Speaker 0 00:00:00 Uh, deal of Al we provide integrated solutions, including robotic milking equipment that is going to help the overall animal welfare or overall quality of life for the dairy producers on a global scale.
Speaker 1 00:00:15 Welcome everyone to the robot industry podcast. Welcome to our listeners in wealth TemPay Bakerville California and Farmington New York. I'm Jim burrata. And I'm your host. We're glad that you're here and thank you for subscribing. My guest today is VMs solution manager for dealer Val North America market. His name's Jason French. And we're going to talk about robotics and cows. So welcome to the bovine edition of the robot industry podcast. Jason is from Fergus Ontario, and is the robotic solution manager for dealer Valley North America. Dairy farming has been his life with growing up on a family dairy farm, attending the university wealth and agriculture and spending his work career involved in cattle, genetics, and how the milking equipment side of the business Jason's involvement with Deela. Val focuses on the marketing and strategic side of dairy farmers incorporating milking robotics and cow health sensors into their operations. Jason, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 0 00:01:15 Hey, certainly glad to be here. Thanks Jim. Hey,
Speaker 1 00:01:18 For a lot of people like myself, I'd like to just ask you a few general questions about, uh, about like four, one, one. Um, I'd like to ask you some words and maybe have you give our, uh, uh, our audience a bit of an explanation. Sure. So I have some words, what's a heifer.
Speaker 0 00:01:36 Yep. So I have for, you'd almost say it's a bit like a teenager, so you have a calf, which as a newborn, um, you know, a newborn baby cow, which some people say, and then a heifer is that she is now growing up and, you know, getting actually ready, uh, to become pregnant. And then once she has her first calf, then she becomes a cow and that's when she starts to produce milk. And
Speaker 1 00:01:59 How often do cows have offspring?
Speaker 0 00:02:02 The plan is every year. So 365 days is the perfect timing. So then she's in the best production, uh, life, uh, each year, you know, giving a great amount of milk, uh, for, uh, for the farm.
Speaker 1 00:02:16 And when do cows get milked in a traditional like non-automated farm?
Speaker 0 00:02:22 Yeah, so we have, um, you know, our, our staunch and barns and we have parlors and rotaries and generally they're twice a day. So five in the morning, five in the afternoon. They like to keep that 12 hour interval, but we also have a, you know, about 10 to 15% of farms doing three times a day, milking, you know, just to help, uh, utilize, get a little bit more production from the cow.
Speaker 1 00:02:47 And so in your lingo, what's a parlor.
Speaker 0 00:02:50 Yeah. So a parlor is a, the cows. Then they walk into an elevated milking system. So then the CA the, uh, farmer is what's there in the pit. So now the cows utter is that, uh, they're, um, you know, easier reach, uh, there at eye level, so they can attach the, uh, milking unit to, to them. And that's, this is just, uh, being a lot more efficiency because the cows are now coming up, uh, to the milking parlor instead of the farmer, uh, in some older traditional setups where they actually have to walk to each individual cow to milker. Uh, so this is a gained a lot of efficiencies over time.
Speaker 1 00:03:28 And what are some of the importance? And we talked about this in our pre-call the, what is some of the importance of having happy, healthy cows and how does automation help this?
Speaker 0 00:03:37 Yeah, and the big buzzword in the industry is cow comfort. How comfortable can we make this cow, uh, over her overall life? And it starts from, you know, as, as a baby calf to that heifer stage and now to a cow. So, you know, cow comfort involves, uh, where she lays, uh, where she eats, uh, the air, uh, the ventilation, uh, the light, uh, but then as well as how she is milked. And when you have people milking, uh, you know, you have to train each individual person on, you know, what the overall methods are going to be to get that cow milk from preparing her from, you know, washing the utter to attaching the milking unit and taking it off. And what robotics does is it brings consistency and, you know, you'll get that in any kind of in industry, if you and I, Jim were to go milk a cow, we might do it a little different. And so the robot now gives that consistency on how ships prepared when it attaches, when it detaches and then, you know, final, um, you know, preparation of the utter again, before, you know, she, she heads off, uh, out to lay down or eat. So consistency in the robotic aspect of things is what people are doing.
