Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 61F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph..

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 61F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph.

Jill Coleman places milk donated by Clark Farms into a cooler as Dairy Ambassador Jessica Coleman, far left, Junior Dairy Ambassadors Laney Mondore, Delaney McCann and Angela Cerosaletti watch and Kathy Sherwood gets ready to put ice in the cooler during the Delaware County Dairy Tour on Wednesday, Aug. 24.

Jill Coleman places milk donated by Clark Farms into a cooler as Dairy Ambassador Jessica Coleman, far left, Junior Dairy Ambassadors Laney Mondore, Delaney McCann and Angela Cerosaletti watch and Kathy Sherwood gets ready to put ice in the cooler during the Delaware County Dairy Tour on Wednesday, Aug. 24.

The 92nd annual Delaware County dairy tour revisited two farms it visited eight years ago to discuss progress at each farm.

While the Mushkoday Farm straddles state Route 10 in Fraser, owners of the farm discussed their robotic milking and feeding systems at nearby Birdsong Farm where they rent land to grow crops. Two generations of the Burgin family – Larry and Ann and their sons John and Jacob – run the day-to-day operations of the farm that has been in the family for generations. Jacob said his wife, Grace, is a nurse at A.O. Fox Hospital, and worked Tuesday night so she wasn’t able to be at the tour, but their daughters Annika and Aianna were in attendance. Deidre Hill, John’s girlfriend, also represented the farm.

John said he manages the younger stock, crops and machinery repairs. Jacob said he manages the feeding and maintenance of the robotics, while Larry said he and Ann manage the financial end of the operation and he also manages the dry and fresh cows.

April Wright Lucas, community educator, Watershed Agricultural Program Precision Feed Management, and Paul Cerosaletti, team leader, WAP Precision Feed Management, took turns asking the Burgins questions about their farm. While they asked questions a video loop showing a cow being milked by the robotic machine was played on the wall inside the building.

Wright Lucas asked when the farm installed the robotic milking system and why. Jacob said the farm installed the two units eight years ago this past spring. He said he, John and Larry attended either a New York Farm show or an Empire Farm Days where the system was demonstrated. They then visited farms that were willing to show the robots in action and decided it would benefit the farm.

John said another reason they went to the robotic machine was because “we were also struggling to get relief milkers. We’d get someone great, then we would go through a time with bad milkers. If we wanted to go to a family wedding, one person would be stuck at the farm milking.”

He said the robots milk whenever a cow wants to be milked.

The three chose a Lely machine as it was the only company with technical assistance personnel within two hours of Delhi.

Jacob said the robotic machines give himself, John and Larry more flexibility, as they don’t have to lead cows to the milking parlor two to three times a day.

“I could do field work at 9 at night if needed,” John said.

Jacob said the biggest challenge was converting from the parlor to the free flow system. He said when they went to the coverall barn from the tie stall barn, they should have installed gates to make it easier to get a cow to the milking machine.

He said each day the computer tells them which cows haven’t been milked yet, so one of them has to go fetch the cow to get her to go to the robot to be milked. He said he usually cleans their beds then too.

Larry said without the gates in place, they realized they were stressing out the cows and they were stressed out trying to get the cows to the milking machine. After the gates were installed, he said the cows know once they are in the gate they have to be milked before they can go back in the barn.

Jacob said the computer stores information about each cow — the times it was milked and how much milk it produced. It also has a rumination monitor, which tells farmers how well it is digesting food. He said if a cow is becoming sick, the rumination monitor is an important first sign for farmers.

Wright Lucas said the dairy tour also revisited the Sher-Brook Farm on county Route 16. The farm went organic eight years ago and Tim and Lauren Sherwood would be talking about the conversion to organic farming, why he wanted to go organic and the changes the farm has made during the past eight years. She said the farm also installed a biosecurity boot wash station to help protect the health of the herd.

This past summer, a Cornell University graduate student has conducted a greenhouse gas study of four farms in Delaware County, including the Sherwood’s to see how farms could mitigate the amount of greenhouse gases their farms produce, she said.

“It was an eyeopener,” she said. “We learned cows that eat high-quality forage produce less gas.”

Wright Lucas also said shipping a lot of milk decreases a farm’s carbon footprint.

Vicky Klukkert, staff writer, can be reached at vklukkert@thedailystar.com or 607-441-7221.

Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.

Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.

Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox.

First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.