Each year in January we hold a Farmers Service training. Our goal is to enable farmers to reduce service costs and allow them to feel confident in fixing minor repairs and diagnosing robot issues. While a lot of learning always takes place, the greatest benefit is being able to interact with other farmers and learn from one another. We host this event in January because Lely’s demo robot is usually in town for Keystone Farm Show. We hook up the robot and allow our farmers to gain- hands on experience fixing and changing different parts.
As we planned our year out this year, we were excited for our third annual service training. We had a great group of four farms start up their robots in the spring and wanted to put together a beginners training exclusively for them. The release of the A5 robot gave us a major problem for this event. We will now be showcasing the A5 at Keystone Farm Show and, therefore, we had no access to the demo A4 robot.
Luckily, Glamourview Farm in Walkersville, Maryland had some extra free time on their robots, and they graciously allowed us to host our third annual service training in November. We were joined by Hemsarth Dairy, Racoon Valley Dairy, Edge-Wood Dairy, and St. Brigid’s Farm. We covered topics such as robot requirements and maintenance regimens, and we answered producer questions. Everyone was able to walk away from the day having met new people and learned from each other’s experiences. A big thanks to Glamourview Farm for helping us to overcome this challenge and have a successful event!