Robotic milking approaches under practical conditions

Dairy farmers and professionals will get to witness demonstrations of automatic milking systems during EuroTier 2026 from 10–13 November in Hanover, Germany

The exhibition will display different approaches to robotic milking under identical practical conditions, and visitors can pick the ideal conditions suiting them.

The Barn Robot Event is part of the new EuroTier Milky Way feature, a curated exhibition format bringing together innovations and solutions from across the entire dairy value chain.

This year, GEA, BouMatic and Lely will present their solutions for automatic milking in moderated live demonstrations. Rather than showcasing individual products in isolation, the format allows visitors to compare different automation concepts within the same operational scenarios.

The aim is to help dairy farmers evaluate which approach best fits their own herd size, barn infrastructure and management strategy.

“During the Barn Robot Event, each manufacturer will showcase live how its system works. Through a live feed from the robot to a large LED screen, visitors can follow every detail of the milking process in real time while also being able to observe the robot directly on site.

"This provides an even deeper insight into, and a clearer comparison of, the different milking solutions offered by the manufacturers. The demonstrations will be moderated and accompanied by experts from the participating companies, giving attendees the opportunity to ask questions directly," said Marieke Werth, project manager for the Barn Robot Event.

“The Barn Robot Event therefore offers a neutral overview of different technologies, with this year's focus being automated milking. Its key advantage is that visitors can see and compare all solutions in one place, making it easy to gather information and assess the various approaches side by side,” she added.

The demonstrations will reflect on three practical situations that primarily drive investment decisions on modern dairy farms:

• Conversion of an existing dairy barn from a conventional milking parlour to an automatic milking system with two robots and approximately 100 cows.
• Construction of a new dairy facility using six milking robots for around 300 cows.
• Automatic milking concepts for large-scale dairy operations with approximately 800 cows.
• These herd sizes serve as reference scenarios for comparison. In addition, exhibitors will present further practical examples and operational concepts for a wide range of farm sizes and production systems. 

Visitors can catch the demonstrations live at Hall 13, Stand E43.