Opening of Lely Robotic Farm of the Future in Ukraine

Group of companies "Eridon" and history of creation of dairy livestock complex

The group of companies “Eridon” was founded in 1993. Today “Eridon” operates  largest regional network of its offices and warehouses on Ukrainian market and according to independent market researches, it is the №1 Ukrainian company in distribution of plant protection products, fertilizers and seeds of foreign selection. The company is a member of the Eridon Group of Companies, which also includes “Eridon -Tech” (service and distribution of agriculture machinery and spare parts), “Eridon -Bud” (complex engineering for agriculture) and 9 agricultural farms with total acreage of 50,000 ha (crops and seeds production, cattle farming for milk and meat).

The decision to establish one of the first robotic farms in Ukraine was taken in 2014. The first stage of the complex with 500 cows was successfully launched in 2015, later the owners decided to invest in the second stage and to increase the herd to 1,200 heads. After implementation of the second phase, the entire complex will be served by the total of 25 people. Instead of milkmaids, highly qualified robotic milking operators are trained and hired by the company.

Lely milking robots

The owners of “Ukraine” farm made their choice in favor of Lely milking robots. Each robot can serve up to 60 cows. The use of robots made it possible to increase the milk yield per cow by at least 4-5 liters daily, but not only that.

The milking robots create conditions for natural milking and free cow traffic and contribute to the cow’s freedom to choose when to eat, drink, rest or be milked. They also contribute to the cow’s well-being and degree of comfort during milking. Cows feel comfortable with the silent hybrid arm and teat detection system and can decide themselves when they want to be milked, are less disturbed and less stressed. This is a revolutionary development in the Ukrainian dairy sector, contributing to increased attention to animal welfare.

After successful launch of the first stage of the robotic farm, and with strong belief in the Lely products, the owners of Eridon became enthusiastic to open the first official representative office of Lely in Ukraine on the basis of the farm "Ukraine". So recently, due to active position of Eridon, company “L-Ukraine LLC” started its operations, and now has ambitious plans to gain 30% of the market of robotic milking equipment in Ukraine.

Dutch delegation at the event.

In their operations, the “Ukraine” farm already cooperates with the Dutch companies: their exclusive feed partner is Trouw Nutrition, they use Lely robots, milk tank of Mueller and Trioliet feed mixer, imported heifers by Hunland Impex.

At the grand opening, a collective exposition of the Dutch technologies was available to the guests. It included stands of the Dutch companies and their Ukrainian representatives: Barenbrug (feed grasses) and JOZ (manure scrapers) - Western Dairy Technologies LLC, VDK Agri (calf hutches) – Lactalux LLC, Trioliet (feed mixers) - Agroinmash LLC, Difco International: CRV (semen), Cow Manager (smart eartags), Van der Ploeg (cattle exporters, supplier of farm- and dairy equipment), DutchLac (milking technologies). The delegation also included other Dutch suppliers, like Royal GD (veterinary lab and monitoring of animal health) and Schils (milk replacers).

About 250 guests from all over Ukraine, namely owners, directors, livestock managers who have dairy farms or plan to invest in this industry attended the event to see the application of the newest technologies. Launch of this modern dairy farm will become an important move towards solution of the problem of quality raw milk supply in Ukraine. This event received great appreciation from local authorities, other farm owners and agricultural producer associations.