DELAVAL

SUSTAINABILITY

Making dairy farming a sustainable business

Our vision is to make sustainable food production possible. This means finding ways to help our customers – dairy farmers – create sustainable businesses. We look at this from four main perspectives: animal welfare, environmental sustainability, social responsibility and farm profitability. At the same time, we continuously monitor and improve the sustainability of our own operations.

Animal welfare relates to extending the productive lifetime of the cow. By providing better conditions for animals, farmers can improve their milk yield and milk quality and reduce their
enviornmental impact.

Farm profitability entails helping our customers maintain a profitable business in the long term through leadership and driving improvements. With a profitable business, farmers can implement improvements in productivity, social progress and environmental performance.

Social responsibility is about respecting and advancing human rights according to the UN definition. We particularly focus on creating sound working conditions for both our employees and farm workers.

Environmental sustainability involves taking a long-term perspective while using the latest scientific insights and technologies to improve the resource efficiency of not only our customers’ operations, but also our own.

PRODUCTS THAT HELP FARMERS BECOME MORE SUSTAINABLE

During 2018, we launched a number of systems, products and services that assist farmers in improving animal welfare, social sustainability, environmental sustainability and/or farm profitability.

DeLaval Evanza™ milking cluster

The DeLaval Evanza milking cluster uses the Clover cartridge, which has a lifespan twice as long as conventional liners, reducing waste. They are replaced effortlessly, improving the working conditions of farmers. The cluster is light and easy to handle and the cartrdiges are made of 100 per cent recyclable materials. Milk flow in these clusters is up to 9.3 per cent higher on farms that have been tested.

DeLaval VMS milking system V300

The VMS V300 milking system reduces water consumption by up to 18 per cent and power consumption by up to 34.3 per cent compared to previous models1. This is based on data gathered on several pilot farms. Fewer labour hours are now required, no tank milk is wasted and  the milking robot can increase milking capacity by up to 10 per cent. It’s also designed to be easier to service for farmers and technicians.

DeLaval OptiDuo™ robotic feed pusher

The new robotic feed pusher DeLaval OptiDuo does more than just push feed at the cows. It also remixes and repositions feed onto the feed table. This means less waste and makes life easier for the cows. Lower ranked cows no longer lose out in the competition for feed at the table. With DeLaval OptiDuo all cows have access to fresh feed, improving the welfare of the animals.

Materiality Assessment

We regularly analyse what is most important for us to focus on by using a materiality assessment. This entails interviewing both internal and external stakeholders to get their standpoints on which sustainability areas DeLaval should focus on. We performed our second analysis in 2018–2019.