AMENIA — Amid unanimous favorable reports from the herd, Coon Brothers dairy farm in Amenia held an open barn on Sunday, Dec. 1, inviting contractors and friends to visit the cows and see their new automatic milking system that has brought robotics to the modern dairy industry.
Coon Brothers has used GEA equipment for milking over the years, so co-owners Peter and Amos Coon indicated that GEA Dairy Robot equipment was chosen to automate their operation, requiring a long period of construction.
The preceding year had been given to renovating the barns in preparation for installation of the robotic equipment that began in the spring and continued into July. Six robotic milking stations have been installed and all are now kept busy throughout the day.
Fully automated milking systems have been installed at Coon Brothers Farm in Amenia. Computers at each milking station monitor quantity and quality. Visitors were invited to an open barn tour on Sunday, Dec. 1, to see the new systems at work.Photo by Leila Hawken
Each cow decides for herself when to go in for milking, the decision prompted by discomfort. Observation showed that the cows placidly await their turns without disagreements or jostling for position.
“The difference is the cow’s comfort,” Amos explained. “Now they are getting milked when they want to,” he added.
The farm has a population of 600 animals with 350 milk cows, including Guernseys and Holsteins, divided between two barns, Peter Coon said.
“The system is better for the cows and it will save labor,” said Coon. “and the cows seem to like it.”
The computerized system monitors each cow, recognizing individuals by a computer chip attached to the cow’s collar. During each milking session, the cow’s milk production and quality of the milk are instantly measured and tested, with any problems detected and dealt with.
The system isolates and collects data from each quarter of the cow’s udder.
Cows residing in the milking barn are there all the time, Amos Coon said. “The new system has changed how we do everything.”
In the barn the cows munch on molasses flavored silage but get a treat in the milking stall in the form of custom grain.
Milk output is measured in pounds, not gallons. One cow can produce 20 pounds of milk in a single milking session, Amos explained. They go for milking more than once a day; some cows may give as much as 140 pounds of milk in a single day. Genetics contribute to a top-producing cow, Amos said.
A cow that has recently calved gives more milk, with increased production lasting 50-200 days. A newborn calf will only suckle for 12 hours before being shifted to manual feeding of bovine colostrum which is separated from the cow’s milk production by the robotic system.
In the event of a power outage, a generator keeps the systems going.
A large 6,000 gallon milk collection tank holds the milk until a tanker truck takes it away.
Robotic milking is not new to the area. Freund’s Farm in East Canaan has also installed automated milking with good results.
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Proffitt and her husband and business partner, Robert Bristow, are well-known leaders in the art and architecture communities, and their home, studio and workshop in Lakeville; store and office at 16 Main St. in Salisbury; and gallery space in Norfolk are vibrant hubs for arts and design in the region.
Proffitt has been coming to the area since she was a teenager. Originally from Puerto Rico, her moved to the New York City area in the 1970’s. Her artist and architect father encouraged her interests in art and design and her deep desire to create. At school, she excelled in math and art and soon realized that this was all she wanted to do. “Think logically and then break the mold with creativity,” she said.
Armed with a degree in visual art from Trinity College, she pursued advanced studies at Berkeley and Pratt before receiving a master’s degree in architecture from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, where she met Bristow. Both landed apprenticeships in Boston and were drawn to the arts community in Norfolk centered around the Yale Summer Arts Program. The area quickly became their personal and family anchor.
They started Poesis, a furniture design and manufacturing studio, with a small loan from her mother. They landed a major house project and soon met a hotelier at a party who hired them on the spot to design a hotel in Washington, D.C.
Proffitt said, “I was hooked because it combined everything I wanted to do creatively: design experiences in the broadest sense with all the supporting pieces of the puzzle — furniture, objects, art. My father felt that architecture was the Renaissance profession: It holds the seeds of art, design, engineering and all the other ingredients. For me, it all starts with art.”
A rendering of King Winery, one of Pilar Proffitt’s current interior design projects.Provided
Proffitt is devoted to the area. She and Bristow raised their family in Lakeville. Their daughter Grace, a sculptor, attended Hotchkiss and is pursuing her MFA at Univer sity of Pennsylvania. Their daughter Ellis, also a graduate of Hotchkiss and Trinity, is a mathematician and aspiring actress in Los Angeles; and their son Sam attended Salisbury School and is a junior at Trinity, majoring in art history with a minor in architecture. They all are carrying forward the family’s passion for arts, architecture and design.
Proffitt’s interior design work and unique furniture pieces welcome visitors at Hotchkiss’ Art Center, the Scoville Memorial Library, her own wHole hOuse shop in Salisbury and, soon, across the street in the new Jam Food Shop, which is expected to open this fall.
The region’s many museums and galleries include some of Proffitt’s favorites, from Mass MoCA and the Clark to Salisbury’s Geary, Mad Rose in Millerton, Jack Shainman in Kinderhook and Art Omi in Ghent. Proffitt loves the connections and new opportunities brought to the community by the increase in full-time residents, as well as impromptu get-togethers with friends — recently watching a Knicks playoff game at the tavern bar at the White Hart. Moments like that keep her grounded here.
In addition to the White Hart, Proffitt is a fan of area restaurants, including Fern for a quick pasta at the bar; Isabela in Amenia, where Michelin-starred chef Jose Ramirez Ruiz is from Puerto Rico; and Clare de Boer’s Stissing House in Pine Plains.
A perfect day for Proffitt is spent working in her studio overlooking Lake Wononscopomuc, without distractions, rain or shine. It is a quiet and peaceful place that supports her many architecture and design projects. When asked what she would say to a younger version of herself just starting a career, she responded, “Don’t be so shy. As one of my professors told me, ‘Sometimes you just have to crash the party.’ Draw, write, run, play tennis. And travel!”
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