Future proofing

Jdunn55

Member
Been thinking about the new elms scheme, restrictions on slurry and increasing number of dry periods and have come up with somewhat of a decent idea in my head and just want to see what other people think!

Because I'm spring calving my thinking is that by the time they're housed in the winter (say from October by night and november by day) a large majority of them would be towards the end of their lactation and therefore the risk of mastitis lower. Therefore my thinking was I could get away with bedding on straw instead of sand and in doing so increase the thickness of the slurry being produced to the point that the stuff in the cubicles is now dung rather than slurry and therefore now stackable. The now remaining slurry from the collecting yard and silage pit (self feed) could be collected and scraped into either a much smaller pit or mixed with dung. The dung could be carted away to my dads farm and stored in the dung store I've got going up this year to be spread on silage ground. Depending on wether the slurry can be mixed with dung or not a new slurry pit could be dug under elms with all the extra kit needed.

This then leaves the current slurry pit empty and unused, I believe there is likely to be money for irrigation systems under the elms scheme?! Could this be used to fill with water for irrigation during the summer to maximise grass growth??

Just thinking out loud at the minute and obviously none of this would be happening for atleast a couple of years!
 

Tirglas

Member
Location
West wales
Turning slurry into dung sounds expensive to me cowpiss or cowshit not stackable anything you add to the diet will reduce milk yield anything you throw on the floor to bind it will give you an invoice and add to the quantity to be handled.

Collecting stagnant water in a small pit will not really help enough in a real drought. Sorry to pee on your thunder not my intention just my thoughts
 

dinderleat

Member
Location
Wells
Wether you could class dairy cow muck as fym is the sticking point. Even if you bed on straw. Mattresses and sawdust with a separator might be better to look at but if sand is working just stick with that and dig a bigger hole.
 

pappuller

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
M6 Hard shoulder
Been thinking about the new elms scheme, restrictions on slurry and increasing number of dry periods and have come up with somewhat of a decent idea in my head and just want to see what other people think!

Because I'm spring calving my thinking is that by the time they're housed in the winter (say from October by night and november by day) a large majority of them would be towards the end of their lactation and therefore the risk of mastitis lower. Therefore my thinking was I could get away with bedding on straw instead of sand and in doing so increase the thickness of the slurry being produced to the point that the stuff in the cubicles is now dung rather than slurry and therefore now stackable. The now remaining slurry from the collecting yard and silage pit (self feed) could be collected and scraped into either a much smaller pit or mixed with dung. The dung could be carted away to my dads farm and stored in the dung store I've got going up this year to be spread on silage ground. Depending on wether the slurry can be mixed with dung or not a new slurry pit could be dug under elms with all the extra kit needed.

This then leaves the current slurry pit empty and unused, I believe there is likely to be money for irrigation systems under the elms scheme?! Could this be used to fill with water for irrigation during the summer to maximise grass growth??

Just thinking out loud at the minute and obviously none of this would be happening for atleast a couple of years!
Attempting to turn slurry into stackable manure is a very difficult thing to do, we have a covered dung storage area where all dry yard scrapings and any straw muck are stored, works fine now its covered but previously it was a nightmare due to rain turning it into a tsunami just constantly moving, if we tried to add slurry it would be a disaster.
 

wooly619

Member
Was always under the impression in the EA eyes anything that comes out a cubicle passage is slurry. Neigh just got caught out on this. He could stack his heifer cubicle slurry/fym but because it came from a cubicle house he had to store it for 4 months
 

Bramble

Member
Was always under the impression in the EA eyes anything that comes out a cubicle passage is slurry. Neigh just got caught out on this. He could stack his heifer cubicle slurry/fym but because it came from a cubicle house he had to store it for 4 months

Neighbour also done for this, mixing collecting yard slurry with loose housed muck. He used to make a horseshoe shaped midden and then tip trailer loads of slurry in it every few weeks. EA put a stop to it
 

Sid

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
South Molton
The biggest issue here is the difference of interpretation by individuals within the EA of the same rules!

Visit here by EA had no issue with mixing scraped slurry and FYM from loose housing
 

Jdunn55

Member
Going to quickly say, none of this would be happening this year, next year and probably not even the year after that! Hence the future part of the title! Just doesnt hurt to think about things now imo - especially as I'll be the first farm on the list they want to tackle I expect as theres less than 150 metres between the yard and the river
 

Jdunn55

Member
Why not install a separator? Sand is the best bedding
That's sort of my backup plan, but I liked the aspect of using the current slurry pit for irrigation.
The only thing about a separator (excluding cost) is it's another thing to worry about, maintain and go wrong just when you need it the most!

Am I right in thinking once separated, the solids are p and k rich and the water is basically nitrogen? If so could you spread that behind the cows grazing instead of bagged nitrogen?
 

Friesianfan

Member
Location
Cornwall
That's sort of my backup plan, but I liked the aspect of using the current slurry pit for irrigation.
The only thing about a separator (excluding cost) is it's another thing to worry about, maintain and go wrong just when you need it the most!

Am I right in thinking once separated, the solids are p and k rich and the water is basically nitrogen? If so could you spread that behind the cows grazing instead of bagged nitrogen?
Yes. That’s my thinking for here
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

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