Brunton Dairy, an old-fashioned family business shuttered by a 2023 fire, just reopened in the Digital Age.

“The cows adjusted to the technology faster than we did,” Herb Brunton says with a laugh as he tinkers with new, high-tech milk processing equipment. “The way the world’s going now, you have to.”

For seven generations, the Bruntons have maintained the 210-acre property in Independence without a lot of gadgets and gizmos. Now they’re working with automated milkers, a Roomba-esque manure machine and a cow-recognition system that measures the health data of all 103 Holsteins.

Since June, the “robots” have streamlined operations at the Beaver County dairy, helping their human counterparts churn out whole, 2% and chocolate milk in plastic pints and half-gallon glass bottles that add Am

See Full Page