Speaker 1 00:04:52 So is milk produced by robots, better milk?
Speaker 0 00:04:57 No, I wouldn't say it's better in milk. Uh, you know, all milk that is harvested on any dairy farm around the world that comes to your table, you know, is, is safe, milk. You know, there's no antibiotics cause it gets tested, uh, thoroughly throughout the whole process to get the processing. But the, what it does in automated, uh, aspect is that we gain more data. So we're actually able to know a little bit more about the actual milk, you know, before it heads, you know, heads to processing as well. And, uh, you know, that's, I think some things that we'll talk about further on, but there's really no difference from the quality of milk coming from a robot, a pearler or
Speaker 1 00:05:36 So let's talk about robots and automation and milk production. So you mentioned to me that a lot of your robots are actually operated by hydraulics. Why is that
Speaker 0 00:05:46 The smoothness, the quietness of it, because in the robot, when that cow was walking in, you can just imagine that, you know, as well, we want to have a good experience for that. So hydraulic the arm that picks up the cups to attach to her for the milking process and in the cleaning process of the teats before she gets milked it, we want it to be quiet and smooth, just like a, you know, a human person, that human interaction. And, you know, this has certainly given us that ability to do that with our hydraulic arm, uh, plus it's, you know, easier to maintain, uh, as well, uh, over that, uh, you know, life of the robot.
Speaker 1 00:06:27 So is it a separate tool? Like we talk about end of arm tools all the time in the robotics industry. Uh, so is a milk tool separate from a teeth cleaning
Speaker 0 00:06:36 Yeah. In our, a robot. It is. So we have a separate line that comes and goes onto the teat and there's some warm water, um, and a solution to kind of clean that T to, to an air and the air forces that water around like a vortex actually to clean. And then that any of that water then goes to a separate, a vessel to a separate drain. And then it picks up the cups individually to the four teats. And, uh, then that milk is then goes into a larger vessel. So it's very safe environment, uh, for, for the milk, uh, to, uh, to then get to the final destination.
Speaker 1 00:07:13 And of course these are all clean, the same, same method all the time. So you got that consistency theme going again? Correct. So tell me a little bit about the kind of the process. So I'm a cow and how do you track the cows?
Speaker 0 00:07:27 So each cow has a RFID tag, uh, that is generally a used, um, because they are going to need that for identification anyways, in, in the barn. Uh, that's just, uh, you know, a ruling that's, um, uh, out there that you're supposed to track your cows and who they are. And this gives us the advantage of using the RFID technology that's already in the year to identify that cow. So when she walks into the robot, the reader reads it. And so they're going to give that individual experience, uh, to that cow. Um, you know, the a are the size of the, of, uh, the stall that she's in can be adjusted to the size of the cow. Uh, we know, uh, what kind of pulsation rate needs to be done for that cow to individually milk her out. And some other features that give that real individual aspect of the experience. So that's what the RFID tag does too, and then be able to track, you know, all the information, all the data that we're going to get from her as well.
Speaker 1 00:08:25 And w you also mentioned to me that there's a very sophisticated cameras that you're using. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:08:31 So, you know, the, the big thing is knowing where the teats are on the cow, you know, because that's what we need to attach the cups to, you know, to harvest that milk. So we've just graduated from a laser system, uh, to now a time of flight, a 3d camera. And, uh, the great advantage to this, uh, technology is now we don't have to actually train the robot where the teats are on the cow. Uh, the time of flight camera does that on its own. And this is certainly, uh, you know, shown a lot more efficiency because that robot arm, it can go rate, uh, to the teeth. And, um, you know, the overall time saving you think if you have a couple of hundred cows and you don't have to teach the robot where the teats are on that cow, you know, that saved us some really a time as well, which is great on the labor aspect of things.
Speaker 1 00:09:22 So you mentioned the word data a couple of times, and of course, this is something that is as a game changer for some farmers out there. Can you tell the audience how data is changing the game?
