How we see the future of farming
Bright farming starts with bright business
Introduction
Enhance profitability, enjoyment and sustainability
As farming innovators, we want to contribute to a bright future for dairy farmers all around the world. We are driven to understand our customers’ needs so we can develop and deliver solutions that fit their needs.
Every action and interaction within our value chain contributes to realising our mission: from the way we run our operations to the impact our work has throughout the dairy chain. Our journey towards a sustainable, profitable and enjoyable future in dairy farming is based on two pillars: Bright Business and Bright Farming.
Bright Farming
Bright farming is farming at its best: sustainable, profitable and enjoyable for both farmer and cow. It takes everything that matters into account: the environment, soil health and biodiversity, cost efficiency, consumer preferences and, most importantly, the comfort and health of the cows and farmers who give it their all every day.
Farmers are unique in how they shape their future. Needs, challenges, dreams and visions differ from farmer to farmer and farm to farm. They depend on variables such as farm location, market dynamics, economics and the farmer’s family composition.
However, all our products, tools and services aim to enhance profitability, enjoyment and sustainability for farmers. Technological solutions and farming management advice are based on all activities on the farm, from feeding to milking, from manure handling to medicine administration, and from cow health to cow comfort. Our machines work around the clock so farmers can focus on the results they gather and the choices they need to make to take care of their cows and run a successful business.
How we see the future of farming
Farmers are essential for meeting the world’s increasing demand for food. But as the impact of farming on the environment comes under more scrutiny and regulations become stricter, dairy farmers also have to adapt to guarantee their future.
All these elements are part of our vision on the farm of the future, in which:
- Incorporating circularity in dairy farming has been further developed: valuable nutrients are reused, cows are fed fresh grass, waste is limited, emissions are minimised and a closer link between farmer and consumer is created.
- Farming operations are further optimised and the data available used intelligently for predictive maintenance.
Bright Business
Taking responsibility for our environmental and climate impact is an obvious requirement for doing business today and tomorrow. We want to be a responsible business and use our impact to do good. In recent years, we started taking steps to determine where we need to take action to make our business operations more sustainable.
For us, being a responsible business means becoming CO2-neutral, for our own operations and activities (scope 1 and 2 of the GHG-protocol), continuously striving for maximum circularity, sourcing responsibly and creating a sustainable supply chain. We prioritise the areas in which we have the most impact and engage relevant stakeholders to help us realise our ambitions.
We challenge the choices we make, continuously strive to improve the way we work and look for more responsible options. Sustainability demands improvements in the whole production chain, from the raw materials that make our machines and the energy to run our processes and buildings, to how we take care of our employees. But we also motivate the people and partners we work with to do the same and work together on sustainable practices in the chain.
Our business activities
The basis of our sustainability journey
We strive to run our business responsibly and offer a great workplace for our people and the next generation of professionals.
Lely Campus
A hub of innovation and creation
Our head office and Dutch production facilities have been under one roof at the Lely Campus since 2013. It’s the beating heart of our organisation. Having our own production facilities is essential for us to be able to react quickly to changing market conditions. To meet our vision of being a sustainable business, we developed new production facilities to run sustainable production. Together, our offices and factory became the most sustainable business complex in Europe.
Reconditioned robots
Durable and energy-efficient machines
In our production development, we look critically at the usage of raw materials and the processes we need for making our machines. Wherever we can, we reduce the use of moving parts to ensure our machines and solutions are prepared for long-term use. By reducing the use of materials, we make the machines more maintenance-friendly and lengthen their lifespan. The machines are durable and use as little energy as possible.
A great place to work
Creating a safe, healthy and inspiring working environment
Although innovative technologies drive our company, we thrive because of our people. They are an integral part of realising our ambitions and moving us forward. Their creativity translates farmers’ challenges into the right solutions. For creativity to flourish, we strive to create a safe, healthy and inspiring working environment in every layer of our organisation. By stimulating our employees’ personal and professional development and making them part of a bigger community, we want to help them become the best they can be.
Environment responsibly
A positive impact
To respond to the global food challenge for 2050, it is key to treat people, animals and the environment responsibly. We want to help shape a sustainable future for the agricultural industry with an awareness of the world around us. We do this by introducing new, integrated solutions that make a significant and positive impact on cows, people and the planet. This means contributing to reversing the environmental impact of dairy farming while continuing to improve cow welfare and the financial and social well-being of farmers.
The dairy sector’s most valuable supplier of resources
At Lely, the cow is at the centre of everything we do. It’s the dairy sector’s most valuable supplier: when a cow is comfortable, well fed and healthy, her performance will be optimal. Every innovation we develop and service we provide aims to improve animal welfare on dairy farms.
Our approach to solutions and practices is twofold:
- We improve cow health by paying attention to individual cows (in turn helping to reduce the use of antibiotics, for instance), reducing health issues and improving calf resilience.
- We encourage natural cow behaviour, such as enabling free cow traffic and extending cow longevity.
The basis of what we do
We view sustainability as a long-term commitment that requires healthy relationships with everyone we work with and for. Our mission is to contribute to the well-being of all stakeholders involved, from suppliers to customers and from Lely employees creating new inventions in our production facilities to their colleagues at Lely Centres around the world.
Our solutions and practices aim to:
- Enhance farmers’ social and financial well-being. We reduce dangerous and hard work, minimise repetitive tasks and enable safe, qualitative (nutrient-dense) and efficient milk production.
- Increase transparency for the consumer. We shorten the dairy supply chain, enable dairy traceability and promote qualitative dairy.
- Get the best out of our employees and enable them to get the best out of themselves. We provide not only an inspiring workplace that promotes personal development and fitness but also a safe and healthy work environment, and we help to make them part of a bigger community.
- Create a fair and transparent supply chain by working with our suppliers as long-term partners. We work under fair and transparent conditions and work together to make our supply chain more sustainable.
- Strive for positive collaboration with our Lely Centers and increasing satisfaction scores. We increase the quality of our products and optimise our downstream service levels (e.g. better service intervals, response time, delivery time and issue response).
Our home, providing the resources we depend on
Our solutions and services aim to help dairy farmers not only transition to becoming futureproof but also contribute to reversing the environmental impact in all parts of the dairy chain. The footprint of dairy products is the total impact of all links in the dairy chain. This means every stakeholder involved is expected to challenge their processes and strive to become more sustainable – including Lely.
Our approach is threefold:
- We develop on-farm solutions that benefit the climate and natural resources by replacing on-farm fossil use, reducing on-farm climate impact (e.g. reducing the use of energy, water and materials/consumables), increasing on-farm circularity and making local cow feed possible.
- We develop on-farm solutions that benefit soil and farmland and make a positive impact on the biodiversity of farmland and its surroundings and water retention capacity.
- We work towards becoming a more responsible business by becoming CO2-neutral, for our own operations and activities (scope 1 and 2 of the GHG-protocol), striving towards maximum circularity, sourcing responsibly and creating a sustainable supply chain.