Happy Cows, Happy Life
The first time Lauren Hackfeld saw Will Collier, she knew she was going to marry him. She was a high school freshman at a Future Farmers of America convention. He was a college freshman and a featured speaker. She wasn’t a dairy farmer, but she loved the way he talked about his cows.
“I thought this would be a very boring event,” she says. “And so he got up and spoke, and he was just this dynamic speaker. I'm not sure anybody else felt that way,” she adds – most people see Will as reserved and quiet. But to Lauren: “He just got up there and lit up the room, in my eyes.”
She leaned over and told her friend that she was going to marry him. They officially met not long after that, and once Lauren was in college, they went on their first date. Second only to his blue eyes, what attracted Lauren most was the passion he showed for the creatures placed under his care.
“I remember telling her when we first started dating that she was number 2,001,” says Will. “That I had 2,000 cows to take care of and she was 2,001. And when she stuck around after me telling her that, I knew that she understood that I was always going to be committed to making the family farm work.”
That obsession showed even in Will’s first plans for their wedding.
“I remember Will saying he didn't really want to take off,” Lauren chuckles. “So he was asking if we could just get the preacher to come to the milk parlor and we could just do it there, but his mom talked him out of that.”
Will soon learned that, even though his cows needed 24/7 care, things worked better in the business when he reordered his priorities.
“I figured out that I needed to put her first and put the cows next and my kids, even, between her and the cows. She was patient and understanding and knew what it took to put up with me.”
They’ve built a powerful partnership over the years, raising three kids and thousands of cows on T&K Dairy, the dairy they took over from Will’s dad and granddad, Tim and Keith.
Will’s usually the one to keep everything moving. Lauren’s the one to help everyone pause and have a laugh together.
But it was Lauren who first suggested the switch to a robotic milking system when they saw it at a convention. Will pushed back; it was brand new technology, and he didn’t want to risk being the first. Then a few years later, as it became harder and harder to hire staff, Will was the one to convince Lauren it was time to try.
This was one of the biggest leaps the Colliers would make together. They wouldn’t only be the first fully automated robotic milking barn in Texas; they would be the first in the world to use this particular system. It wasn’t just the challenge of installing the machinery; it was about retraining the cows, who love routine more than anything else.
But the Colliers did it, with the help of their kids, Jax, Tymrie and Jagger; their extended family; the entire T&K staff; members of the rodeo team from the local Western Texas College; and curious dairymen who came from all over – even from as far as Australia – to help out and to learn about the technology.
“I think the really sweet, surprising part was the number of people that came to help us,” Lauren remembers. “We had people that came and worked 12-hour days helping us.”
With the new system, instead of waiting for scheduled milkings two or three times per day, each cow chooses whenever she wants to be milked – walking into the robot by herself and getting a treat to snack on while the machine gently cleans her udders and milks her.
There’s a benefit to the indoor barn, too.
“More so of a controlled climate than outdoors,” says youngest son Jagger. “We can keep it about 80, 85 degrees when it's 100 degrees outside, so that's less stress on the cattle. When there're rains or snows or wind, you're not seeing that as much with three sides fully enclosed. They're just more comfortable.”
Some of the T&K cows never learned to like the robotic system. So the Colliers didn’t force it on them, but let them go back to the conventional milking parlor and dry lot barns.
“Happy cows, happy life. That’s what my mom always says,” daughter Tymrie explains.
It’s a memorable way to express their broader mindset.
As Lauren says: “It's a huge responsibility. And it can really weigh you down if you let it. Or, you can feel just completely blessed that the Lord has allowed you to be over that many animals, and to really take care of them and love them, and to take care of that land.”
The Collier kids are already carrying on that legacy of care in their own lives. Oldest son Jax has moved out of a dairy career, but he takes the same dedication into real estate.
“I may not have chosen a field of agriculture,” he says, “but I'll always advocate for it. I wish people really understood how much care and love that these farmers put into their animals, that they put into their farms too, their crops.”
Tymrie is in college at Texas Tech, busy with lots of extracurriculars but still finding time to help in the office at T&K. Her experience on the family dairy has shaped her in many ways.
“I think the biggest way that it will help me is knowing that there will be challenges and there will be hard times,” she says. “But if you work through it and you trust in yourself and trust in God's plan, something good will come out of it and you'll learn from it.”
As for Jagger, he can’t get enough of the farm and animals.
“I really love the farming side of it for sure,” he says. “I see myself taking over the dairy and keeping the family tradition along. Hopefully, have a family and embrace it with them like my parents have us.”
“Hopefully Will and I are not milking cows into our 80s or 90s,” Lauren laughs. “But I'm hopeful that we'll see our kids and our grandkids taking that legacy over – and doing it their way.”
“I figured out that I needed to put her first and put the cows next and my kids, even, between her and the cows. She was patient and understanding and knew what it took to put up with me.”
