Production dropped by as much as 5 kilos per cow on average per day after moving from two tie stall barns into a state-of-the-art facility.

But now production is up to an average 33 kgs per cow or more than 10,000 kgs per lactation for their 114 Holsteins. And that’s a farm record. "We’re very pleased with milk production," said Kevin Allen, one of four partners. "We gotta keep the banks happy."

John and Murray Allen, along with Murray’s two sons, Kevin and Kelley, are the four partners that make up Allensite Farms.

Kevin Allen is polite when talking about some of the headaches they had to overcome in the early days. "The first 6 months was a learning experience, lets put it that way."

In the early going, the Allens were getting a lot of incomplete milkings, as many as 15 cows in 24 hours. They quickly discovered that all the electronic equipment in the milking parlour was generating enough of a shock that some of cows would get knocked off the milker prematurely.

While the solution – a stray voltage metre – solved the problem, at $20,000 it didn’t come cheap. Allen said that because of all the computerization they had to get a state-of-the-art voltage metre.

They are milking about 70 cows using the two deLaval robotic milking machines. Each robot milks one cow at a time and except for three washings a day when the filter is changed, the machines run 24x7. Heifers are averaging 2.6 milkings per day while older cows are averaging slightly fewer milkings at 2.4 per day. The Allens were milking twice a day in their tie stall barns.

However, not all the cattle have adjusted to the new facility. Of these about 40 older heifers are still milked in the old tie stall barn. "We birth them in the tie stall, make sure the udder is okay and teats are in the right place so they don’t kick while milking," said Allen.

The Allens were dealing with high somatic cell counts before moving into the new facility last year but then they "skyrocketed" in the new barn, said Allen. The stray voltage metre and "a lot of culling" eliminated the problem. But it was a painful process. They had to ship some Very Good rated heifers. "Some genetics you would have liked to keep," said Allen.

In fact there were some cows with poorer genetics they kept because they adapted well to the robotic milkers. They have about 20 cows rated Very Good.

There were also problems with strawberry foot rot but that cleared up by hoof trimming twice a year and maintaining a foot bath on the way out of parlour.

The barn has turned out better than expected. "The only problems was when the temperature hit minus 40 C, then it got a little chilly," Allen jokes.

On the coldest days there were a few icicles on the robot caused by wind coming through the manure tunnel. Something that didn’t make Kelley Allen’s day. He’s the resident computer expert and watches the robotic milkers carefully. On those coldest of days a thin layer of ice would also build up behind the turkey curtains, but when the sun came out the balloons in the chimneys opened up to let heat escape.