Lely reaches milestone with Vector automatic feeding system

Società Agricola Rendena San Michele has been using the Lely Vector feeding system for many years. The choice for the new generation mixing and feeding robot is a logical one, according to Roberto Tognato. “The new mixing and feeding robot has improved in many aspects, but the faster auger motor was the deciding factor for us. The Rendena cows are a typical breed for our region. Their feed efficiency, fat and casein production are better when they are fed with dry rations only. The faster auger motor ensures that dry rations are cut even better.”

Farmers switching to automatic feeding

“Over the past decade we have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience with automatic feeding,” says Jelmer Ham, Product Manager Feeding at Lely International. “We listened to our customers, conducted research and tried new things. In doing so, we relied on proven principles of automatic feeding, and improved a large part of the system.”

Watch a video on how Lely built the 1000th Vector feeding system

Lely can see reliance on the Vector growing. The added value of automatic feeding is recognised by increasingly more dairy and beef farmers. Jelmer Ham has an explanation for this. “It is a revolutionary system that, in addition to energy and labour savings, has an unprecedented positive effect on cow health and feed efficiency. By feeding more often and more precisely, the nutrients in the feed are optimally utilised. The intelligent software also enables steering based on profitability instead of just on milk yield and weight gain. Both dairy and beef farmers can calculate the effect on their margin of a change in a ration and thus improve their operating results.”

Last year, Lely saw sales of the Vector grow significantly. For this year they expect this upward trend to continue even more strongly. Lely therefore, expects that automatic feeding will be just as accepted and applied as automatic milking in the future.