A beautiful new building that sits off Highway 163 south of Pella is now home to Lely North America, one of Pella Cooperative Electric's newest members. Encompassing just over 100,000 square feet of space, the building is more than double the size of their old location on Vermeer Corporation's campus.

Though a global business, Lely is proud to be family-owned and operated and their objective is clear: provide a sustainable, profitable, and enjoyable future in farming.

The Birth of Dairy Farm Innovators

In 1948, just outside Maassluis, Netherlands, brothers Cornelis and Arij van der Lely were returning their lives to normal after World War II. They watched as farmers struggled to find their way in life and knew that mechanization was the solution. That's when the two innovators introduced their invention of the finger wheel rake for hay and forage production, ultimately establishing their company of Lely.

Fast forward to the late 80s, their agricultural equipment business grew and expanded into inventing and designing the first robotic milking machine and other dairy technology. In 1992, the company launched the first robotics milking unit alongside their established turf and forage equipment divisions.

"It was at this same time in the early 90s that Lely and Vermeer Corporation started working more closely together as Lely supplied Vermeer with certain mower and hay equipment parts. Over the next several years, these two family-owned companies found continued success and additional strategic partnerships within their hay and forage equipment. This also led to one of the strong reasons Lely established its business unit here in Pella in late 2003," explains Xavier Drake, Lely's Strategic Marketing Manager.

Lely in Pella

Lely's Pella location manufactures several products including the flagship product Astronaut A5 milking robot which is the 5th generation Astronaut, the Luna Brush - a cow back scratcher of sorts as well as many accessory products including the Gravitor weigh floor - a complimentary piece to the A5 milking robot. In addition to the locally manufactured products, Lely also brings in other parts of its product portfolio including the Vector automated feeding system, Juno robotic feed pushers, Collector robotic manure vacuums, and several other automated solutions. All these products are developed and intended to automate manual, labor-intensive processes within dairy and livestock operations, ultimately for the well-being of dairy farmers and their cows.

"Our dairy farmers are facing many macroeconomic pressures," said Drake. "Availability and cost of labor, environmental pressures, and animal wellbeing are all at the top of our customer's minds. We believe our products offer a means of supporting our farmers in overcoming many of these challenges that can feel out of their control at times."

According to Drake, Lely continues to support its tagline of "Farming Innovators" and has a new innovation called the Sphere which has been certified by the Netherlands government in reducing up to 70% of greenhouse gas emissions. These types of innovations are going to continue to be brought to our customer base to support them in reaching their own sustainability goals in line with Lely's overall mission.

Built on Roots of Innovation and Sustainability

Lely's Park is quite literally built around their mission of creating innovative solutions.

"We're in the process of building over two miles of walking paths on our campus for employees and the community to enjoy. We have also re-planted over 150 native Iowa tree species and much of the campus has been re-planted with several native Iowa grasses to reduce soil erosion and manage surface water runoff," explained Drake.

The retention pond is used to control water flow from various areas on and around the Lely Park campus as well as protect one of the primary areas of water entry of the Muchikinock Creek water headlands."

Although headquartered internationally, Lely continues to invest in the Pella community. Pella's location employs nearly 60 locals and close to 130 across North America.

"The van der Lely family loves the Dutch roots of Pella and our geographic location of being nearly in the middle of the country," said Drake. "We bring in people from around the world and time and time again they are blown away by the hospitality of the community."

The Importance of the Land

Keeping their roots and respect for farmers and the agricultural industry strong, the Lely Park sits on a century family farm that was owned by Doug and Patricia DeJong and Carroll DeJong. This remains a large part of who they are. 

"When Lely approached the family to purchase the land, they pulled out a photo of their grandparents who had gone on a European trip," said Drake. "They had ventured onto a Lely farm and brought home a Lely milk canister. So, they were selective where this land went."