Speaker 0 00:09:34 Certainly, you know, you, if you don't measure it, you can't manage it. And that's a big thing in our industry, you know, from what's happening out in the fields, right into the barn as well. So, you know, before, in old times, you know, you used to be able to milk that cow. You're very happy that, you know, we got her milked out, not sure how much she gave that. Sure. How really well she got milked out, but now we, you know, we can sense, uh, with our overall sensors and our meters is that we know how much milk she's giving from each individual quarter, how are milk flow, how quickly it kind of came out of her as well. And then we have other data, you know, as well, as far as the quality, we can do some quality of milk aspects of things. And that's just on the milking side.
Speaker 0 00:10:23 The other aspect of it is now we can take a sample of the milk from that milking and do further tests with it. So we can test for what's called, um, on our online cell counter, the somatic cell count of the, of the milk. So that's really the actual overall quality of the milk. Uh, we can also detect some great cow health aspects, which is, we can see if she's pregnant. We can see if she's going to be coming into estrus to them breed, uh, because reproduction is a large thing on the farm. Like I said, these farmers want these cows to calve every year. And so to get the right timing, to get her bred is very important. And then more and more factors over time on how we can analyze how healthy she is based on, you know, that, that sample of milk. So that data has been, you know, extremely important to have, you know, the overall, like I said, cow comfort of the cow that her overall welfare, you know, but the overall efficiencies of the farm, which is pretty important in these a multimillion dollar operations.
Speaker 1 00:11:26 So the cow as well, uh, can decide it wants to be milked more than twice a day, so he can come in as much as it wants. Is that correct?
Speaker 0 00:11:34 So we have, what's called milking permissions on the robot. And so she can walk into that robot and get milked. And then, because when they're in the robot, we give them, um, a special treats, which is a high energy pellet that they wouldn't normally get because their main diet is at the feed bunk, which is generally a hay or corn silo based diet. But they like that a little bit extra Angie, we call it the candy. So she's going to come in there to kind of get that candy, plus a little relief, of course, from the amount of milk that she's got in her utter, however, she circles back and comes into that robot. One hour later, it doesn't make sense for us to milk her. Again, she's not going to have enough milk, uh, to, to do that, uh, process. So we say, Hey, open the gate, thanks for coming. But you know, we're not going to milk you. We're not going to give you any treats. And so based on her stage lactation, the amount of milk she's given, then that'll determine how many times she's going to get milked in a day. Some cows will get milked up to five times a day, and some cows down to two times a day based on their overall production. So we really manage the overall efficiency of the robot, but what are we what's really good for the cow as well.
Speaker 1 00:12:46 And of course, you're collecting all this data and reporting it back to the farmers or the operators of a farm.
Speaker 0 00:12:51 So we have our Dell pro software systems, so they can build different reports based on their goals. Their criteria is on how they want to manage their firm. And that becomes very valuable. You know, we have it in a handheld systems, so they're out in the barn, but that system as well, you know, they could be in the house on vacation, you know, wherever, and they can have all the access. They know exactly what cows coming into the robot, uh, how she's performing and then the data that she's given.
Speaker 1 00:13:21 And so how overall do you look at the efficacy of milk production with robots? Like we, one of the big challenges that we're having in North America is where we were having a hard time attracting skilled talent into manufacturing jobs. And I assume the same goes true with farm.
Speaker 0 00:13:38 Oh, for sure. As far as overall labor, that's a big reason why farmers are getting into robots back in, in late 1990s, 2000 when robots were introduced, it was really for the family farm because, you know, they didn't want to, um, hire any additional labor. And so, you know, robots, you know, gave them that now firms are certainly increasing. And once again, it's back to the overall labor aspect of things as well. So if they do have people on the farm, they certainly want them skilled enough to be able to operate the robots. You know, so there's no real kind of breakdowns. And, um, you know, the cows are going to get milked on a, on a regular basis, as far as like efficiency of robots. Farmers are looking at the amount of, uh, kilos pounds that, that robot is harvesting. You know, those, those sort of goals are usually what people do
Speaker 1 00:14:29 Or trying to meet. So where are these systems being used? Well,
Speaker 0 00:14:34 It's around the world for sure. Uh, here in North America, Canada actually has been a leading country in the world for, for robotics. Our first robots came in 2000 and, uh, you know, we've got some of those early robots. They're just kind of finishing their career. You know, they're at that 18, 18 years old, it's amazing. Uh, we had one farm in Quebec that, uh, uh, harvested over a million kilos of milk, which is unbelievable. And now they're onto the Newt and do the new brand, but they, they are certainly in the U S as well, um, in, in that area. So w in Canada, we're coast to coast, uh, we're actually just starting up a new farm in Newfoundland, uh, this week. And then we have farms across the U S and we're starting them up in enlarge this, uh, dairy States like Texas, California. So there's certainly recognized do I rate across North America
Speaker 1 00:15:29 And globally as well? And what's the size of these, like how many robots would an, I know there's no such thing as an average, but how many robots would a average farmhouse?
