkers, and continue the dairy farming that has been a part of their family for generations.
The cows stayed.
“Alot of the reason that we adopted this technology is so we could pass it on to the seventh and eighth generation,” says Larry Hepler, sixth generation family farmer. Taking into consideration the interest from son-in-law Dalton and grandson Reese, Larry and his wife, Debbie, chose to make the investment in the Pitman, Pennsylvania farm and move ahead with an entirely new milking system.
“You have to have the vision that you need to invest to move forward,” says Debbie. “It’s the vision and the understanding that this is how farming works — that you always have to keep moving forward.
“Larry doesn’t mind moving ahead and investing in the farm,” she adds. “It took me a while to see that, since my goal was no debt, but I’ve thought about it and see that we have to move forward.”
The newly-installed robotic milking system, which went online around the end of March this year, makes dairying less labor intensive and offers an alternative to the constant milking schedule, allowing the family more flexibility.
“We expect it to get a whole lot better,” says Larry, noting that their herd of Holsteins came out of a tie stall barn and are working on the learning curve of adjusting to not only moving around more, but heading over to the holding pen where a robotic arm takes care of the milking on a continual basis.
Currently, the family is working together to farm 280 acres, milk 80 head, raise their own replacements, and feed out the steer calves until market weight. Three broiler chicken houses gives additional diversity to the farm.
Larry and Dalton work on the farm full-time, along with full-time employee Sam Scheib.
Debbie, who handles all of the farm’s bookwork, is “busier than ever” with the new glut of information flowing in from the robotic system, which not only milks the cows, but also receives and synthesizes an enormous amount of information from each cow, transferred to the software from a tag in each cow’s ear.
“It has been exciting to walk through and be a part of this opportunity with the Hepler family,” shares Austin Benner, Farm Credit loan officer.
“They are willing to invest in new technology, grow their business, and include the next generation in the transition from a barn built almost 40 years ago to the state-of-the-art facility they have today,” says Austin. “I believe that commitment to moving forward showcases the traits, along with a strong business plan, that make them a great family to embrace technology to remain competitive in an ever-changing industry.”
The Hepler farm has seen its share of change and transition over the years. In 1795, Larry’s forbearers got a land grant reward in gratitude for their services in the Revolutionary War.
Growing up on the dairy farm passed down through the generations, Larry remembers milking cows in a bucket and carrying it out to dump it in the top of a milk tank. Later, he recalls, they dumped the milk in a dumping station, which was carried out through a hose to the milk house. In 1984, he built 60 tie stalls and installed a pipeline.
After he purchased the farm in 1986 from his father, Larry grew the herd over the years, “finding a way to milk more cows” by building a free stall barn under the feed room and switching somewhere between 10-22 cows in and out at milking time.
“Until I knew I had someone who was interested in continuing to milk cows, I would have probably sold the cows and taken care of chickens,” he says.
With support from Debbie and interest from upcoming generations, however, Larry decided to invest in a robotic milking system. He had participated in several county Holstein club tours, had seen a robotic milking system, and been impressed. “When I saw it, I thought, ‘this is the wave of the future’.”
Dalton, who worked on a potato farm growing up, began assisting at the Hepler dairy farm during summers while he was in college, where he studied welding engineering. The summers spent helping at the farm gave him enough experience to be on board with the expansion - and his part in it. With a variety of systems and manufacturers vying for their attention, it was up to Dalton to help sort them out. “Larry made me go see them all,” says Dalton. This assignment included three trips to Canada to see robotic milkers there, several on-farm tours, and a 30cow demonstration at a large fair.
Now that they have installed the system, they can work on utilizing it more effectively as they learn the ins and outs of the system. “We’re so new at this that we’re going to try a lot of things yet,” says Larry. “If we throw the batter against the wall and it sticks, we’re going to keep throwing the batter. That’s probably a never-ending process.”
The software is so thorough, Dalton shares, that the system can “test conductivity of the milk and the color of the milk and rate it, then every day my computer sends me a reminder of what I should look at.” He adds that the information gathered from the software’s herd summaries “helped me with a cow whose conductivity numbers were high, found that she was getting mastitis, and I caught it early enough that I had it cleared up in three days”.
Another aspect of the increased information available to him now is that with all the information generated on each cow, the program was able to make a baseline for her and offer reminders on when to check her for heat, for example. “It’s like 1,000 eyes looking at every cow all at once,” he says, to the point of being “almost information overload” according to Larry.
Technology has much to offer in the animal comfort area also, as newly-purchased cow brushes have become a favorite of the herd. And tunnel ventilation has increased cow comfort and overall health, they believe. The performance of the tunnel ventilation system in the chicken barns convinced them that it was beneficial and could drop the temperature appreciably, so they copied that ventilation system for the new dairy barn. Installing this new system is just a part of how the Hepler family keeps adjusting to the new applied science that keeps agriculture moving forward. As they hope to expand to 150 cows, possibly adding in Jerseys for components, they also are looking at renovating the old tie stall barn to include a robotic calf feeder for the calves.
With a goal of passing on a legacy of not only healthy and productive animals but also land, the Heplers have instituted numerous conservation practices such as no-till, riparian buffers, and a nutrient management plan — different things to improve the water quality. “If we don’t take good care of the land, they won’t have good land for the future,” says Larry.
“I’d like to see it go for 12 generations — I won’t be around for that but I hope it keeps going,” he adds. “I've enjoyed farming all my life and I hope they do too.”
