We run Lely Astronauts on pasture too, and yeah, it’s a bit of a balancing act. The biggest thing is getting cows to the robot often enough. We keep paddocks close — no more than about 500 m from the robot — and use a Grazeway gate so cows have to walk past the robot to get back out. We feed a good hit of concentrate in the robot. That’s what keeps them coming in, even when the grass is sweet. If visits start dropping, we tweak the feed or open a fresh strip of grass a little later so they have a reason to come up. As for the A4 problems — yeah, we had some headaches early on. Pinch sleeves wore out faster than we liked, a few missed quarter attachments, and SCC crept up. We learned to keep spare sleeves on the shelf and swap them before they fail. We also stay on top of maintenance — vacuum checks, teat cup alignment, all of it — and we watch the Horizon data like a hawk. If we see cows skipping visits or a sudden SCC jump, we act quick. Bottom line: the robots work fine with grazing, but you have to manage traffic, feed, and maintenance every day. Don’t just “set and forget” — treat it like another herd chore. Since we tightened up those routines, milk yield’s been steady and cows are healthy.

We run Lely Astronauts on pasture too, and yeah, it’s a bit of a balancing act. The biggest thing is getting cows to the robot often enough. We keep paddocks close — no more than about 500 m from the robot — and use a Grazeway gate so cows have to walk past the robot to get back out. We feed a good hit of concentrate in the robot. That’s what keeps them coming in, even when the grass is sweet. If visits start dropping, we tweak the feed or open a fresh strip of grass a little later so they have a reason to come up. As for the A4 problems — yeah, we had some headaches early on. Pinch sleeves wore out faster than we liked, a few missed quarter attachments, and SCC crept up. We learned to keep spare sleeves on the shelf and swap them before they fail. We also stay on top of maintenance — vacuum checks, teat cup alignment, all of it — and we watch the Horizon data like a hawk. If we see cows skipping visits or a sudden SCC jump, we act quick. Bottom line: the robots work fine with grazing, but you have to manage traffic, feed, and maintenance every day. Don’t just “set and forget” — treat it like another herd chore. Since we tightened up those routines, milk yield’s been steady and cows are healthy.