This Tinamba West farm has 16 automated robots milking cows 24-hours a day
Alister Clyne says moving to a mechanical dairy might not be for everyone but the benefits outweigh the risks.
Jacob Wallace
October 29, 2025
When Alister Clyne’s great-great-grandfather David first stepped onto the family's farm in Newry, in 1873, the land was dense with gum trees and bush.
In the 140 years since then, the farm has gone from milking cows by hand, to utilising a rotary dairy. Now, Alister is taking it to the next stage: Robots.
The backstory: In July 2023, Clyne decided to move from a 50-unit rotary dairy to become one of Australia’s largest robotic milking facilities. The Gippsland Monitor visited the farm in September, as part of the Gippsland New Energy Conference.
“My economy basically became the robot economy,” Clyne said. “Back then a robot was about $200,000 to $250,000. I’d think to myself: ‘What do we need to do on the farm, a new building or irrigator? That's one and a half robots.”
How many does he have? Clyne installed 16 DeLaval VMS V300 robots. These robots are operational 24 hours a day and milk the 1,150 cows on his dairy farm.
One of Alister Clyne’s 16 DeLaval VMS V300 robots.
How do the robots work?
The dairy shed in the middle of the farm has 16 DeLaval boxes which cows can freely enter when they want to be milked.
The cows are able to stand inside the boxes as automated arms from the machines latch onto their udders and extract the milk.
Once they’ve been through the machine a microchip in the cow is scanned and they are directed to a new pasture based on a computerised plan.
But how do you motivate cows to go into the boxes?
Clyne has a simple way of explaining the whole process: “If you put a task between a person and getting to a fridge full of food, the task gets done”.
The new pastures the cows are directed to are full of fresh feed, giving the cows the opportunity to run on their own schedule.
🗣️ “There are cows who want to come in at 2am and 2pm, but then there's cows everywhere in between. Some will come three times a day but there'll be a paddock open, a full fridge, waiting for them after each time.”
75 cows per robot: Clyne said based on the way his system operates, 75 cows could be milked per robot per day, and each cow gets milked 2.2 times a day on average which results in 25 to 35 litres of milk per cow a day.
Inside the milking shed on Alister Clyne’s property.
Are clankers taking over? Clyne said although there are plenty of benefits to installing robots, it might not be for everyone.
“If you're not on your game, there's a risk of you losing money because you've made a big investment. You've basically paid your labour forward for 10 years, so every day you’ve got to be trying to get the benefit out of the robots.”
An investment worth looking after: The robots require maintenance just like any other type of machinery. Learning how to repair them took Clyne and his assistants time. Milking reports also have to be checked daily to make sure the system is working properly
Clyne told the Monitor the increase in profitability has not been astronomical – but the quality of life benefits have improved his mental health and lessened his fatigue.
🗣️ “Dairy farming is pretty intense. You don't need to go robotics but if you want to try and reduce your labour, reduce injuries and repetitive stress while increasing quality of life for your workers, it's a no brainer - but on a cost basis.”
The question of cost: When Clyne installed his first robots in 2023 he was already generating enough solar energy to power the machines throughout the day during eight months of the year.
Nowadays, his farm gets two thirds of its power from solar and renewable energy - and he has plans to expand.
“In most dairies, 80 percent of the power required is just from heating hot water and cooling milk combined. It's very energy intensive,” said Clyne.
The solar farm on Alister Clyne’s Tinamba West property.
Why so much hot water? The milk lines in Clyne’s dairy must be washed with hot water twice a day to ensure there is no build up of milk and bacteria.
Some of this bacteria can be heat resistant, and if water is not hot enough it won’t kill the bugs.
Clyne is looking to double the amount of hot water he can generate. Expanding the amount of energy he produces is the most cost effective way to do that.
To increase his power generation capacity Clyne is looking to double the 100kW solar farm he is operating on his Tinamba West property and is considering installing a 50kW-100kW battery to soak up his excess solar as well.
