By Tamara Scully, NODPA News contributing writer
Tre-G Farms LLC, in Manlius, New York, which is the first farm tour of the 25th Annual NODPA Field Days (read more about Field Days on page14), has seen many changes throughout the years. This Century Farm has been a dairy since the 1940s. The last decade has been one of transformation, as fourth generation dairy farmer Jim Smith and his wife, Sue, realized that in order to keep the dairy profitable, they had to adjust to a changing market, invest in infrastructure, and work more efficiently. The Smiths weren’t sure if their son, Ryker, would want to continue the dairy, but they wanted him to have that option, and they wanted the dairy to be a viable choice.
Jim had taken over the dairy from his parents, who were ready to retire early and move on, so generational differences and conflicts about making changes to the dairy were minimized. Jim and Sue, however, aren’t yet ready to retire from dairy farming, and knew that if Ryker decided to return to the dairy after college, they’d have to navigate through the intricacies of two generations managing the business together.
With their desire to continue farming and to situate the dairy for success in the future, the Smiths made two primary decisions, both of which they had been considering for several years. They installed a robotic milking system in October 2017, and they pursued organic certification and ultimately began shipping milk to Organic Valley in January, 2018.
Simultaneously, Ryker returned to the farm along with his wife Jenny. The young couple liked the direction his parents were going, and the changes - both the decision to install robots and to transition to organic - definitely made the choice to return to the family dairy enticing. Today, the sixth generation, Ryker and Jenny’s two young children, are growing up on the family dairy farm.
“Not a ton has changed” in the last five years, since NODPA last featured Tre-G Farms in 2020, Ryker said. Or at least not in comparison to the changes made by his parents just prior to his return.
The cows are happier being able to regulate their own milking, and the humans have relative schedule flexibility to devote to other aspects of the dairy farm. Labor needs are decreased. And the data generated by the robots offers the ability to precisely manage and monitor each cow, as well as the overall herd performance.
While the decision to install a robotic milking system was one Jim had contemplated for years, it is also a decision which has had immediate and ongoing repercussions. And it is one that is now changing, at least slightly.
They are still milking the same number of Holstein cows (140) as when they switched to robotics, which is the size that fits the farm. But the robots are changing. The original Lely Astronaut 4 system, as a result of a class action law suit, is being upgraded to a Lely Astronaut 5 at a discounted rate. Many New York farmers affected by this already have the A5 system installed.
The Smiths will be updating the robots in 2026. Ryker said that to the casual observer, the robots look the same, and the switch will take about three hours per robot. But the A5 robots use less compressed air, to move the arm and pump milk, which means less electricity is needed, and noise is reduced. They are also faster, and attach to the udder with more accuracy. The robot’s computer has more processing capabilities, and the post-spraying protocol after milking has been improved. Overall, he expects both time and energy efficiency with the upgrade, resulting in lower cost of robot operation.
They’ve added some automatic flow control gates to direct cows to where they need to go after leaving the robots, allowing them to easily isolate cows needing medical or breeding attention, too. The gates direct cows out to pasture after milking during the grazing season.
Better managing the herd’s grazing with the gates during the spring green-up is one of the ongoing goals. During the grazing season, a guided flow system, where cows must milk in the robots in order to access fresh pasture, is used. During the winter, the free flow cow system is used. The cows seek out the energy from the grain they receive in the robot. If they receive too much energy elsewhere, they will feel the need to visit the robot, Ryker said.
The data generated by the milking robots is reviewed daily by Jim and Ryker. Ryker is focused on using the data to better inform breeding and feeding decisions, with the goal of improving genetics so the cows are best able to graze and produce milk from grass, and to be adapted to being milked in the robots during all times of the year.
Per cow data includes pounds of milk produced during each milking, conductivity of the milk and the number of visits made to the robot daily. He can determine whether he is doing a good job balancing the diet on a daily basis, or if he needs to increase grazing or add more feed from the bunk. “We’re at the point where the genetic capacity is there with our cows to make a lot of milk in our system,” Ryker said.
