DeLaval contributes to global food accessibility
By providing industry-leading products and services, DeLaval enables dairy farmers to optimise productivity, profitability, milk quality and animal health – which makes milk available to more people around the world.
Milk is one of the most essential foods and is of huge nutritional importance for people – particularly for the growth and development of children. With the demand for dairy growing around twice as fast as population growth, global access to good-quality milk is more important than ever.
“We give farmers around the world the tools to optimise the productivity of their dairy operations through precision farming,” explains Carl Oskar Paulrud, Dairy Development Director. “We do this by providing industry-leading products and solutions for various kinds of dairy farm. In this sense, DeLaval plays an important role in helping farmers to supply the world with good quality milk.”
Making sustainable food production possible
“Farm efficiency goes hand in hand with reducing environmental impact, animal welfare, and milk quality,” says Ilka Klaas, Dairy Development Director. “For example, by promoting cow health, longevity and through precision reproduction processes, we can promote resource efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and decrease waste.”
Lifecycle assessments show that improving farm efficiency also reduces the carbon footprint of milk production in intensive dairy production systems. Studies demonstrate that small-scale dairy farms can have three times the climate impact compared to large-scale modern dairies that use the latest technology.
Healthier and more productive cows
The global trend is towards larger farms in the world, which research shows tend to be more efficient, more sustainable, better for animal welfare and can deliver greater milk quality and profitability. As an industry leader in cutting-edge automated dairy farm solutions and sensors, DeLaval has an important role in empowering farmers to make better decisions for their cows, the environment, consumers, and their business.
“Our solutions optimise milking, monitor and promote the health, prevent illness, and increase the longevity of animals by enabling farmers to make better decisions and interventions,” says Klaas. “Optimised milking and cow health directly translate into farm productivity and profitability.”
Good cow health is also fundamental for avoiding milk losses during withdrawal periods for veterinary treatment when milk cannot be used. In fact, precision dairy farming has proven to help reduce the need for various medicines, hormones and antibiotics.
Inspiring the scientists of tomorrow
DeLaval has a long history of supporting research collaborations with leading research institutions and universities including master’s theses, PhD theses, and other research and networking projects. A new initiative launched in 2022 was the Gustaf de Laval Fund that supports young scientists and students with their innovative research projects.
“As part of our work with PhD and master’s students on cutting-edge research, two of our PhD students recently completed their projects on how to monitor and manage mastitis with sensor systems,” says Klaas. “Both these PhD students are now employed at DeLaval and their work with cow health is influencing the next generation of our sensor solutions.”
Proactively driving the dairy industry
DeLaval also promotes food accessibility around the world by driving the development of new milking standards. This includes an ongoing three-year project to develop a new modern standard to replace four existing ISO milking standards. Carl Oskar Paulrud chairs the work with dairy partners around the world.
“A new merged standard will be a huge step forward for modern milking by focusing on what matters – the cow, milk quality and the user. This is a concrete example of how we at DeLaval contribute to food accessibility around the world by further driving productivity, profitability, quality and animal health across the dairy industry,” concludes Paulrud.
Compliance and food accessibility
Compliance is a prerequisite for DeLaval to promote global access to its industry-leading products and services that
enable farmers around the world to deliver safe working
environments, healthy cows and safe milk.
How DeLaval works with compliance
DeLaval products and services are subject to a variety of local, regional and international regulations that must be complied with before it can do business in particular countries. Most of the relevant regulations are related to safety – such as to ensure they can be used safely and enable a good working environment, food safety standards and end-of-life environmental regulations.
“We focus on meeting leading industry regulations from the EU, US and China, as well as meeting or exceeding all local requirements and constantly monitoring legislative changes,” explains Susan Ballhausen Bjelke, Director Quality & Compliance. “Our ‘safety first’ approach helps farmers run more sustainable operations that deliver good-quality milk to consumers around the world.”
Enabling farmers to go beyond compliance
“Providing products and services that make things easier for farmers is at the heart of what we do,” says Ballhausen Bjelke. “Doing so isn’t directly part of our compliance, but it helps farmers to meet the obligations they have for their workers, animals and milk.”
Examples of this include solutions that promote a safer work environment by reducing the need for heavy lifting or features that check milk quality. In this way, DeLaval helps farmers to meet local regulations.
“By continuously working to design and offer smarter products and services, we promote food accessibility around the world,” says Ballhausen Bjelke.
Customers have their say on DeLaval’s advisory services.
Darita Holsteins, USA
Herd size: 115 milking cows
DeLaval has provided advisory services to support the farm to meet their production, machine performance, and cow management and reproduction goals. Good communication between service technicians and advisors has been key to success for the farm.
“We have appreciated the close collaboration with DeLaval experts, which has overall been a very positive experience where both farmer and advisors have pushed each other to become better in all aspects of farm management. Our farm has always been highly productive but being the first V300 farm in our area and transitioning to robotics further improved our milking efficiency and allowed our
excellent genetics to shine.”
Darrell Richard, Farm Manager at Darita Holsteins.
Jason Martin Farm, USA
Herd size: 268 milking cows
“During my transition to DeLaval Robotic Milking over the last three years, Advisory Services have provided me with close assistance and support throughout. From the remote meetings during the months leading up to the start-up of my equipment and visiting in person to assist in learning new routines, to reviewing data and finding ways to improve my operation and understanding the dynamics of my herd – it’s been a pleasure to work with the entire DeLaval team to help me to achieve my goals.”
Jason Martin, Owner
