Fresh grass has a 10-20% higher feed value than silage grass because of the many losses during harvesting, conservation and feeding don’t occur. The feed value of the roughage is better used, and more milk is produced from the farmer’s grassland. This solution is fully in line with sustainable milk production, and in addition the system saves on labour and feed costs.
Lely first announced the Exos concept as a new way of feeding fresh grass in 2020. Now, three years later, the system has been extensively tested on 13 Dutch farms in various circumstances. Not only are the test farmers very happy with the results, the cows also react very enthusiastically to the fresh grass that the Lely Exos delivers directly from the field.
Thanks to the results achieved, the proven capacity and broad applicability, the system will be ready to be sold by mid-2024. The Lely Exos will initially be available in The Netherlands, and in the following years will gradually be introduced in surrounding countries.
Feeding fresh grass or ‘summer barn feeding’ has been a labour-intensive system until now. However, by fully automating it, Lely makes the feeding of fresh grass accessible to a larger group of dairy farmers. Feeding fresh grass with the Lely Exos can be carried out in combination with grazing. In this way, the farmer can not only make better use of the growing season, but also ensure that the cows absorb more fresh grass because it is available in the barn in addition to field.
The Lely Exos is suitable for dairy farms that feed fresh grass from 250,000kg of dry matter and where harvesting can be done on grassland that’s directly accessible from fields around the farm. The final deployment, numbers of animals and hectares differ for every unit and depend on, among other things, the farming system, grass growth, number of mowing days and the field layout.
Grass-Fed vs. Grain-Fed Beef — Any difference
The Lely Exos operates day and night delivering fresh grass to dairy cows from nearby fields.
Autonomous fresh grass feeding means supplying grass 24/7, several times a day, without labour commitment from the livestock farmer. Thanks to its low weight of 3400kg and the low-pressure tyres, the Lely Exos can mow from early spring until late autumn. The individual wheel drive and steering system prevents slip and friction when driving or cornering. The battery-driven machine is particularly agile and very friendly to the sward. The system is therefore ideally suitable for sensitive soils and less load-bearing conditions, and can thus make the best possible use of the long growing season of grass.
The Lely Exos can apply liquid fertilizer to the field during the harvesting process via 10 spouts that are located directly behind the mowing unit. This also provides ther ability to precisely administer the discharge water from Lely’s Sphere concept.
The Lely Exos’s management program allos the farmer to enter the desired amount of grass per feed fence, per cow and choose the fields to mow. When planning a field, the farmer chooses the desired mowing pattern and fertiliser application. The system then shows a schedule with the number of trips and quantities. Breaks can be set to, for example, align the planning with grazing, feeding and milking times.
