Join us for a virtual field trip to a Minnesota dairy farm where technology and agriculture work together every day. Students will meet the cows, explore the barn, and watch robots in action as they feed and milk the herd. Learn how dairy farmers use robotics to keep cows healthy and comfortable while producing milk efficiently.
About the Farm
Scherber's Morningstar Dairy is a dairy farm in Rogers, Minnesota. Quinci Schmidt and her parents, John and Staci, work on the farm, which was started by her grandfather. The farm began with just 20 cows and has since expanded to house over 100 cows. The oldest cow on the farm is 11 years old, and their heaviest cow weighs 1,750 pounds!
Feeding Cows
Dairy cows eat a mixture of corn, hay, and silage. Additionally, Scherber’s Morningstar Dairy adds a soybean mixture to the feed to add protein to the cows' diets. The feed components are stored in silos, then a robot mixes the components together to create a fresh mixture each time. The feed is mixed and brought to the cows around 12 times a day by a robot, with 1,000 pounds of feed delivered to the cows each visit.
Milking Cows
Dairy cows produce around 150 pounds of milk per day! Scherber’s Morningstar Dairy uses robots for milking, which are capable of measuring the milk and assessing the health of the cow. Dairy cows visit the milking robot three or four times a day, for five minutes at a time.
The milk is 101 degrees Fahrenheit when it comes out of the cow, and it must be rapidly cooled to 42 degrees in a large stainless-steel tank until it is picked up. The milk from the farm is sent to a creamery to create Ellsworth cheese curds.
