At the end of May I went for a work trip to Hamra Farm, a dairy farm owned by multi-national agri-corp DeLaval, a producer of dairy-related technology and subsidiary of the Terta-pak company. The company headquarters and test/training farm is in Tumba, just a few km down the road from our place. My colleagues and I had a great tour of the head offices, but also the associated dairy farm. Gustav DeLeval came from a Huguenot family that immigrated to Dalarna in central Sweden in the 1800s (prime farm country!) He was an engineer and inventor who patented steam engine turbine parts and a cream separator, among other things. The company is proud of their innovative culture and holds something like 1500 patents, most revolving around a mission for more efficient and higher quality dairy production. Also: in addition to a coffee machine in their breakroom they have a soft serve ice cream dispenser for mid-afternoon affogatos! I arrived a bit early and rode my bike around the farm to see the scope of the facilities and also pet some friendly cows. Dairy cows are very frequently handled and usually bottle fed from the start, so they are very tame and the young ones are usually pretty keen on people. It was a nice visit, and I’ll be on the lookout for collaboration opportunities in the future.
Looking South over a hayfield towards The original barn 
The Farm Manager’s House, with a view South towards the old barn 
These girls came right over to say hi! I got some snotty sniffs and licks. 
Life as a heifer seems pretty chill – enjoy before you mature into milk production! 
There is a high-quality interpretive centre describing the whole value chain and all the technological aspects that go into dairy production (which DeLaval can sell you, of course!)