With more than a decade of experience using robotic milkers, Lisa and Steve Groetsch of Albany, Minn., are a good resource for other farmers who are thinking about installing the high-tech automation.

The Groetsches are one of the dairy farm families that have been featured in the University of Minnesota Extension’s virtual Robotic Milking Edition webinar series.

Produced by U-M Extension animal scientist Marcia Endres and co-hosted with Extension educator Jim Salfer, the half-hour webinars offer time for questions and answers, and then are later shared on YouTube. The series, operating since January 2021, has attracted registrants from 42 countries.

Another round of monthly webinars is set to begin Thursday at 11:30 a.m. Central time, and run through Nov. 17.

Endres planned the Extension series with input received when she and Salfer surveyed dairy producers in 2020. Producer feedback informed her selection of the virtual format, the 11:30 a.m. time slot on the third Thursday of each month, and even the 30-minute duration.

Unlike with webinars offered by robotics companies, Extension discusses every brand, every size farm and and every style of dairy farming, including grazing; large and small freestall barns; mixed systems of robot and parlor; robotic rotaries and more. The audience includes producers at every stage of decision-making, so Endres invites experienced producers like the Groetsches to tell their stories.

Whether a participant decides to proceed with robotics or not to proceed after learning more, it’s time well spent, Endres says.

“Panelists can be honest about what problems they’re having,” Endres says. “We don’t pay producers to present on the webinars. They do it from the goodness of their hearts. Dairy producers are so kind, and they want to share.”

To register, go to Robotic Milking Edition. To watch previous webinars, go to (281) UMN Beef and Dairy on YouTube.