Detail map of Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands,Greenwich, New York, United States

A: Maassluis, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands, B: Greenwich, New York, United States

Lely Introduces the Astronaut Robotic Cow Milking System

1995

In 1995 Lely introduced the first version of the Lely Astronaut milking robot. By 1997 they had sold 100 machines. By 2010 Lely introduced the Lely Astronaut A4."The revolutionary iFlow concept further lowers the threshold for cows to allow themselves to be milked. The A4 has a modular design: a central unit contains a vacuum and cleaning system for a maximum of two milking units. In addition, there are the 3D camera and electronic cleaning brushes." By 2018 they introduced the Astronaut A5. 

This I first learned about on April 22, 2014 when I read an article in the The New York Times published an article by Jesse McKinley entitled, "With Farm Robotics, the Cows Decide When It's Milking Time," reporting on a robotic installation on a dairy farm in Easton, New York. More than any article I had previously read, this brought home the reality that robots had moved from the factory floor to lines of work that I would not previously have imagined. From it I quote:

"Desperate for reliable labor and buoyed by soaring prices, dairy operations across the state are charging into a brave new world of udder care: robotic milkers, which feed and milk cow after cow without the help of a single farmhand.

"Scores of the machines have popped up across New York’s dairy belt and in other states in recent years, changing age-old patterns of daily farm life and reinvigorating the allure of agriculture for a younger, tech-savvy — and manure-averse — generation.

“ 'We’re used to computers and stuff, and it’s more in line with that,' said Mike Borden, 29, a seventh-generation dairyman, whose farm upgraded to robots, as others did, when disco-era milking parlors — the big, mechanized turntables that farmers use to milk many cows at once — started showing their age.

“ 'And,' Mr. Borden added, 'it’s a lot more fun than doing manual labor.'

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