Monthly Barn Report: December

Here we find ourselves at the end of 2016 with Monthly Barn Report: December. I’ll be honest at the beginning of this year there was no way I would have imaged we wouldn’t be robot farmers by the end of this year. Somehow the year just flew by. Big projects have a way of testing your patience, this was a good reminder that we can’t always be in control of everything. The only thing we can completely control is our reaction. Ben and I survived this last year with a lot of laughter and the singing of Elsa’s song “Let it Go”. We are still moving forward and the light really is at the end of the tunnel now. I really was doubting we’d ever get there!

The most excitement in the beginning of December all came on the electricity front. We finally got all our pretty stickers, approvals and inspections and all was a go and ready for the power to be hooked up. In the time we had been waiting for power the lights had all been installed and as well as all the other wiring continuing. There’s a lot of wiring in the barn! That also included getting the generator all hooked up. Generator back up is a must for any dairy farm, but especially robot dairy farms as milking happens essentially 24 hours a day. We got a great deal on a generator that was a huge blessing. And invested in a automatic transfer switch to keep things flowing smoothly in the barn even if we aren’t near by when we loose power.   I was traveling the end of the first week of December and got texts from all 3 of the crew at home that our power was hooked up and turned on December 8th! I may have done a major celebration in my seat in the middle of a conference, nobody noticed though I’m sure! 😉 Can’t tell you how much of a huge relief that was to finally have power in the barn. After a delay in getting home I was so excited to see to see the barn lit up at night. After the initial excitement of items like lights and plug ins the next obvious item to try out was the cow brushes. Besides the robots I am most excited for the Ladies to get to use these! Check out the video —> here <—Don’t think I’ve been so excited to see lights in a barn! The interior of the barn is also finishing up with all the gates being installed. December 12th saw the manure tank finished and the crew moving out with the help of a crane. Just in time for December 15th which brought our first snow of the winter. It was neat to see the barn covered in it’s first snow, it looked quite nice! The raceway overhead to the robots is now full of lines. Steps closer to having the robots installed. They even took the protective plastic off the robots, that must mean we are close right! 😉 The machine room is filled up with equipment and looks like we have all the workings coming together to properly run the barn. It feels great to have most everything in place and almost ready to go.

All in all we really are just little steps away from being complete. The only major item on the list is the final robot wiring and set up with the brain and all the computing. The main technical installer comes next week to begin that. We are very hopeful that the rest of installation goes smoothly and we can start to focus on getting the cows into the barn. No promises but I am hoping to keep updates during the start up process. I might not have much time with my keyboard here on the blog, so make sure you are following my Facebook and Instagram.  Which will be much more easier to post to during the craziness that is start up.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about how the barn has come along. I am glad to finally get these put together. It has been quite the adventure! We are excited to be at the end of the building process and onto becoming robot dairy farmers. Send us your good thoughts, vibes and prayers for the new year and a smooth transition. Especially for the Ladies, that’s who this all is for! Thanks for reading! Sending you wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2017!