Speaker 0 00:15:38 Our average sales are three robots. And so just think that usually about 60 to 70 cows per robot is how much that robot can handle as far as, you know, probably getting them, um, amount of time that Cal comes into the robot during a day. So, you know, that 200 cow farm they'll generally have three, uh, three robots, but, you know, we've got, you know, certainly single robot farms and we're growing in the large herd aspect of things. Uh, we're, we're at a farm in South Dakota. Now that's gearing up to get to their 20th robot. They've got 14 going. Now we have another firm that's gearing up to go to 54 robots. So it certainly takes a lot of different kinds of management, um, you know, and how that overall those facilities are set up as well. But we certainly see when the large herd aspect of thing, you know, they don't want to be hiring additional labor, or it's hard to get labor as well. So they're looking at the robotic side to save on the labor on the farm.
Speaker 1 00:16:38 And I assume too, that, uh, you've got remote diagnostics. You can dial into somebody's, uh, robot to see what's going on if they are having a problem.
Speaker 0 00:16:47 Certainly. So our overall dealership, uh, network, uh, that we have managing different areas across North America, their technicians, yes, they are able to remotely go into that firm and, you know, see if there is any issues, but if there is one, they can certainly diagnostic testing, you know, be able to help there. So about 90% of the time, if there is a, uh, an issue, the farmer calls, uh, to say that there is one, they can solve it right over the farm by coaching the farmer, you know, to, to change some settings or something else to kind of get it back in business. And that's a really key aspect for their overall comfort level of the operator to know that they've got somebody helping
Speaker 1 00:17:31 Put them out in that way. And what is the return on investment for an average automation system for a farm?
Speaker 0 00:17:37 It really depends on the overall management of the firm and how much milk they're going to be getting, because certainly for every, uh, you know, leader pound of milk that they're going to harvest. So their robot that's, you know, so they're going to obviously get paid for it. So, you know, for that farm that is able to get a lot of milk harvested over that robot. Their ROI is certainly shorter. The guy that doesn't get as much milk, it's going to be a little longer, but in the banking industry, they're looking at about a seven year, you know, um, ROI, uh, when it comes to, uh, you know, lending money, uh, on, on robots.
Speaker 1 00:18:13 And do you have any customer stories that you can tell our audience about?
Speaker 0 00:18:16 Well, Hey, we, we've got a lot of, you know, great, great dairy farmers across North America, but, you know, for me, you know, it's the ones that it's really kind of changed their lifestyle. Cause you know, certainly dairy farming is, is a lot of hard work just guys. Cause I said, physically, they're up at 5:00 AM or earlier to kind of get those cows milked and again at night and some later evenings to, and that sort of thing. But I was at a firm the other day and it's a family like a husband and wife, couple of young kids. And I said to him, you know, what was your life before? And you know, up early rush, rush Ross, hopefully nothing goes wrong. So I could help get the kids off to school. I said, so what's your, what's your routine now? And this was back in the summertime.
Speaker 0 00:18:59 He says, well, I get up about an hour later. I jump in the pool to kind of get refreshed. And then I walked to the barn, put on some coffee, see what the robots are doing, what cows I need to maybe look after. And then I start my day with my kids and it's just that much more relaxing, takes a little bit of, uh, some burden off. And, and I think that's kind of the fun aspect to see, you know, there's some lifestyle changes with these farmers, but you know, they, they go through a lot to look after these cows, if we can kind of help them in, uh, in that aspect of things to be really efficient and that they enjoy their overall career, then, you know, that's, that's what we really like to see.
