Customer Laura Dutton, left, visits with Trenton Montgomery and NaRisa Waldo after driving two hours from Azle, northwest of Fort Worth, to pick up her dairy order on Wednesday at The Waldo Way Dairy north of Mineola. Andrew D. Brosig/Tyler Morning Telegraph via AP

Mary and Becky are two of 18 Golden Guernsey heifers at The Waldo Way Dairy Farm providing 7,000 customers fresh, hormone-free, grass-fed milk, cream, yogurt and dairy products.

This fall, the dairy will have a new milking process that will allow the farm north of Mineola to milk more cows and produce more of their dairy products. 

The Waldo Way Dairy Farm will become the first robotic dairy farm in the state this fall. The robot that will milk 65 cows is being designed in Holland, and will be delivered and set up on the farm.

The Waldo Way Dairy Farm was started with five cows purchased in Wisconsin in 2012. Today, there are 60 cows that are milked twice a day with traditional milking machines in the Waldo Way milk room. The cows are registered with the American Guernsey Association. The farm is the only registered 100 percent Guernsey grade-A raw milk dairy in the state.

“We wanted to expand and I had to decide if we were going to be a commercial dairy,” Dr. NaRisa Waldo said. “We’ve become an iconic dairy in East Texas, and I wanted to keep as much of our traditional farming as I could.”

Most robotic dairy farms are in places where dairy is a bigger industry – like Wisconsin, Oregon and Pennsylvania. There are around five companies that make the robotic machines. 

Dr. Waldo and her son, Trenton Montgomery, went to a dairy farm in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, and watched the AMS-Galaxy-USA technology in use. They decided to make the investment to expand their dairy operation with the robotic technology, but keep their boutique dairy farm image that their customers and visitors are used to.

The Waldo Way’s Astrea 20/20 is being constructed in Holland. It will be shipped to the U.S. by sea then trucked to the farm north of Mineola, where AMS-Galaxy will set up the robot. 

“It takes 12 weeks to build and ship to the farm,” Montgomery said. 

Traditional dairy cattle are milked twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, every day. With a robotic operation, cows can be milked at all hours of the day without a human presence. 

“Dairy cows have a Groundhog Day routine,” Dr. Waldo said. “They know when something is out of place or not right and that affects the amount of milk they give. It could even be a shovel out of place in the milk room.” 

The Waldo Way’s new milkhouse will be smaller than the current space, but with the use of the robot, more cows will be able to be milked and more milk will be produced. 

“The robot will allow our cows to be milked at any time of the day whether we’re here or not,” Dr. Waldo said. “It will allow us to have more flexibility and free up the human aspects in milking so we can focus on growing our business.” 

When the Golden Guernsey cows go to be milked, they will go into a stall, be fed alfalfa hay, get cleaned by the robot and be milked by the robot. 

“All of our cows are named, tagged and chipped,” Montgomery said. “The robot will scan the chip when the cow enters, it will take its vital signs and test the quality of the milk. It will also send us an email or text when a cow goes into be milked.” 

The Waldo Way serves customers throughout East Texas. The dairy has customers in the Dallas and Fort Worth areas, and Shreveport, Louisiana. The dairy sells fresh milk, buttermilk, yogurt, cheese, cream and butter.

Laura Dutton drives 150 miles from Azle to buy milk from Waldo Way. 

“The milk here is clean,” Ms. Dutton said. “Most commercial milk is tainted because the cows are fed corn and soy and other things that aren’t good for them and they’re not good for me, either.”

The Waldo Way Dairy will be hosting a groundbreaking ceremony for the new milkhouse and storehouse on the southern side of their farm at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 3. The store will open at 11 a.m. for customers to buy their fresh dairy products. 

For more information and to pre-order dairy products, visit thewaldoway.com.