We’re all aware of the claims car manufacturers make about fuel consumption, only to find the real world figures are generally wide of the mark. To spare our readers this experience with their new milking robot we repeated the in-depth test of a Lely Astronaut A4 on farm — to compare the results with our lab-based test in the 09/2015 issue.

So, just how reliable are profi’s lab-based tests for measuring a robots water and electric consumption? And do these tests reflect real-life experiences? We were keen to find out, so carried out an on-farm assessment of a Lely Astronaut A4 … to see how the results compare with those from trials done in 2015