The Robot & Weiden? Voor Elkaar! project is an initiative of
NAJK, Netwerk GRONDig and Aeres University of Applied Sciences.
When combining robotic milking with grazing, you want to achieve two things at the same time: sufficient grass intake outdoors and enough visits to the milking robot. This requires active management. Within the Robot & Grazing study group, participating dairy farmers use a variety of strategies to achieve this.
Albertine Ekkels (35) is a dairy farmer in Nijeveen, in the southwest of the Dutch province of Drenthe. The farm is home to around 70 dairy cows and 50 head of youngstock. In addition, the farm has a self-service farm shop and keeps sheep for grazing. Albertine previously introduced herself and her farm in an introductory video.
Within the Robot & Grazing? For Each Other! project, practical experience and knowledge are gathered on combining automatic milking with grazing. Based on these insights, five practical tips have been developed to help dairy farmers reduce labour and organise grazing more efficiently.
The 'Robot & Pasture' project focuses on identifying and testing monitoring systems that objectively record the number of hours spent grazing. One of the five systems we are testing is Collie. In addition to tracking grazing hours, Collie offers the added benefit of virtual fencing technology—essentially an invisible fence. Naturally, eliminating the need to install or move posts and wire saves a great deal of time.
How can robotic milking be optimally combined with grazing? Which grazing strategy best suits your farm? And how do you keep a grip on grass growth during a volatile growing season? Participants in the ‘Robot & Grazing’ study groups tackled these questions over the past few weeks during four practical meetings held across the country.
Why do dairy farmers using milking robots deliberately choose to let their cows graze, while others do not? As part of the project *Robot & Weiden? Voor elkaar!* (Robots & Grazing? A Perfect Match!), we conducted in-depth interviews with dairy farmers. The farmer's motivation emerged as the common thread. Technology, infrastructure, and robot capacity are important, but ultimately, it is the farmer who determines the importance of grazing within the farm operation.
During the Grazing Covenant Day, one message was central: the decline in the number of dairy farms with grazing will not stop on its own. Various developments are putting current grazing figures under pressure. Robotization and increasing labor pressure also play a role in this. At the same time, grazing remains of great value to the image and public support of the dairy farming sector.
In Ireland, milk production is based on pasture grass. Most farmers employ a system of block calving, whereby all cows calve within a period of a few weeks starting in early February. The fresh cows go out to pasture day and night as soon as possible. To have a pasture cut available early in the season, farmers start harvesting grass as early as autumn that survives the relatively mild Irish winter unscathed.
Henry Steverink is a dairy farmer in Silvolde, Gelderland, and one of the Robot & Weiden ambassadors. In a new video, Henry delves deeper into combining robotic milking and grazing.
Together with his wife Anja, he runs a modern dairy farm where robotic milking and grazing are combined. The farm houses approximately 100 dairy cows and comprises 50 hectares of land, of which 40 hectares are grassland and 10 hectares are maize. The cows are milked by two milking robots, while grazing is an important part of the farm's operations. Watch Henry's introductory video here.
On April 21 and 22, the Grassland Grazing Days took place at Aeres Farms in Dronten. With more than 200 dairy farming students and young dairy farmers in attendance, this year’s event focused entirely on the theme ‘Smart grazing, smart milking’. Various workshops were organized around grassland management and grazing (in combination with robotic milking). The project Robot & Grazing? We’ve Got It Covered!, a collaboration between NAJK, Aeres University of Applied Sciences Dronten, and Netwerk Grondig, also made an active contribution.
Within the Robot & Grazing project, a key priority is to objectively determine and register grazing during robotic milking.
In March, four dairy farmers joined a study trip to Ireland organized by Robot & Weiden. In a new video, the participants look back on this trip and share what struck them about the Irish farms. They also explain which insights they are taking back to the Netherlands.
"If you want the cows to graze in the pasture, you shouldn’t overfeed them in the barn" and "if you want to make good use of the pasture grass on your farm, you should definitely walk around all your fields at least once a week to monitor the grass growth."
These are just a couple of the lessons that dairy farmer Jan Dirk de Wit from Hazerswoude is taking home with him after a visit to Ireland. At the invitation of the ‘Robots and Pastures? A Perfect Match!’ project, he and three colleagues visited Irish farmers who combine robotic milking with day and night grazing.
Do you milk with a robot and record how many hours your cows spend in the pasture? Then we would love to talk to you!
On 10 February, practitioners, scientists and policymakers from eight countries came together in Brussels as part of the Grazing4AgroEcology project. The central question was: how can policymakers better support grazing?
We brought up a familiar bottleneck from the Netherlands: monitoring grazing at robotic farms. The Robot & Grazing factsheet has previously described how this can be a significant obstacle in practice.
Automatic milking and grazing are often seen as a difficult combination. However, new research from the Robot & Weiden? Voor Elkaar! (Robot & Grazing? For Each Other!) project shows that robot milking and grazing do not have to be mutually exclusive, provided that conscious choices are made that suit the entrepreneur and the business.
The research results were presented on 21 January during a national webinar entitled Robot & Weiden? Voor Elkaar! [Robots & Grazing? For Each Other!]. A compact fact sheet summarises these results and is available online.
On 21 January, the second Webinar Robot & Grazing? For Eachother! took place, live from the location of one of our ambassadors. Were you unable to attend or would you like to watch the webinar again? The webinar is now available to watch.
Today, a new European online platform was launched where dairy farmers from ten countries can exchange practical experiences on the combination of robotic milking and grazing. The platform was set up by and for dairy farmers and focuses on daily practice: www.robotgrazing.eu
Would you like to gain new insights by literally looking across the border? Then this is your chance. From Monday 23 to Wednesday 25 March 2026, a fully catered study trip to Ireland will be organised. During this trip, you will visit professional Irish dairy farms, where grass, craftsmanship and technology come together. The four winners will be announced on 21 January 2026 during a live webinar.
Sweden is a pioneer in robotic milking and the only country in the EU where grazing is legally required. Since 1988, Swedish law has mandated grazing, supported by a widely accepted social norm. Not only dairy cows but also youngstock from six months old must go outside. Interestingly, the law does not require cows to actually consume grass—it’s about access to pasture. Many Swedish farms therefore have a simple exercise paddock. Yet, there are also highly committed grazers who manage to achieve many grazing hours. These farms prove that robotic milking and grazing can go hand in hand.
Last month, four Dutch dairy farmers—the winners of the study trip—visited four Swedish dairy farms. There, it became clear that cows can easily graze outdoors while being milked by robots. The result? New experiences, surprising insights, and renewed confidence in the power of automation combined with grazing.
Your input helps the sector to think ahead én to act.
The questionnaire is ready here: https://nl.surveymonkey.com/r/RobotWeiden
A project is the perfect opportunity to scrutinize existing rules and opinions. Take the current condition for the pasture premium:
Did you miss it? No problem, you can watch the webinar now
During the kickoff of the Robot & Weiden project, we delve into the opportunities and challenges of automatic milking combined with grazing.
The suspense is over. Four winners for the free study trip to Sweden have been announced!
The draw took place live during the webinar on April 23.
Sign up for news about our project.
Nederlands Agrarisch Jongeren Kontakt
Smallepad 32 – Wing 1, Floor 6
3811 MG Amersfoort
The project ‘Robot & Grazing? We can do it!’ is an initiative of the Working Group Meerweiden and is carried out by NAJK, Aeres University of Applied Sciences, and Network GRONDig.
