Covering slurry stores

[vantage]

I had a cover and had to take it off because we simply couldn’t get it stirred.

Catchment sensitive farm officer was telling me last year how you wouldn’t need to stir,I had to remind him my experience was very different.



Where did you see the hoops?

I’ve seen stirrers with built in hoops.

On here somewhere. There was a firm of slurry pit liners on here a while back. Hoops went under the cover , just at the stirring point. Looked a good idea as a polytunnel wouldn’t stand a cat in hell’s chance with the wind we get on the top of the hill.

 

[yin ewe]

It also might turn out to be herds of less than 250 cows dont need to worry, but greater than 250 cows you need a permit. That will be the easiest decision to cull 50 cows from each farm!

From 1st February 2022 all farms in NI with over 200 livestock units will be banned from using a splash plate, slurry store covers may follow similar regulations

 

[Princess Pooper]

Yeah, put a fecking great sheet of plastic over the slurry pit to make things more sustainable! What next? Every farm to have a diesel powered pooper scooper to collect all the cowpats before they release methane?

Does a cow's dung produce more methane (which btw, decays in the atmosphere anyway) because the animal is housed for a few months, rather than left outside all year round?

Policy makers really do need to start coming up with proper, thought through solutions, not just headline grabbing gimmicks.

1) Most of the methane from cows comes out as burps, being a by product of rumination.
2) the main reason for covering slurry stores (from an emissions perspective, rather than keeping rainwater out) is reduction of ammonia, not methane.
3) more ammonia is produced when urine and faeces are mixed, hence slurry is typically worse than cow pats.

 

[vantage]

I had a cover and had to take it off because we simply couldn’t get it stirred.

Catchment sensitive farm officer was telling me last year how you wouldn’t need to stir,I had to remind him my experience was very different.



Where did you see the hoops?

I’ve seen stirrers with built in hoops.

On here somewhere. There was a firm of slurry pit liners on here a while back. Hoops went under the cover , just at the stirring point. Looked a good idea as a polytunnel wouldn’t stand a cat in hell’s chance with the wind we get on the top of the hill.

 

[betweenthelines]

1) Most of the methane from cows comes out as burps, being a by product of rumination.
2) the main reason for covering slurry stores (from an emissions perspective, rather than keeping rainwater out) is reduction of ammonia, not methane.
3) more ammonia is produced when urine and faeces are mixed, hence slurry is typically worse than cow pats.

Number 3) seems to point to a basic design fault at the back of the cow

But (according to Google) ammonia isn't actually a pollutant. It as, as farmers know, a stimulant to plant growth. But it can be a factor in water and air pollution when it combines with pollutants to enable the spread of those pollutants.

So like farting, cows have peed and crapped for ever, but suddenly they are a "cause" of pollution. Another case of farming being used to distract from the real causes of pollution (industrialisation, transport and population growth)

 

[iitc123]

Lets hope rules for roofs and covers to stop rainwater do come in, seems madness to not too. I hope rules come in that stop chicken muck being tumped in fields and left to leach into watercourses, they should have muck stores and haul it out 24-48hrs pre spreading imo. Far too much pollution being caused by dairy slurry, digester liquid and chicken litter because the capability to store it isnt there

How is rain water in slurry store linked with pollution? If you have enough storage for 6 months of the year I cant see how it creates more pollution risk. Yes there is more volume of slurry to spread but it would be the same diluted amount of slurry?
Would money not be better spent encouraging investment in a adequate storage rather than forcing farmers to invest huge amount of money in covering lagoons, if farmers deem it economic to cover their lagoon to reduce their storage requirement so be it.

 

[dinderleat]

We need some water in the store in order to pump it so putting a cover on it is pointless. We’ve spent a fair bit on reducing dirty water from yards and then end up putting it back in.

 

[Homesy]

Lets hope rules for roofs and covers to stop rainwater do come in, seems madness to not too. I hope rules come in that stop chicken muck being tumped in fields and left to leach into watercourses, they should have muck stores and haul it out 24-48hrs pre spreading imo. Far too much pollution being caused by dairy slurry, digester liquid and chicken litter because the capability to store it isnt there

Storage perversely might be the problem. When I put my lagoon in the woman from the EA said people who don't have storage cause very little pollution. A little and often does not cause much run off. When you have a lagoon, it is leakage from lagoons and the fact that so much slurry is spread at once that cause all the problems. She also said spreading slurry in summer causes more river pollution because it is warmer you so get a much faster algal growth.

