ABSTRACT
Insinuating itself at the heart of the millennial domestic relationship, the milking robot transforms the breeding. Does it annihilate it? If the hand of man is no longer indispensable for milking, we are questioning what this delegation implies in the practice of livestock on a daily basis. By establishing a distance between breeder and animals in the farm, does the machine reconfigure domestication, or is it only a technical mediation in addition to the already extensive register of tools for livestock modernization? To answer this question, three points structure the chapter. First, based on a content analysis of the folders issued by a milking robot manufacturer, I identify some of the main elements characterizing the protagonists of robot farming. I then describe the daily life in a robotic dairy farm in Wallonia. Finally, I come back to this question of the (re)configuration of domestication in this particular hybrid community.
