Wiese Dairy is a third-generation farm in Rosendale, Wisconsin. It was started with around 30 cows in 1959 and is now jointly operated by Nathan Wiese and his parents, Bill and Tammy. Over the years, the Wiese family added more cows and freestall barns as they grew their operation, and now, Wiese Dairy is milking nearly 200 cows. The dairy beds its cows on sand because, as Nathan Wiese said, sand is best for the cows and the cows love it.
“Cow comfort is the most important thing you could have for your cows, because if they’re not comfortable, they’re not happy, you can’t get milk, and then you’re not making money,” Wiese said.
Challenge
When building a new freestall barn in 2008, the Wieses were looking for an easy way to get the sand-laden manure from the barn to a reception pit and ultimately to their lagoon.
Wiese said they visited other dairies and looked at various systems, which is where they first came across McLanahan Horizontal Manure Augers. Horizontal Manure Augers are a quick and efficient means of transferring sand-laden manure across barns to another location. They are installed at the end of scrape lanes in a freestall barn, eliminating the need to turn the manure at the end of the lane, and convey scraped manure from the alleys across the barn and to a reception pit. McLanahan Horizontal Manure Augers are specifically designed to handle the abrasiveness of sand-laden manure.
“We thought, ‘This should work pretty good’,” Wiese said. “It seemed easy, ran smooth, so that’s what we decided to go with.”
Solution
Wiese Dairy purchased a McLanahan Horizontal Manure Auger system through Foxland Harvestore, a McLanahan dealer in Wisconsin. Together, McLanahan and Foxland designed a manure conveyance system that would best fit Wiese Dairy’s needs.
McLanahan Horizontal Manure Augers are available in 12’ lengths and can be connected to convey manure up to 216’ with one drive. To fit their freestall barn, Wiese Dairy installed nine Horizontal Manure Augers, totaling 108’, in a channel at the end of the scrape lanes and spanning across the barn. The channel was covered with a grate so that cows, people and equipment can safely cross it while still allowing for manure to be pushed into it.
Three times a day, when the cows are being milked, dairy personnel turn on the drive motor that operates the Horizontal Manure Augers. Then, using skid loaders with tire scrapers attached, they push sand-laden manure from the alleys directly into the channel housing the Horizontal Manure Augers. The Horizontal Manure Augers convey the sand-laden manure through the channel to a reception pit in a room next to the freestall barn, where the manure is then ultimately pumped to a lagoon farther away on the farm. Once the sand-laden manure has been conveyed through the system, the operators turn the Horizontal Manure Augers off until the next milking time.
Results
The McLanahan Horizontal Manure Augers have been dutifully conveying sand-laden manure at Wiese Dairy since 2008.
“The Horizontal Manure Auger takes the manure away, and it makes my life easier, makes the employees lives easier,” Wiese shared. “It does what it’s supposed to do.”
Automation is one of Wiese’s favorite features of the Horizontal Manure Auger system. Besides being able to transport sand-laden manure from the freestall barns to the reception pit with the touch of a button, Wiese appreciates that he can set the system on a timer. He said this is beneficial in the cold Wisconsin winters, as being able to run the system for a few minutes every hour helps to prevent any residual manure or liquid from freezing in the channel or to the auger itself.
“It’s very simple. It’s very easy,” he said. “It’s such a simple design, and it just works. It works.”
Farmers know that sand-laden manure can be hard on equipment, and the Horizontal Manure Augers have required some general maintenance and upkeep over the 17 years they’ve been in operation. For the maintenance that has been required, Wiese said his dealer Foxland has been very supportive.
“I just call Foxland,” Wiese said. “They do a great job of service.”
With the McLanahan Horizontal Manure Auger system, Wiese Dairy is able to easily transport sand-laden manure from the freestall barns to a reception pit — just what it set out to do all those years ago. Wiese reiterated his appreciation of the simplicity of the system.
