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Volume 27, No. 5
April 26, 2025
Nonstop fresh feed Baus family automates mixing, distribution with Lely Vector system By Stacey Smart
stacey.s@dairystar.com
MT. CALVARY, Wis. — Cows at Tower View Acres LLC never go hungry with two mixing and feeding robots continually delivering feed to each pen. Since installing the Lely Vector automatic feeding system in July 2024, the Baus family has improved efciency in feed mixing, feed distribution and cow ow through their robotic milkers. “Cows have fresh feed all the time,” Jason Baus said. “There’s no slug feeding anymore, which means we don’t have big groups coming up to eat at the same time. This frees up the robots, and we’re able
to harvest more milk per day because it leveled out trafc ow around the barn.” Baus farms with his wife, Diana, his parents, Ron and Mary, his sister, Stephanie, and four part-time employees. The Baus family milks 220 cows with three Lely A4 robots and farms 580 acres near Mt. Calvary. The Baus family installed a robotic milking system in 2016 when building a 6-row freestall barn and expanding from 90 cows. An addition to the barn houses the new feeding system. The Baus family, along with Central AG Supply Services, hosted an open house Turn to BAUS | Page 2
PHOTO SUBMITTED
The Baus family — Mary (front, from leŌ), Ron, Devin and Noah; (back, from leŌ) Lauren, Jake, Stephanie, Nora, Jason and Diana — takes a break by their Lely Vector automaƟc feeding system Oct. 20, 2024, at Tower View Acres near Mt. Calvary, Wisconsin. The Baus family milks 220 cows with three Lely A4 robots.
From ames to restoraƟon in 19 days Schmuckers’ cows return to rebuilt barn three weeks after re By Amy Kyllo
amy.k@star-pub.com
PHOTO COURTESY OF ST. CHARLES PRESS/LEWISTON JOURNAL
Flames billow from the haymow of Jacob and Barbara Schmucker’s barn March 12 on their farm near St. Charles, Minnesota. The barn re started around 8:25 a.m. The Schmuckers milk 16 cows.
ST. CHARLES, Minn. — On March 31, Jacob and Barbara Schmucker’s herd returned to a rebuilt barn less than three weeks after a re destroyed the original barn. “I still hear that (re) in my sleep, crackling, popping,” Jacob Schmucker said. The Schmuckers milk by hand 16 organic cows, with a capacity for 22, alongside their seven children near St. Charles. They farm 127 owned and rented acres, raising corn, soybeans, oats, hay and pasture. In addition to their milking herd, they have a poultry barn with a capacity of 10,000 laying hens. The Schmuckers also own 40 horses and colts, for their own use and to train and sell as well. The Schmuckers, who are members of the Amish community, had a barn raising eight days after the re,
with 122 men from four communities working to rebuild. “It gives you a mood lift to have all these people come,” Schmucker said. “It makes you feel really small because everybody comes and works for you, but at the same time, it makes you feel good that you’re part of something like that. It’s part of our culture.” The re started Wednesday, March 12, around 8:25 a.m. after milking. It started in the diesel engine room next to the milkhouse, which powered the bulk tank cooling mechanism. Schmucker was in the milk house when he discovered the re and tried to put it out through the window from the milk house to the engine room. “I just jerked open the bulk tank and started dipping milk out through that window,” Schmucker said. “(The re) went down, but then I heard it burning upstairs, and it was already in the hay mow.” Schmucker and his family moved the 50 head of cows, youngstock, horses and foals out of the barn in about ve minutes with the help of their blue-heeler dogs barking and chasing the animals. Schmucker said the dogs Turn to SCHMUCKERS | Page 6