Host of Farm Tech Days makes major upgrades

LOYAL, Wis. (WEAU) -Farmers across the Midwest are getting ready for Wisconsin Farm Technology Days next month.

That’s especially true for the future site of this year’s event, Roehl Acres in Clark County.

During the last three years, the 55-year-old family farm in Loyal has been working with Focus on Energy and Xcel Energy to make the facility more modern and efficient. The farm’s new milking barn uses a system of robots to automatically milk and feed cows without the need of a farmer’s assistance.

Owner Dennis Roehl says the state of the art machinery is not only more time efficient, but also more energy efficient.

“We do not have milking times anymore. So when a cow feels like she needs to get milked, she goes up to the selection gate and the selection gate will either tell her yes, it’s time to milk or no, it’s not time to milk or to feed. We found that an added benefit is the energy efficiency of everything that we’ve done,” Roehl said.

Roehl says the improvements to the farm’s efficiency will save the farm more than $50,000 a year.

Farm Technology Days runs July 12 through July 14.

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