By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

PLAIN CITY, Ohio — No pun intended, but the Gruenbaum family of Plain City like things in life plain and simple. So when they needed to replace their 25 year-old milking parlor they wanted to upgrade in a big way and wanted to make their life simpler.

“We were considering selling the herd,” David Gruenbaum said. “Then I spotted a self-milking machine on the Internet and decided to give it a try.”

The rest is history. The Gruenbaum farm is the first in the state to install robotic milking machines that allow cows to be milked whenever they want without a human hand involved.

“At first we had to push the cows into the stalls to be milked, but within a couple of weeks about 90 percent learned to enter on their own,” he said.

Kenneth Gruenbaum, 66, grew up on this 144 year-old farm milking cows by hand. His 40 year-old son, David, is ecstatic about the robotic installation, saying they will pay for themselves within five years because of reduced labor costs and increased milk production.

In early November, the Gruenbaums installed two robotic units, each at a price of $200,000. The units are manufactured by Lely Group in the Netherlands.

Now things are plain and simple on this Plain City farm. Cows enter the stall, being lured by food. The machine’s robotically controlled arm positions itself beneath the udder. Small brushes clean the cow teats with disinfectant. Four tubes, called cups, swing out and one attaches itself to each teat with the help from a laser scanning device.

The milk flows through a system of pipes into a large container. The cups disengage when the udder is empty and the cow exits the stall. Each milking lasts about six minutes.

According to Gruenbaum, the machines not only save time and the back-breaking work, but they make for a healthier herd.

Sensors monitor each cow, recording the animal’s weight, milk quality and output. It also records how often each cow is milked. And since the cows are milked more often than usual, they have had no cases of serious mastitis, or inflammation of the udder.
Roughly 200 Lely robotic milking machines will be installed in the U.S. by the end of the year. Illinois installed the first in that state four weeks ago.

There are 15,000 such machines in operation worldwide. The machines were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration eight years ago.

It is unknown how many of the 3,300 dairy farms in Ohio might opt for this new technology. The Gruenbaums are just happy they have one on their premise.

“We’re thrilled to have them here, they save us a lot of time and free us to do other work here on this farm,” David said.