Each year we try to recognize the highlights of the year for our December blog post. 2020 has been a weird year to say the least, and at first, we thought it was going to be difficult to find the positives of this year. Upon deeper reflection, we have a lot to celebrate.
Our health: Usually overlooked, this year we need to end 2020 with a deep sigh of gratefulness for our health. The virus affected our business and our employees in many ways and on many different levels. Overall, we have come out relatively untouched and are extremely grateful. This new awareness of health has even impacted Lely with the introduction of their Fit at Lely program where many employees are striving to reach renewed fitness goals.
Our People: We were able to add to our team this year with the addition of two new service technicians. Josh Fria joined us in July. With little agricultural experience, we have been delighted with his ability to learn quickly and his positive attitude. Cortney Hostetter joined us in November. It is not every day you have a trained Lely service technician show up at your door, and it was an opportunity we could not pass up. We are excited to see her contribution to the team.
Our Farmers: Our customers have also faced a tumultuous year. Being an end user, farmers do not always have the same range of decisions that we do that they can make in order to impact their business and bottom line. Our customers have been as resilient as ever this year and weathered some extreme ups and downs in milk price. We could not operate each day without them. We are grateful to be able to help them meet their needs.
Our Products: We started 2020 with only a few A5s installed. Today we are even more confident in this product and our ability to install it. We saw more Discovery Collectors installed this year and even another Vector project. We love seeing the benefits to the producers using these products and enjoy gaining experience on these newer products.
New Introductions: This year at Future Farm Days, Lely introduced three new products: Lely Horizon, Lely Sphere, and Lely Exos. While each of these products are exciting, Lely Horizon will be the first to impact our market in 2021 and we are excited to see all the new benefits.
On a local front, Fisher & Thompson revealed a new website, furthering them as the region’s leading partner in dairy solutions.
Overall growth and development: With all the ups and downs, we are still on track to finish one of our most successful years since we adopted the Lely product line in 2008. When Lely Center Mid-Atlantic was developed in 2017, we strived to push boundaries. We wanted to achieve different marketing strategies, do more to reach our customers, learn more about what we could do better, and simply be better. This year felt like a culmination of all the efforts from previous years. We have more skilled people, advanced products, innovative ways to reach our customers and most importantly, a lot of bright new ideas.
I hope you can take this time to reflect on all your blessings for the year, big and small. I am deeply grateful for every person in our industry who does their part to make it better each year. Have a wonderful holiday season and we will see you in 2021!