Harper Adams welcomes leading robotic and dairy manufacturer Lely's Smart Feeding Tour

The latest innovations by leading robotic and dairy manufacturer Lely have been set out to students at Harper Adams as part of the company’s Smart Feeding Tour.

The tour, which visited the campus in October, showcased some of the most recent technology from the company and its applications. This saw eager participants from across a range of courses at the University visiting the Lely show trailer.

Time @HarperAdamsUni is flying ????‍??
Great to have @LelyAtlantic on campus today. Brilliant talks about the future of dairy and “Smart Feeding” in their pretty cool show trailer ???? pic.twitter.com/9ZIpDqAC0k

— Joe Bramall ?? (@JoeBramall) October 18, 2022

One link already being forged is a relationship between Lely and the University’s Engineering Society, with both sides seeing the relationship as mutually beneficial.

M Eng Agricultural Engineering student Rhodri Williams is this year’s Engineering Society Chairman explained: "We have got Lely as our sponsor for the forthcoming year and had a phone call last week regarding their Smart Feeding Tour.

“They wanted to visit the campus to give our students an insight into what they do and give us an opportunity to ask any questions. It's really beneficial to everyone involved. After all, Lely are an impressive company with numerous opportunities for our students to be involved in the future of a sustainable future. We are the future, why not share these opportunities for the students?

"We have discussed with Lely further opportunities for company visits and farm tours, where we can see the technology in place carrying out their roles. This is also what our members would love to see, everything is better in person.

“The Harper Adams campus may be home to more events like this, with Lely really setting the standard. It will be nice to see more, similar events for our students to interact with.”

Customer Solutions Manager at Lely, Stewart McAlister added: “I think the sponsorship certainly promotes the future collaboration between Lely as one of the leading robotic and dairy manufacturers and Harper's 'next generation of engineers' and the importance of quality coming into the industry.

“We want our customers to get the service they deserve and need to promote longevity and reliability of our solutions, plus cow and farm performance as a whole."

Good to see @LelyAtlantic @LelyMidlands @HarperAdamsUni for some technical updating with #engineering #students today. pic.twitter.com/3TK1BVtMig

— Graham Higginson (@GrahamHarperEng) October 18, 2022

Meanwhile the visit was also a chance to return to campus for Izzy Lester, who works in Farm Management Support at Lely – a post she took up after studying a business degree at Harper Adams herself.

She said: “In my job role, I am out on farm helping farmers transition from parlour to robots.

“Watching farmers make that change is very rewarding -  it is a long process, and seeing it all come together and the cows getting milked through the robots is always a good day.

“Lely is a family owned company and that is something that is very apparent throughout the whole company and everyone is valued.

“We are all very passionate about the agricultural sector and helping it progress into the future and helping farmers in new ways is exciting to see first-hand.”

To find out more about Lely GB, click here.