- English
Lely Exos, the world’s first concept for fully autonomous harvesting and feeding of fresh grass, has been nominated for the DLG Agrifuture Concept Winner 2022. With Exos, Lely introduced an innovation in 2020 that is fully compatible with the transition to sustainable and circular dairy farming. Exos enables dairy farmers to use a large part of their grassland to produce fresh feed. This results in a more efficient use of nutritional value of their roughage and more milk in the tank while saving labour and feed costs.
The Agrifuture Concept Winner award focuses on the technical possibilities of innovations in the next 5 to 10 years and looks at the realistic chances of implementation. The award-winning concept will officially be announced during Eurotier in Hannover, Germany, on 17 November 2022.
The benefits of fresh grass
With Exos, dairy farmers can now use the available grass optimally. It harvests autonomously and provides fresh grass frequently, day and night. This improves the taste and intake of fresh grass compared to conventional zero grazing systems. The nutritional value of fresh grass is 10 to 20% higher than that of silage grass, because there are no significant losses during harvesting, conservation and feeding.
Automatic feeding with fresh grass results in considerable savings. Feeding fresh grass over silage, farmers can save significant amounts of money on concentrates and other feed purchases. Experience at test farms has shown that a dairy farm can meet half of its roughage requirements with fresh grass during the growing season, from early spring to late autumn.
Next step towards sustainable and circular dairy farming
Exos is a next step towards sustainable and circular dairy farming. The system doses liquid fertilizer in one pass, directly after mowing. It loads the fertilizer for each run, based upon the desired amount per hectare. With this feature, Exos combines perfectly with the Lely Sphere system, which turns emissions into valuable circular fertilizers. Together closing the nutrient cycle on dairy farms.
Innovative redesign of grass harvesting technology
The technology of Exos is based on an electric vehicle that autonomously drives to the field, harvests, transports and distributes grass in barns. Exos operates 24 hours a day, so it’s not limited by manpower or time. The system also collects data in the field, so that the farmer can manage his grass supply at any given moment.
This completely new approach to grass was an opportunity to redesign mowing and harvesting technology. The thought out harvesting method leaves the grass undamaged and thus fresh and tasty for cows. The complete system is designed to make the most of the long grass-growing season. The low weight, low pressure tyres and soil-friendly drive and steering technology of Exos means it can mow from early spring to late autumn.
Exos in the field
Lely is continuously working on further developing the Exos system. The current focus is on usage, deployment on different farm sizes and set ups and to learn as much as possible about autonomous harvesting of fresh grass in daily practice. Therefore, the Exos system is operational at a diverse, growing, group of test farms in the Netherlands.
The recent results give strong confidence in this concept and Lely is currently starting the preparations for commercial availability. We are very proud of Exos being nominated for the Agrifuture Concept Winner 2022.
For more information, please visit us during Eurotier in hall 13, stand B44.
