The speed with which farmers and the agriculture sector adopt new technology was highlighted by Lely’s Niall McGauran, who said the Dutch company was on track for a record year.

“It took Lely 25 years to sell 25,000 [robotic milking systems] and now they’re selling 25,000 a year,” he told the AgTech Ireland conference.

Artificial intelligence (AI) in Lely systems “makes it easier to make better decisions” and gives farmers more time to focus on disease prevention and managing their cows better.

AI has also made Lely support more cost effective.

“When we started out, we had an engineer for every 15 robots. Now we have an engineer for every 50 and providing an awful lot better service,” McGauran said.

“Because using AI, using the diagnostics, you don’t need an engineer who’s a bit of a MacGyver to go in and work out what’s going on.

“He can go in, he can put some information into a system Lely has and it points them in the right direction.”