Farm
A prototype of Lely's Astronaut milking robot milked its first cow in summer 1992.
A dated step forward on the record · Company-reported
What the source says
“This summer 33 years ago (1992), the Astronaut prototype milked its first cow.”
What it means
Milking robots, from Lely, DeLaval, is at stage 5 of 5 on our ladder: regulator-cleared or mass market. Its stage is set by other milestones on its record; this one adds to the history. This line rests on the company's own announcement; no regulator, customer or independent report confirms it in our sources yet.
Human help: Our sources report it working without human help.
More on Milking robots
- Lely now makes only dairy farm robots, and about 135,000 of its robots are in use around the world.
- In 2021, 13 percent of US dairy farms with 150 to 499 cows used robotic milking.
- US government data show robots produced 6 percent of US milk in 2021, up from 4 percent in 2016.
- DeLaval sold its 10,000th VMS milking robot, to Glenirvine Farms in Ontario, Canada.
- Swedish company DeLaval sold its first VMS (Voluntary Milking System) robots in 1998.