LURGAN, U.K. -- Jim and his wife Sarnbra Cooper, farming at Winton, New Zealand, wanted a means of reducing their workload, speeding up the task of slurry application and preventing the damage to pasture and races that can occur with tanker spreading. They chose a SlurryKat dribble bar system, imported from Northern Ireland for their farms and for some contracting.
The ‘umbilical’ method of slurry/manure application involves pumping the material from a storage pond using a Doda pump via a pipeline to a tractor-mounted dribble bar applicator.
The Coopers have three farms with 1400ha of dairying and dairy support land, milking a total of 1800 cows. They will be pumping the waste up to 2km from their ponds and hope to achieve work rates of one million litres per day or more.
Surprisingly, as SlurryKat’s export sales director, Drew Linton states “Some Slurrykat customers in Europe and North America are pumping material 8-9km from storage with staged pumping.”
Once the system is set up and the delivery line is laid to the paddock and connected, the applicator unit is then driven up and down the paddock towing the drag hose. Work rates are typically 200m3 per hour. Application rates range from 1mm to 10mm per hectare. Paddock and race damage are minimal; the tractor and applicator traverse the paddock only once until it is covered.
When shifting between paddocks the pump is switched off remotely and started again in the next paddock. The model bought by Cooper has a 12m spread width and folds for transport.
The pumps come in a range of output sizes and are PTO, electric or engine driven. Pumps can be supplied with a return hose to keep the pond agitated. The delivery line is mobile and flexible, made up of 200m lengths of lay-flat hose of 100, 125 or 150mm diameter. SlurryKat can supply hydraulically driven front or rear mounted hose reels to lay or retrieve the delivery line with ease from the tractor seat.
The dribble bar lays the effluent in confined lines, 250mm apart with a recommended delivery height of 300-500mm. “This reduces air surface area on the effluent, preventing odours and nitrogen loss and placing all the material on the ground without splashing so the grass can be grazed sooner,” said New Zealand sales manager Ross Groube.
When the pond has been emptied the delivery line can be flushed clean by compressed air or the line rolled up with the last of the material being returned to the pond. With a GPS system and flow meters, applications are accurate and recorded.
SlurryKat was set up in 1994 and quickly became established as a leading provider of innovative slurry/manure solutions to the agri-sector. They make 140 products and export to 18 countries worldwide.
Contact
SlurryKat
