Here at profi our aim is to provide farmers with the information they need to make investment decisions. That’s why we’ve set up a form of Powermix test for milking robots, as outlined on the previous pages. Now it’s time to put theory into practice by finding out how much electricity and water a robot consumes in a 24-hour period. First up for test analysis is Lely’s Astronaut A4.
Robot pioneer Lely was the first manufacturer to take the plunge and put its A4 through our new electric and water Powermix test. The single box milking system was supplied with standard equipment, including software version 3.0 — in other words, everything you would expect to find on a new farm installation.
The test package ran to the standard air powered milk pump for a gentle milk feed, the disinfection system for the rotary teat cleaning brushes with peracetic acid, and a variable speed 1.3kW vacuum pump. The
milking system requires a separate air compressor with dehumidifier, and for this Lely specifies an Atlas Copco unit with a 270-litre tank. Its 3.7kW motor generates an airflow of 0.4m3/min at 6.50-7.75 bar pressure.
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