History
JOZ’s journey began 70 years ago, with Jan Oostwouder’s dream of making farmwork easier. Jan’s dream has come true. Modern dairy farmers all over the world now use the manure disposal systems he devised, along with a wide range of other solutions developed by JOZ over the past 7 decades.
Jan Oostwouder, who was born in ‘t Zand in West Friesland, once worked in a bakery. He also mucked out the manure in a local farmer’s winter cowshed. This tough work got him thinking; there must be an easier way of doing this?
The first manure scraper system
More than 70 years ago, he devised and designed a system that removed manure on a conveyor belt and dumped it at a collection point. It put an end to labour-intensive, time-consuming manual manure removal. This Turning Chain Systemis still made by JOZ, and is used all over the world.
At a certain point, Henk Elling, Jan Oostwouder’s son-in-law, joined the firm. After he arrived, JOZ began exporting its products and acquired a number of companies. The range of different manure scraper systemswas extended, innovation continued unabated, and Henk started to look at robotising the manure scraper systems. After all, if milking robots were available for dairy farmers, then robotising a manure disposal system had to be possible, too?
The world’s first manure robot
In 1999, work on developing the first manure robot began. In the early 2000s, RickElling and Rob Elling joined JOZ; the 3rd generation. Once again, JOZ underwent a few changes. Companies were divested, and JOZ was further developed as the number one specialist in modern barn cleaning.
In 2005, JOZ launched the world’s very first manure robot. We won awards, and it wasn’t long before we were manufacturing a manure robot for another supplier. In the years that followed, the manure robot was further developed, we designed our own control platform (the JOZ Management System), and we switched to the application of water.
Moov feed pusher robot
The Moov, a robot that pushes feed to within reach of livestock, was launched in 2014. We broadened our area of operation by also using robots on the other side of the feed fence.
The success of the feed pusher robot was noted by GEA, the milking system manufacturer. In 2016, the first GEA (FRone) feed pusher robot rolled off the production line. The Moov was further developed, and in 2017 we launched the Moov Pro, which has more features and takes even more work off the farmer’s shoulders.
International growth
Now, more than 70 years later, JOZ’s current market share offers scope for international growth. We aim to accelerate this growth by opening up new markets and launching new innovative products.
To put this into practice, Rabo Participaties has joined as a majority shareholder. Together with the new CEO Arend Kuperus and the management team, JOZ will take the next step, exploiting its knowledge of the market and Rabobank’s extensive network within the Food & Agri industry.
Based on the theme ‘circular farming’, JOZ will launch a new generation of solutions for livestock farming this year. Click here for more information.