DeLaval began redeveloping its Hamra Farm into a more modern and sustainable dairy in 2022. The 18,000 m² demonstration farm will include new barns, four new automatic milking robots (DeLaval VMS™) and more digital solutions to further improve animal health, quality and efficiency. Hamra Farm will be home to twice as many cows. “With a focus on our animals and their well-being, our philosophy has always been that good animal husbandry and long-term planning often result in good yield,” says Johan Bjurevall, Managing Director at Hamra Farm. “We are incredibly happy with the new possibilities the investment will give us.”
The DeLaval Scientific Committee began accepting funding applications from master’s and Ph.D. students all over the globe to join the DeLaval student programme. In 2022, the focus area was precision dairy farming and production management, and in particular the monitoring and management of dairy cattle to improve health, welfare and efficiency of milk production to strengthen sustainable food production. Projects that promote more sustainable dairy production, improved animal welfare, milk production efficiency, farm economics, or health and longevity were prioritised in the evaluation process.
In 2022, DeLaval was included in the CBS News Global Thought Leaders series, which is a platform managed by CBS News to highlight how business today can shape the world of tomorrow. DeLaval uses the platform to showcase its various solutions that help farmers to streamline their production and reduce their environmental footprint, with a focus on improved food production, profitability and the well-being of people and animals. “We are very proud to be part of CBS News Global Thought Leaders. The platform gives us the opportunity communicate to a wider audience on how we are part of the solution for more sustainable food production,” says Anna-Pia Järnfors, Corporate Communications.
The new system increases milking efficiency, streamlines worker routines, automates the selecting and sorting of cows, and minimises stress on dairy cattle. It does this through features that provide more information, automation, functions and technology. “The DeLaval E-series rotaries represent a new era in efficient dairy technology,” says Pat Wiltzius, Milking Systems Development Manager. “We have taken a 360-degree view of our customers’ – to prioritise animal welfare, farm profitability, food safety and work efficiency.”
Based on an assessment of the company’s CO2 footprint, DeLaval switched to sourcing renewable electricity for its Polish factories. “When we found out about our high emissions due to the fact that we sourced much of our electricity from coal-fired power stations in Poland, we switched to sourcing renewable electricity from wind and hydro energy,” says Katarzyna Dzusajew, DeLaval Detergent Plant Manager and part of the DeLaval Sustainability Group. By sourcing renewable electricity, DeLaval’s four factories in Poland avoided producing around 3,413,091kg of CO2 in 2022.
The DeLaval comfort control CL unit controls all the manure scrapers and wooden culverts in a barn from a single user-friendly and intuitive touch screen. The system is fitted with adaptive scraping that uses advanced algorithms to optimise its operation over time. The smart solution helps farmers to reduce electricity costs as the scraper is not used unnecessarily and because the operating times are set automatically. Having well-scraped floors also promotes clean barns that improve hoof health for cows. DeLaval comfort control CL is available in two different versions – for scrapers using either a chain cable or a hydraulic system.