The next one to two years should allow them to hit their stride with their genetics. Ryker wants the cows to express that genetic potential that they have been breeding into the herd, and having high levels of components is one of the genetic goals. The Holstein cows now have butterfat percentages which range from 2.5 to 5.0. The goal is to have every cow closer to 5.0 percent butterfat. Using the computer generated data to breed more intentionally is the key.
Even with a primary focus on herd genetics, first calf heifers don’t all express their genetic traits similarly. For example, some adapt well to the robots--others they have to push twice a day for several months, but still won’t voluntarily milk. Others adapt in just a few days, and are milking three times a day or more on their own. Of course, the ones that voluntarily milk themselves are the best fit for the herd. Cows that aren’t doing well with grazing, or don’t like the robots, or aren’t well-configured for the robots just aren’t the best fit for the herd.
“The robots provide a lot of data points,” Ryker said, and using the data to see the overall picture of the herd allows him to make better decisions. “I try to use the data to make better informed breeding decisions.”
In keeping with utilizing the best data for precision decision-making, the Smiths are working towards implementing heifer activity monitoring collars, by expanding the reach of the antenna for the current system to reach a heifer barn on site. They hope to increase artificial insemination conception rates in heifers with this technology during the winter, and possibly breed with AI during the grazing season as well. Currently, heifers are bred with a bull during grazing as well as to catch-up heifer AI breeding throughout the winter.
Ryker is now making most of the herd management decisions and doing all of the AI breeding. He is able to use planned culling as a tool, seeking to prevent problems by using cow metrics to select for robotic conformation and lower proclivity towards mastitis.
More effective use of data to inform breeding has led to cow genetics that do better under the farm’s management system, so fewer cows are culled. Ryker has decreased the farm’s reliance on bulls for heifer breeding. He is doing more artificial insemination on heifers using sexed semen, and also is using beef semen in older or below herd average cows. The beef semen helps to increase their profitability by “capitalizing on beef,” Ryker said, generating more income at the sales barn.
By reducing the culling rate, they’ve been able to reduce the number of replacement heifers raised each year.
“Our cull rate has dropped over the last few years,” Ryker said. Better sick management, by keeping cows healthier and better managing mastitis, has contributed to reduced cull rates. Fewer replacement heifers are needed, which is a management goal they’ve been able to achieve.
“Our biggest area of opportunity is increasing pasture health,” Ryker said. Enhancing the pastures is another focus, and the Smiths are planning to renovate or restore some of their 230 acres of pasture, most of which is in native orchard grass and fescues. The pastures are “good enough” to make milk, but they need to increase milk production and components, and adding diversity of pasture species will increase pasture nutrition, yield and consistency. They are looking to plow the fields and reseed, or minimally till and frost seed, depending on when the weather allows.
They’ve recently added 30 acres of pasture across from the dairy complex to use for heifer grazing. This acreage will allow them to take a first cutting of hay, and then rotationally graze the heifers there until frost, which is typically early October. The added acreage also allows them to “try to give increased acreage to the milking herd for better regeneration, and to get more pasture in them throughout the growing season,” Ryker said.
This spring has been too wet to do any pasture renovation work, and they haven’t been able to work on the laneways, either. They plan to improve the laneways to better handle heavy cow traffic flow.
They’ve invested in a larger hay mower, making hay production more efficient, as they can quickly bring in the harvest. With one full time employee, who is new to the dairy and helps with all of the day-to-day labor needed, efficiency is important. Jim and Sue both drive school buses in addition to continuing to work on the farm, and Jenny is helping with the farm as well as running her own cheese consulting business.
The management system for corn silage and grain production has also improved. They are better at weed control, and use various cultivators, including a new-to-them cultivator with camera guidance. The crop rotation of hay, corn for silage or grain, and triticale for grain and straw has done a good job of producing feed for the herd and managing weeds.
This year is the first that they’ve had “comfortable carryover of feed and forage” from last season’s harvest, Ryker said. They are still feeding 2024 haylage and still have plenty as of July.
“Giving the right forages to the right cows” is the key to cow health. “Haylage and forage allocation to milking cows versus dry cows,” and feeding heifers consistently, have led to better milking herd health, Ryker said. They have fewer transition diseases and have very good conception rates in the milking herd.
