Products, farmers and animal welfare

“Animal welfare is an integral part of what we do. It is important for our customers, dealer, employees and other stakeholders and it continues to be a high priority. DeLaval has a 140-year-old history where animals have been at the centre of our business and our innovations centered around what is good for the animal”, says Fabian Bernal, Head of Sustainability at DeLaval.

Five freedoms of Animal Welfare

Animal welfare can be described as the animals’ mental and physical state of well-being. As a company we are fully committed to following the globally established ‘five freedoms’ of animal welfare.

1. Animals should be free from thirst and hunger
   They should always receive a sufficient and appropriate supply of feed and water to maintain health and vigour.
2. Animals should be free from discomfort
   They should be given suitable shelter and a comfortable resting area.
3. Animals should be free from pain, injury, and disease
   Appropriate steps should be taken to prevent, detect, and properly manage animal diseases and to protect against unnecessary or unreasonable pain.
4. Animals should be free from fear and distress
   This means banning any practices that cause mental suffer-ing and distress to animals.
5. Animals should be free to express normal animal behavior
   They should be able to live in reasonable harmony with sufficient space, proper facilities and the company of the animal’s own kind.
   
   

How DeLaval support our customers
We support animal welfare in the herds of our customers by ensuring animal welfare is an integrated part in the development of our products and solutions.  We also offer support through our dairy advisors and work with education and training internally and externally. Another important aspect is our continuous research collaborations with universities and organisations.

“We are committed to helping farmers increase the productive lifetime of their animals through quality animal care. We are against any act of animal cruelty. Animal welfare also has a direct effect on several other aspects of our sustainability approach, such as long-term profitability for farmers and food safety”, Fabian concludes.

Product Management & Development

We have for many years been striving to reduce the environmental impact of every litre of milk produced. This is by far the greatest contribution we can make to achieving the UN goals on climate change. In practical terms, it means developing products and solutions that improve efficiency and milk yield on farms. 

“In the earliest development phase of any product, we look at factors affecting all aspects of sustainability. We always put animal and operator safety first in everything we do”, says Anna Lindquist, Director Strategic Program Office.

We include scientific knowledge in our product development to provide solutions that:

• Milk cows efficiently and gently.
• Monitor animals for early disease detection and efficient reproduction.
• Prevent diseases through animal friendly barn environment solutions.
• Prevent diseases through measures that reduce the risk of infections originating from the animal environment or the milking system.

“We continuously release new products and solutions with specific sustainability benefits. DeLaval RePro™ is a tool that supports productivity for the farmer by improving the insemination rate and reducing culling due to reproduction problems. Our milking robot DeLaval VMS™ V300 got a new teat-spray function. The hit rate for spraying each teat after milking has improved resulting in less spray being required.  Animal welfare is something we keep in mind all the time working with new products“, Anna continues.  

Our Product Management and Development organisation has a dedicated team working specifically on developing products and solutions in line with our sustainability strategy.