Introduction
Each dairy faces its own set of challenges when it comes to managing manure. Luckily, a variety of essential equipment for manure management can help keep your dairy farm running efficiently. Whether it’s conveyance equipment to move manure out of your barns or a system for removing bedding materials and debris from the manure stream, i nstalling the right equipment for your farm will make manure management easier and more efficient.
While no two manure management systems will ever be exactly the same, they should always be centered around the cow and cow comfort. Whether you’re updating one part of your system or building new, it’s important to work with your entire dairy team – from your vet to your contractor – to ensure the system is designed for the entire manure journey and to take into consideration any long-term growth goals for your dairy. Below are several key equipment options to consider to support proper manure management, while also making the most of its resources, like nutrient-dense fibers and recoverable bedding.
Manure Conveyance Systems
Manure conveyance will depend on what type of bedding is being used in the stalls and the construction of the barn. Types of conveyance can include augers, vacuum trucks, flumes, pumps or gravity flow. Augers, vacuum trucks or flumes will work best with sand-laden manure, which cannot be traditionally pumped or flow by gravity. Manure solids can work with pumps, augers, flumes, vacuum trucks or gravity flow.
When you need to determine what type of conveyance will work best, it helps to think of the easiest and quickest way to get manure from the alleys to a centralized reception pit. If the freestall barn is set-up for tire scraping with a skid steer or alley scrapers and the collection pit is a far distance, using horizontal augers is most efficient instead of scraping the manure all around the barn. Augers will help save time, allowing you to clean the barn faster, and the cows are able to come back from the parlor as soon as they are done milking to eat and lay down. Augers can be installed for any length, usually including multiple augers to go a long distance but they do not allow for any bends if needed.
Depending on the infrastructure of the barn or whether water is available, the next type of manure conveyance is a flume system. It’s essential that flumes are designed on a proper slope with correct elevation, and the slope needs to be maintained throughout the length of the flume to work efficiently. Flumes also allow for bends in the pipes if needed.
Manure can also be collected with a vacuum truck and dumped into a central storage or reception tank.
No matter which option you choose, focus on moving manure efficiently instead of trying to chase manure all around your barns.
Sand Separation System
Sand bedding provides a healthy environment for cows, keeping them cleaner and maximizing cow comfort. However, when sand is mixed with manure, it becomes abrasive, difficult to pump, and expensive to land apply. Sand needs to be separated out before entering a digester.
After the manure is conveyed to a sand separation system, the sand-laden manure will enter the wash box. Here, it’s combined with recycled water to dilute and allow the sand to settle out from the manure. An auger will pull the sand out of the wash box area to the dry deck, where the sand can be dewatered and a little bit of fresh water is added to clean the sand before it’s discharged to a pile. A debris screen before the manure enters the wash box will help prevent debris from entering the separation system.
Next, the effluent manure passes through a hydrocyclone to capture additional fine sand that didn’t settle in the first step. Finally, a small sand settling lane will capture any sand that is undesirable for reuse, dust and coarser solids that aren’t going to be digestible. After the sand lane, the remaining effluent can be pumped to storage or a digester.
With three phases to sand separation, each steps can be tailored to match the sand type used on your farm. For more fine sand, more emphasis will be placed on step two, the hydrocyclone phase. Coarse sand will have more emphasis placed on step one, when sand enters the wash box for the first step in separation.
Sand from a separation system can be reused with days, reduce bedding costs by up to 95% and keep abrasive sand out of downstream equipment and storage.
Solid Separation Technology
The next step in managing manure will also depend on if you are planning to separate manure solids, send manure to a digester or to long-term storage. Fine solids can clog systems and increase hauling costs while reducing manure value, meaning the decisions you make on how to handle your manure solids can have a huge impact on your dairy.
Manure separation equipment including roll presses or rotary drum separators can be used to remove undigested fibers from the manure stream for land application or to create bedding. Manure is pumped to a separator, which contains a wedge wire, mesh or perforated screen. This screen captures a portion of the larger fibers while allowing the smaller fibers and water to drain through.
A rotary drum is used to thicken the manure, where it discharges at about 88% moisture content. They are well-suited for dilute slurries because of their large screening surface areas. The dewatered material discharges from the opposite end of the feed and can be processed further or conveyed to storage. If more dewatering is needed, a roll press can be used to squeeze the water from the thickened fibers. This process also produces relatively clean process water that can be used in flush systems for washing manure out of freestall aisles.
Conclusion
When it comes to essential equipment for managing manure, everything needs to be placed in the right sequence to make it happen efficiently. Conveyance type should fit your freestall barn style and subsequent steps for treatment or separation should align with your management style and goals. The right equipment will help ease your manure management problems.
Before you take steps to implement equipment, ensure you design for your future and leave your options open. Don’t be afraid to consider incorporating infrastructure that could make your life simpler down the road.
There is no one size fits all when it comes to manure management and the experts at McLanahan can help you design a layout and implement the perfect manure management equipment lineup for your farm.