A customized pellet consisting of corn, soy and wheat midds, specifically formulated for the herd, is purchased from a feed mill. It is allocated to meet each cow’s individual needs, depending on the stage of lactation and milk production. Using an algorithm, the robot allocates the feed to each cow during their milking visits throughout the day.
Calf care has changed a bit in the past five years. They are now using pasteurized milk in the milk taxi. The change was made as calves had some health issues, and pasteurization of the milk was suggested by a few experts they consulted. They’ve also changed calf feeding protocols, shortening the period they receive milk from three months down to two, feeding the same amount of milk in a shorter time frame. This will help reduce costs of managing individual stalls, as the calves transition to group housing once they are weaned, and doing so a month earlier is cost-effective.
The flies are till a pesky problem. They’ve yet to find a truly effective organic solution. Mastitis is the biggest issue in the milking herd, and Ryker is working to get a better grasp on why they get elevated somatic cell counts.
Ryker and his parents are still “working out the specifics” of transitioning the dairy. The business is set up as a partnership LLC, with Ryker having 20 percent of the ownership, and his parents, 80 percent. Each year, Ryker’s share will grow as his parents step down their involvement and transition to their retirement.
The most important thing Ryker would want others considering a farm transition to know, and which is his family’s goal as they proceed with the transition, is to “focus and listen to everyone. Listen to the younger generation, who have the ideas and the drive, and also listen to the wisdom and experience of the prior generation.”
Jenny operates her own business, Cheesesmith Consulting, which helps dairy farmers establish and manage creameries. The Smiths have always been supportive, and it has been a goal that Tre-G Farms will play a role as her business develops. They are now in the construction phase of building a store and cafe on the farm, which will be open year-round and allow Jenny an outlet to sell products from her clients and other local farms. Located on the farm, using the storefront from the u-pick berry business from years past, the new store should be ready this year, and will eventually include using the dairy products being sold in the store as ingredients in the cafe menu dishes. Her long-term plan is to open a creamery on-site, which would purchase the milk from Tre-G Farms to use in making cheeses and other dairy products.
Ryker believes that efficiencies have to exist on the farm level, and that organic dairy farms themselves may need to grow, whether it is through their own growth as a business or through strategic partnerships with other businesses where it makes sense to do so, in order to have some economies of scale.
“But the focus on efficiency can’t stop at the farm level”, Ryker said. The organic dairy industry itself has a role to play.
“By reducing costs after the milk leaves the farm, capitalizing on efficiencies of scale, the industry could better support farmers and grow the market share,” he said.
Another positive change in the organic industry overall has been “an increase in the products and tools available to us as organic producers” as the organic dairy industry has matured, Ryker said.
The family made numerous changes as they began their transition to organic ten years ago. Before becoming certified organic, Tre-G Farms had been milking 190, head, but downsized to fit the grazing infrastructure available on the farm at the time. They’ve found that 140 head works well for their milking herd and management, and allows them to efficiently and cost-effectively produce and market milk.
Adding the robots was an essential component which they needed to make the dairy work financially, and labor-wise. “If it wasn’t for the robots, we’d be in a totally different spot right now,” Ryker said
A significant change that has been made by Tre-G Farms since 2020 is becoming a part of Upstate Niagara Cooperative (UNC), and leaving Organic Valley. Now, they have teamed up with their neighbors, the Mapstones, and ship to UNC, making the change about 18 months ago. They are happy with the pay price, which has had “a big impact on our bottom line,” and appreciate that UNC is eager to work with local dairies and has expanded their organic footprint.
Since transitioning to organic and simultaneously installing a robotic milking system, Tre-G Farms has been making incremental changes to improve and capitalize on the system they’ve established. All the earlier changes set the foundation, and now the work is to continually improve the system through breeding and genetics, feeding and forage management, and positioning the farm in the commercial milk market, - and soon in the local milk marketplace - to make the dairy the most efficient and cost-effective operation they can.
The Smiths can be reached at Tre-G Farms, 8183 Route 20, Manlius, NY, and by email: tregfarms@gmail.com
Posted: to Featured Farms on Sun, Jul 13, 2025
Updated: Sun, Jul 13, 2025
