Alongside its well-known ranges of farm automation products Lely offers a large portfolio of consumables. We ask Lely Atlantic’s Aftermarket Manager Thomas Nugent to tell us more about them and why they deserve a place in every Lely farm’s budget.
Cow health, Consumables
What do you mean by ‘consumables’?
Consumables is the overarching name for our wear parts or maintenance products. It encompasses everything you need for optimum milk quality and animal welfare. The product range also ensure that your Lely products continue to run at peak performance with maximum uptime. We offer a comprehensive range of consumable products and wear parts especially developed and extensively tested for effective and long lasting use of your Lely equipment.
How many different products does Lely produce?
There are literally hundreds of products in the whole range, offering huge scope to help meet any need on the farm. The core range is around 30 to 40 products.
We divide our consumables into three categories – cow care, milk care and machine care. Cow care includes products such as teat sprays, ointments and creams for maintaining and promoting cow health and welfare. Milk care covers items such as cleaners for milk lines and tank cleaning products to keep your milking equipment scrupulously clean. Finally, machine care includes liners and wearable parts like scraper blades for the Discovery and udder cleaning brushes for the Astronaut.
What’s the most popular consumable?
The Astronaut is our most widely used automation product with more than 2,200 units in use across the UK and Ireland so it follows that the Astronaut cleaning products are our most popular consumables. These include the Lely Astri Lin alkaline cleaner which removes fat and protein residues effectively and the Atri Cid, the acid cleaner which deals with mineral and other inorganic deposits. Both are non-foaming and offer powerful cleaning without harming the materials of the Astronaut.
Our extensive range of Uddercare products is really growing in popularity too, as more and more customers are looking to use specific Uddercare products to meet their unique needs. This can be from looking to improve the teat condition of their herd or something to help prevent or help problems like mastitis. Customers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of skin conditioning and the importance this plays in reducing udder issues. Farm management advisors within our Lely Center network have access to the full range of products and can advise on what will best suit individual farm needs.
Why use Lely consumables?
When you buy from your local Lely Center our highly trained staff can advise on the best products for you, helping you avoid any expensive mistakes. The whole range of Lely Consumables is specifically formulated for use with Lely products, backed up by many years of research and development. For example, the cleaning products are designed to be highly effective at high temperatures unlike a lot of other products designed for cleaning at 40-50 degrees. Lely cleaners work on a direct wash and are not reliant on circulation unlike similar products from other manufacturers.
Even if an alternative product performs 90 per cent as well, the build-up on your machine over time will be significant. We also have formulated our range of products to be as environmentally friendly as possible, while also passionate about keeping your farm running smoothly and improving the total cost of ownership. I firmly believe that prevention is better than cure. Don’t skip routine maintenance tasks and keep up to date with servicing too. After all, down time due to planned maintenance is much better than down time due to an unplanned breakdown.
Will I save money if I buy generic consumables elsewhere?
We all want to be sure that we are getting value for money, but in the long term using alternative products can reduce the performance of your machine and even reduce its working life. It’s a bit like with a car, you might think you are saving money by increasing the time between services or using a cheaper engine oil, but actually if the car starts running less efficiently and runs into problems it’s not a saving in the long term.
When you buy from us you have the support and back-up of trained and certified support persons from your local Lely Center. All Lely products come with advice and support from our highly trained technicians and Farm Management Support teams.
For more information about the range of Lely Consumables visit https://www.lely.com/gb/quality-consumables/ or contact your local Lely Center to discuss your requirements.