Farmer Tim Gibson has put himself out of a job after teaching his cows to milk themselves.

Mr Gibson, 23, used to spend nine hours a day in the milking parlour and had to get up at 5am to begin his work.

Now he's the toast of the agricultural industry after installing a pioneering "milking robot" on his family's farm.

The £60,000 machine allows his 140 cattle to leave the field and milk themselves as often as they want to.

At first, his herd - used to being rounded up for milking twice a day - were suspicious of the device.

Mr Gibson had to coax them from the fields and into the milking booth, which he has set up in an outbuilding at Hunter's Hill Farm, Crakehall, North Yorkshire.

Once inside, the animals receive a measure of feed, have their udders washed and sterilised by a robot arm, then computer-guided suction cups attach themselves to their teats. Their milk is tested for impurities before a gate opens allowing them to back into the field.

Mr Gibson is now the most talked about farmer in the Yorkshire Dales, and when he held an open day to show off his machine he was stunned when more than 700 attended.

He said: "I just don't know what to do with my time any more. Now the cattle are looking after themselves, I can stay in bed."

Mr Gibson, who works on the farm with his parents, David and Denny, heard about the Dutch Lely Astronaut system while at agricultural college. He took a huge risk in bringing it to Britain but said he has had a great response from farmers across the country.