Speaker 1 00:19:38 And one thing I think I forgot to mention or ask is you could now, like you're a cow, you can go in at two in the morning and get milk because you're, self-regulating
Speaker 0 00:19:47 For sure. You know, we track for, uh, you know, overall, uh, movement of the cows. And what I was told at one time is, um, robot cows, um, are like teenagers. They have a lot of activity at night, but they don't do a whole lot first thing in the morning. And, and that's very true. We see cows moving a lot at midnight, two in the morning, but when you walk in the barn at six, they're all laying down with their head to their side asleep. So yeah, it's a, it's a pretty interesting to see cow behavior, uh, in these robotic facilities because, you know, they have, you know, the ability to move around the barn, lay down, eat, get milked at their own routine.
Speaker 1 00:20:27 So we're taping this in April, uh, 2021. And we're in the tail end of hopefully the pandemic. How do you sell robots in the middle of a pandemic? Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:20:37 Great question. And you know, when that, uh, when that day came, we were like, okay, we need to change our focus a little bit and farmers that want to get into love to go to other firms to see what their overall experiences are. So, you know, a deal of Val, we've done a lot of work with virtual tours. So we have a three-sixty virtual to our barns, just like if you're on a real estate site and you wanted to look around into a house, it's the same thing we have that for burns. And does, you know, so we've done a lot better job in that overall communication. And if there is some visits to the farm, of course, it's in a, in a safe way as well, uh, to, uh, to get the information to them. And then also when it comes to the overall, uh, installation as well. So yep. Our dealership network have had some challenges, but they've done a really good job on a safe manner for both them and the farm as well.
Speaker 2 00:21:29 Jason, have I forgotten anything that you might want to mention on the podcast?
Speaker 0 00:21:33 Well, I think we've kind of done a lot, you know, on the overall Cal, you know, welfare aspect of things and, and how robotics can come to the farm. But, you know, certainly that aspect of the more robots that are out there in the dairy industry, that means that we need more people and more technicians, um, to look after them. And so, you know, that's something you, if anybody's listening to this podcast that is, you know, looking for maybe a different, uh, Avenue in the robotic side of things, dairy farming is extremely interesting because you're not only working, you know, with a robotic system, but, you know, you've got a cow that's going to be using it, who, you know, uh, is, is certainly a special animal, uh, to us to make sure that she's being treated right. So there's a lot of great local opportunity on the technical side. Uh, there's some, you know, North American aspect, uh, as well, cause we have our own deal of El technicians. Plus we have our own technicians that are our head office in Sweden. That's where <inaudible> level is based out of, uh, for work as well. So tremendous opportunity if you want to get into the technical side of robots and do it in the, uh, in a, in a food industry, which is kind of
Speaker 2 00:22:45 Cool too. Well, thank you very much for coming onto the podcast. How can people get ahold of you?
Speaker 0 00:22:51 Probably the best way for personally, myself is an email Jason dot French at <inaudible> dot com where you can certainly visit our website deal of l.com as well. For more information about what we're doing in robotics, uh, to a dealer bell.
Speaker 2 00:23:06 Our sponsor for this episode is Earhart automation systems, Earhart builds and commissions, turnkey automation solutions for their clients worldwide. With over 80 years of precision manufacturing, they understand the complex world of robotics, automated manufacturing, and project management, delivering world-class custom automation on time and on budget contact one of their sales engineers to see what Earhart can build for you and
[email protected] and Earhart is E H R H a R D T. I'd like to thank and acknowledge our partner 83, the association for advancing automation. The eighty-three is the umbrella association for the RIA AIA MCMA and 83 Mexico. And these associations combined represent over 1100 automation manufacturers, components, suppliers, systems, integrators, end users, research groups, and consulting firms throughout the world that are driving automation forward. I'd also like to thank our partner painted robot painted robot builds and integrates digital solutions. They're a web development firm that offers SEO and digital social marketing and can set up and connect CRM and other ERP tools to unify marketing sales and operations. And you can find
[email protected]. And if you'd like to get in touch with us at the robot industry podcast, you could find me Jim Beretta on LinkedIn. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening. Be safe out there. Today's podcast was produced by customer attraction, industrial marketing, and I would like to thank my nephew, Chris gray for the music, Chris Holden for audio production, my partner, Janet, and our partners, a three painted robot and our sponsor Earhart automation systems.
