DeLaval Dairy Service

“[DeLaval] gave us four or five farms [to tour] that were doing what our dreams or our goals were with DeLaval robots; so we decided that if the DeLaval robots can do it for those guys, then it was up to our management to make it happen here…It was a no brainer. The VMS V300s are really good machines.” – Darrell Richard

Darrell and Bonita Richard, who raised seven kids on their Indiana dairy, have been milking a high production herd of Holstein cows for nearly a quarter of a century. With most of their children all grown and living off the farm, the Richards were running out of energy and time to get all of their chores done.

“With the robots, it seemed like a common sense thing—that if we wanted to stay milking and gain some extra production by going 3x on milkings, then we could still have a life and spend more time with our grandchildren…and not be married to the barn,” said Darrell.

After touring other farms with DeLaval robots, the Richards decided to retrofit part of their existing facility with two DeLaval VMS™ V300 units in 2019. The DeLaval advisory team helped make their dreams a reality by consulting on the layout of their robotic facility and providing barn drawings. DeLaval Dairy Service – Indiana, which was with Darita Holsteins every step of the way, continues to perform scheduled maintenance on the robots and ensure the farm has the milk quality solutions they need to help the Richards meet their goals.