Lely Astronaut Max Robotic Milking for Large Dairy Farms

Lely is a Dutch dairy farming technology company headquartered at the Lely Campus in Maassluis, the Netherlands, with Lely Centers serving farmers in many countries including China, Taiwan and Australia. It develops robots and software for milking, feeding, manure handling and herd management to reduce labour on dairy farms and improve cow health.

Lely Astronaut Max applies decentralised automatic milking to large dairy farms. Several Astronaut robots in the barn are connected to one central unit outside the pen that collects filtered, cooled milk over long distances and supplies vacuum, hot-water cleaning, detergents and udder care products to every robot. Cows visit the robots voluntarily in free cow traffic, while managers plan maintenance and monitor milk, cow health and robot performance in the Lely Horizon farm management software. The design centralises chemicals and equipment to make operations safer and easier to expand.

• Decentralised milking: multiple Astronaut robots placed in the barn for free cow traffic.
• Central receiver unit: collects milk from all robots independently with a dual-tank setup.
• Long-distance milk transport: delivers filtered and cooled milk to tanks over large distances.
• Central utilities: vacuum, hot cleaning, detergents and udder care supplied to every robot.
• Lely Horizon: farm management software for milk, cow health and maintenance planning.
• Scalable layout: robots can be added as the dairy operation expands.

• Dairy companies building new large barns with robotic milking instead of rotary parlours.
• Existing dairy farms expanding herd size while limiting additional staff.
• Dairy processors improving milk quality and traceability at supplier farms.

• Shortens the payback period compared with regular setups through higher milking capacity and labour savings, according to Lely.
• Improves cooling, water and hygiene efficiency by centralising utilities for all robots.
• Creates a safer workplace with central handling of chemicals outside the pen.
• Gives low-ranked cows better robot access and a quieter environment, supporting cow comfort.

Large dairy farms face rising labour costs and a shortage of skilled milkers, which drives adoption of robotic milking and data-based herd management. Vietnam's dairy production is concentrated in large, modern farms run by major dairy companies, a setting where decentralised robotic milking can raise efficiency and milk quality.

Lely is headquartered at the Lely Campus in Maassluis, the Netherlands, where over 1,400 employees gathered for its 'Impact Live!' ESG initiative in June 2026. It published its 2025 annual report with a CSRD-aligned ESG framework, and its Discovery Collector manure robot passed 10,000 units sold in 2026.