With all the rain, snow and pressure from thousands of tires, fixing the long laneways leading to the Gordon family’s new dairy barn outside of Thedford was the order of business days after their open house.

An estimated 2,000 people came to see the family’s cross-ventilated robotic barn which features a sand recovery system, automatic foot baths and the latest in robotic milking technology.

I chatted with Bill Gordon and his two daughters, Erin and Jennifer in the new barn three days after the open house. They represent half of a six-member family team that manages the 300-cow milking herd in the new barn, along with heifers and calves in three other facilities. This fifth-generation dairying family has been milking cows a while but it’s never been easier with the addition of this state-of-the-art facility.

“We can now manage the barn with just one person at a time if we need to,” says Erin, while Jennifer demonstrated how the design, computer controls and gating system make moving cattle calm, cool and easy.

In fact, it’s the calmness of the barn that Bill says he enjoys the most. He feels very strongly that when you own animals, stewardship is critical. “We are a Christian family and when you are given things to look after, we are called to give an account for that,” he says. That includes cows, family and the people who work there. “We want to make it a pleasant experience for everyone.”

Bill admits he likes to come to the barn when no one else is there and just walk around. “It’s just so quiet and peaceful here,” he says, looking around at the cows. “It makes me feel so good to see how comfortable they are.”

Daughter Jennifer agrees. She also appreciates how easy it is to sort cows now, as the robots do it automatically. “If I need to see a cow, the robot will sort her out and we don’t need to disturb the whole herd. Plus, we don’t need a second person,” she said. 

HFH Construction in Elora were the general contractors for the 296  by 265 foot barn.  The barn includes 381 freestalls for the milk cows, 54 stalls for dry cows, plus a pack pen for the close-up cows.The family is currently milking 290 animals after moving 335 cows into the barn in June of last year. The cows adjusted well and production immediately went up in the new barn, allowing them to decrease cow numbers. 

Cows are milked in seven GEA R9500 robots which feature an all-in-one system including a quick attach and cup dipper. The system also takes milk samples and offers cows a basic pellet with fresh cows receiving an extra pellet ration. One of the robots is dedicated to fresh cows and is located right beside the pack pen. “These cows can stay calm, can be walked to the robot and stay on the pack until they are ready to join the herd,” explains Erin. This robot is not connected to the milk tank so colostrum can be collected. Special needs cows are also milked here.

The sand recovery system was a big draw for visitors. As sand and manure are moved with analley scraper, the mixture is dropped onto a flume with the manure flushed away into a pit and the sand remaining on a sand lane. Bill scoops it up with a payloader and piles it behind the barn. In the six months since the barn has been in operation, there is now a mountain of sand for re-using in the barn. They don’t have enough experience to say how it’s working but research indicates the sand is clean and can be reused several times without any health issues for the cows. 

A Maximus controller in the barn is the “brains of the barn” to control the manure and ventilation systems, along with lights and other automated systems.

When Bill and Becky married in 1987, the dairy barn was still a tie-stall and they were milking about 55 cows. A double-five herringbone parlour was built in 1991 and 10 years later, a new addition was added to the barn and a parallel parlour was added to milk 120 cows. In 2007, a new freestall barn was built and the milking herd grew to 220 purebred Holsteins. In 2016, the family retrofitted five GEA robots in the new freestall barn. All the expansion meant heifers and dry cows were housed in different facilities and at one point, they had animals in six different barns.

“It just got crazy with cattle at the neighbours and it was a lot of work in those old barns,” recalls Bill.

There was talk of building a heifer barn but as more children decided to farm full-time and cow numbers increased, it made sense to everyone to build a new dairy barn. The process started in 2020 with all the paperwork and bank approval. In 2021, a manure pit was dug. Then the build began in September 2022.

“We knew right away we wanted robots and a mechanically ventilated barn because it gives the best atmosphere for the cows throughout the year with our hot summers and cold winters,” says Erin.

Another emphasis of the build was labour efficiency because this barn was also built for people. Bill said he pushed his body physically his whole life and it’s not something he wants to see for his daughters as they farm full-time. 

“You hear about animal welfare cases and mental health issues for people,” explains Bill. “People can get run down and once you get run down, you can’t do a good job.”

In the old, retrofitted barn, the distance between the robots and other areas of the barn averaged 900 to 1,000 feet, says Bill. All tasks ended up being a long hike. The robots in the new barn are centralized with cows in freestalls all around. 

From Erin’s point of view, she felt the family has always worked hard but in the older barns, they couldn’t always see or track the results of their effort. With robotic technology, the data can be viewed daily on milk production, breeding success, and health metrics. “This barn is so much more efficient that we have time for the ‘extras’ and that gives us more satisfaction in a job well done.”

The tasks of running a dairy farm are split among all the partners. Mom Becky is the calf expert. Erin and Jennifer are dairy managers in charge of herd health, cows, calving, vaccination, breeding, drying up and hoof trimming. Basically, the day-to-day operation in the barn. Bill likes to focus on field work and takes his turn in the barn as he works towards semi-retirement. He also enjoys being in the woods and is a maple syrup producer as well. Son Michael is in charge of feeding and feed management. Samuel is the other partner and his strengths are in bookwork, robot maintenance, feeding one day a week and contributing to “a little bit of everything.”

When asked how they manage to work together as a family, they say it’s “good for the most part” and they are intentional about not holding a grudge. It helps that they all have their own roles.

Bill is very pleased to have four of the couple’s six children as co-owners of the farm saying he never wanted to break up the quota or land base. “It took us a lot of years to build it all up and it would be so hard to break it up,” he says. Plus, working together allows everyone time for vacations and weekends off.

“We can run a more efficient business when we work together,” says Erin.

“The farm will continue as an entity and if you want to be involved, you will have ownership. If you don’t, there is provision for you to be bought out,” explains Bill.

The trio interviewed for this story all agree the new barn has proven its worth with increased milk production, work efficiency and sheer enjoyment in the calm, airy space. “It’s a nice place to be so I really like being here and getting stuff done,” concludes Jennifer. ◊