As the sun comes up, Don Jensen III makes his way to the methane digester on his family’s farm to perform daily maintenance tasks. Managing the digester is his responsibility. At Lawnhurst Farms the Jensen family has a commitment to technology that spans generations. Like many of the country’s most successful producers, they’ve figured out investing in new technology that fits their business model pays dividends. The farm was started in the late 1800s by Niels Jensen who milked a handful of cows and also had horses and chickens. Today the Jensen family milks 1,400 cows and farms roughly 2,500 acres in Stanley, N.Y. Don Jensen Sr. was the first generation to expand the dairy. By 1980 he was milking 150 cows. Don’s son, Don Jensen Jr., took over the dairy from his father, and in 1992 he built his first freestall and went to 300 cows. From 1992 to 1996 they doubled the herd. A few years later, in 1997, he introduced activity monitoring to the farm.

Rudimentary in the beginning, the technology provides the herdsman with valuable information about a cow’s behavior to detect estrous as well as health issues. “When the animal is affected by a health disorder, that rhythm and physiology is altered, and they move less,” says Julio Giordano, assistant professor of animal science at Cornell University, who has studied the effectiveness of such automated health-monitoring systems. “To monitor these behaviors, you would have to have a person checking the cows at least once a day. Technology is a way to do that automatically.” RFID collars also allowed Jensen Jr. to add an electronic sorting gate to the barn exit. An addition Jensen III says saved at least one employee. “I would say it probably saves a man because it would take more than one guy to go out and sort all the breeder cows, hoof trim cows, vaccinate cows and heard health cows,” he says. “There’s not one day that goes by where we don’t use it.” In 2002 Jensen Jr. built a double- 20 parallel parlor (with basement milk metering) and added a second sort gate. The milking staff uses the sort gates and RFID technology to sort off everything from vet check cows to cows that are due for reproduction shots. “These tools improve the health and welfare of dairy cows and the labor efficiency and quality of life of dairy producers. It works for both the cows and people,” Giordano says.

In 2008, Lawnhurst was outgrowing the capacity of their composted bedding unit. They started looking for a solution to two problems: the need for good freestall bedding and a way to meet the stringent environmental regulations in upstate New York. They settled on a methane digester. The Jensens spent a lot of time traveling around New York and Wisconsin hoping to find a digester that would be the best fit for them. “We did a lot of research to figure out what the best technology is out there,” he says. They decided to install a complete mix anaerobic digester from Envitec biogas, out of Germany. They were the first farm in the U.S. to build with that company. The digester started operating in 2013. For the Jensens, the digester met the two requirements any new piece of technology must—it would meet their business needs and would make the farm more efficient. “We needed bedding, we wanted to continue to separate manure and generating power was another consideration,” Jensen III says. According to USDA, the installation of methane digesters on farms around the country is slowing. Only six new digesters have been installed since 2014. That’s in part because selling excess power to the grid doesn’t pay well. “There isn’t the opportunity to make much money selling power back to the grid,” Jensen III says. “If that was the only benefit we wouldn’t have done it. This investment is really about maximizing avoided costs for the operation.”

The digester does produce enough power to run the dairy and all of the properties owned by the farm. Because of the power generated by the digester, they were able to replace several diesel powered motors with electric ones. The methane digester also reduces their carbon footprint, fits into the manure handling program they need to fertilize their cropland, reduces odor from the farm and provides great bedding for their cows. “Our newest barn was built with deep bedded stalls, made possible by the abundance of solids produced from the digester, which provides an added comfort for the cows,” says Kelley Jensen, who is an owner and manager with her father and brother. “Our passion is the cows. Whatever we can invest in that will in turn benefit them is what’s important.” The digester has also allowed the Jensens to partner with a local yogurt processing plant to take all the whey from yogurt production in addition to any waste they have. It has provided the business a new revenue stream.

Calves at Lawnhurst Farms have been fed pasteurized waste milk for decades. At the turn of the century, the Jensens had outgrown their calf- raising capacity so they were in the market to build a new barn. In 2009 they built the new facility to house 200 wet calves fed on a DeLaval automatic feeder. “We started out in August, by January we had started custom raising some heifers for our neighbor,” Jensen III says. After one year they had outgrown their barn, so they built a second barn. Today they have capacity to raise 400 wet calves on seven DeLaval feeders. The calves are housed in groups of 25 and have access to as much acidified waste milk as they want through the feeders. This is particularly crucial in the winter months where calves in New York, and other cold climates, need to consume more milk to maintain the same average daily gain. One of the benefits of the feeders is how fast calves grow. We are in the 1.8lb. to 2 lb. rate on average daily gain,” Jensen III says. The biggest challenge with the system is disease pressure. For this reason the barn features positive pressure air tubes. While it’s safe to say the calf feeders save on labor expenses, Jensen III says they don’t replace a good calf manager. “It doesn’t replace having eyes on calves, but if you pay attention, it helps with early detection,” he says.

Jensen III is not sure what technology might be on the horizon for them because they don’t seek new technology for the pure purpose of having it. To introduce a new technology there must be a need. He does think their businesses is at a point where they need to decide if they’d like to grow through more cows or another part of the business. If they decide to milk more cows a new facility would be in order. Given the current labor situation in New York and their financial position, should they decide to expand, robotic milking units are not out of the question.

LABOR EFFICIENCY: At Lawnhurst Farms in Stanley, N.Y., improving labor efficiency is the priority when considering a new piece of technology. “The model that we’ve built is really based on labor efficiency,” says Don Jensen III, owner and manager of Lawnhurst Farms. “We have to be efficient as possible with everything we do, whether its crops or the dairy and maximize our labor efficiency.” As the business continues to grow, the Jensens will consider new technologies to help their employees perform their jobs more efficiently. “From a profitability standpoint, that has worked,” he says. Jensen III adds it’s critical to have employees who are willing to change, accept new technology and learn how to use it. But, technology will never replace good people. “The automated calf feeders for example, don’t replace a good calf manager,” he explains. “But, that calf manager isn’t filling buckets or washing bottles, they have more time to spend managing calf health.” Technology is helping the Jensens develop employees and deal with New York’s tightening skilled labor market.