The hi-spec Lely Astronaut A5 has two robotic milking stations incorporating sophisticated data processing which deliver highly accurate readings in areas such as feed intake, milk yield and individual cow health.

The data is available on touch screen at our new Robotic Milking Centre and also on large screens in the Data Hub, which has also been supported by Lely and is based in our refurbished FIC 5 classroom.

This innovative knowledge exchange facility will enable us to provide training in the emerging areas of digitalisation, robotics, sustainability and data-driven dairy management to students, undergraduates, specialist engineers, Lely clients and members of our farming community. It will also help in the remote delivery of modules, and will make lessons more engaging for students.

We aim to ensure our next generation farmers and industry clients can harness the necessary data and digital technologies to produce sustainable food within the confines of climate change – necessary skills within this fast evolving industry.

Animal science undergraduates are also looking forward to using the generated statistics for a planned project on the potential of feeding biochar to cattle. This will examine biochar’s impact on milk production in dairy cattle and on cow and weaner health and longevity.

The robotic dairy, which also has automated feeding and cleaning systems, operates alongside our traditional milking parlour and this gives learners the unique opportunity to directly compare both methods. Selected cows from our high yielding dairy herd are introduced to the robotic dairy shortly after calving and are returned to the conventional parlour and then out to grass on rotation as lactation decreases.