 

[Happy hillbily]

I'd love to have everything roofed, not a single piece of concrete outside, and one big covered midden, then spread everything with the dual spreader.
In reality covering the slurry pit would do nothing here, theres a thick crust on it most of the year, that would stop ammonia losses, but having 1.7m of rainfall last year, and over a meter since september and having lots of outdoor yards means i am shifting more water than muck.
Its a shame my grandfather and parents listened to adas back in the early eighties

 

[vantage]

Storage perversely might be the problem. When I put my lagoon in the woman from the EA said people who don't have storage cause very little pollution. A little and often does not cause much run off. When you have a lagoon, it is leakage from lagoons and the fact that so much slurry is spread at once that cause all the problems. She also said spreading slurry in summer causes more river pollution because it is warmer you so get a much faster algal growth.

Conversely I cannot think of any large herds locally with no storage, so it may be that she was implying that small herds are preferable from a pollution aspect ?

 

[Blue.]

On here somewhere. There was a firm of slurry pit liners on here a while back. Hoops went under the cover , just at the stirring point. Looked a good idea as a polytunnel wouldn’t stand a cat in hell’s chance with the wind we get on the top of the hill.

Covering Slurry lagoons??? Good thing or not???

What do people think about putting floating covers on slurry lagoons? Good thing or not?

thefarmingforum.co.uk

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I’m not a fan of the floating cover and would prefer a tensioned cover over my lagoon,I really can’t see why it can’t be done,Just needs a pipe fixed as an apex down the centre of the lagoon to tension over.

 

[vantage]

You’re the man! That’s it, no the exact photo , but the same hoops and cover.

 

[vantage]

Just also noticed a way to “utilise” all those 45 gallon drums sculling around!

 

[early riser]

I believe we will be required to cover slurry stores in the next 5 to 10 years.


But my main question, is it a sealed cover to keep gas in? Or a roof to keep water out?

@stablegirl did you ever manage to get clarification on this from anywhere?

 

[Farmer Keith]

A roof to keep rain water out will pay for itself in a high rainfall area.

Not strictly true, had some work done through catchment sensitive farming in the spring and their figures suggested it will take 56 years to pay for a cover purely based on savings made from not spreading rain water. 28 with the grant. 50 inch rainfall area. Even at the tender age of 33 I find items with a 28 year payback difficult to justify.

 

[Farmer Keith]

I should add that was to cover a 500000 gal roof ready steel store, not a lagoon.

 

[vantage]

Not strictly true, had some work done through catchment sensitive farming and there figures suggested it will take 56 years to pay for a cover purely based on savings made from not spreading rain water. 28 with the grant. 50 inch rainfall area. Even at the tender age of 33 I find items with a 28 year payback difficult to justify.

Obviously depends on the price of the cover.
We have a 1.3ml store that was roofed for £9k, 25 years ago, it’s still like new as it’s galvanised and fibre cement, I was 28 when it went up, dubious then about the spend, now am more than happy as it will see my career out.
Today I’d need to build a store 6’ deeper, obviously if it’s a clay lagoon it’s going to be relatively cheap , double that for lined and double again for concrete, which is what this pit is.
I’m looking to construct another lagoon which will need lining, 1-1.5m gallon, so I guess a roof for this would be uneconomic.

 

[Farmer Keith]

Obviously depends on the price of the cover.
We have a 1.3ml store that was roofed for £9k, 25 years ago, it’s still like new as it’s galvanised and fibre cement, I was 28 when it went up, dubious then about the spend, now am more than happy as it will see my career out.

Over £30k now, not saying I won’t do it, just not at the moment, they’re not enforcing the rules that are already there let alone making new ones.

 

[glow worm]

I believe we will be required to cover slurry stores in the next 5 to 10 years.

It's not yet known about midden? Grant's? Reception pits?

But my main question, is it a sealed cover to keep gas in? Or a roof to keep water out?

We have a large concrete store with a ramp in for getting sand out. A roof isn't that big a deal, a cover would be very awkward.

This is the very same question and problem we have. Watch this space?!

 

[Suckndiesel]

Not strictly true, had some work done through catchment sensitive farming in the spring and their figures suggested it will take 56 years to pay for a cover purely based on savings made from not spreading rain water. 28 with the grant. 50 inch rainfall area. Even at the tender age of 33 I find items with a 28 year payback difficult to justify.

If spreading it with an umbilical it could actually save you no money at all as with thick slurry not pumping as quick as watery slurry