Dirty water irrigation

jondear

Member
Location
Devon
What would people recommend for a simple 3 stage concrete tank that's just taking parlour washings .should have no straw in it as it has a air lock pipe going from first to second. What's the. Best thing to do out in field ?Go for mobile irrigator which are expensive or would a static stand be OK .Or would that be pain in the arse having to be moved all the time .thanks
 

Pan mixer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Near Colchester
What would people recommend for a simple 3 stage concrete tank that's just taking parlour washings .should have no straw in it as it has a air lock pipe going from first to second. What's the. Best thing to do out in field ?Go for mobile irrigator which are expensive or would a static stand be OK .Or would that be pain in the arse having to be moved all the time .thanks
Definitely the rotorainer system - more expensive but less trouble than moving standing sprinklers. I have both systems and am saving up for a second rotorainer to replace those blessed standing things.
 

MickMoor

Member
Location
Bonsall, UK
If you go for a Rotorainer, a cheaper option is to have a big single tank, and the pump can be set up to suck out the liquid from the middle, then just once a month, or more or less depending on experience, mix the tank thoroughly with a vaccy tanker and empty it. With three tanks, you would still have to empty the first two, so what is the diference? This what I am planning to do.
 

jondear

Member
Location
Devon
If you go for a Rotorainer, a cheaper option is to have a big single tank, and the pump can be set up to suck out the liquid from the middle, then just once a month, or more or less depending on experience, mix the tank thoroughly with a vaccy tanker and empty it. With three tanks, you would still have to empty the first two, so what is the diference? This what I am planning to do.
The inlet tank has a pipe in dividing wall in which I've got a h pipe where the water has to go up to get out so hopefully any floating matter will stay there .It then enters the other two which are connected with a door way that you could walk through effectively one .
 

MickMoor

Member
Location
Bonsall, UK
It sounds as if your first tank will separate the lighter bits, and will need emptying as and when, the second and third tanks are virtually one, so set the pump sensors fairly high, and then when they cease to switch the pump on, you get warning lights and get cracking with the vaccy tanker for a load as described earlier.
 

jondear

Member
Location
Devon
The summers easy .like you say tanker its a useful bit of water .Its in the winter so need a pump and some sort of irrigator. All pumping is flat or down hill .Cost increases a lot with a rotorainer with bigger pump required. I know a stand type is a pain but a cheaper option with a cheaper pump .
 

MickMoor

Member
Location
Bonsall, UK
The summers easy .like you say tanker its a useful bit of water .Its in the winter so need a pump and some sort of irrigator. All pumping is flat or down hill .Cost increases a lot with a rotorainer with bigger pump required. I know a stand type is a pain but a cheaper option with a cheaper pump .

Fish are jumping and the cotton is high.
Your Daddy is rich, and your Mama's good looking
So hush little baby, don't you cry.

The first thought that came into my head.
 

Matt

Member
what size pipes do you guys who have rotorainers use? was wondering would a 50mm pipe be big enough. looking to put a underground pipe in to they use it as a hydrant, looking to take it 400m ish.
any recommended installers or suppliers
 

Pan mixer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Near Colchester
what size pipes do you guys who have rotorainers use? was wondering would a 50mm pipe be big enough. looking to put a underground pipe in to they use it as a hydrant, looking to take it 400m ish.
any recommended installers or suppliers
They recommend 63 I think, they certainly did to me - I have 2 x 150m mains (the coils are heavy and b awkward and this then steps down to the smaller size that fits on the irrigator (can't remember what that is at present - possibly 40mm, an odd size anyway

I use 2 x 150m of those on the back of the gun but the mechanism will only pull one properly especially if there is any grass, but I use the first bit as a kind of 'roving main' in the field and this allows me to do a 10 acre field from one underground main in the middle of one side.
 

Matt

Member
Sounds about what they said to me today. The pressure losses with a 63mm vs a 50mm is a lot lower. Only trouble is the pipe is more money.

How much do you have to speed with yours?
 

Pan mixer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Near Colchester
Sounds about what they said to me today. The pressure losses with a 63mm vs a 50mm is a lot lower. Only trouble is the pipe is more money.

How much do you have to speed with yours?
I never speed with mine.

I am sure that pressure loss is no problem with mine, in fact I have to nearly close the quarter turn tap to make sure that the pressure is high enough to make the pump cut out work properly. However if the pump is very worn it might be worse I suppose, mine has done less than 200 hours I think.
 

Matt

Member
I never speed with mine.

I am sure that pressure loss is no problem with mine, in fact I have to nearly close the quarter turn tap to make sure that the pressure is high enough to make the pump cut out work properly. However if the pump is very worn it might be worse I suppose, mine has done less than 200 hours I think.
Sorry thought I wrote how much do you spread! We are going to roughly have 600m3 a year to deal with.
How big a area do you use to get rid of it? Or do you try and speak over a big a area as poss to make the most of it.
 

Pan mixer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Near Colchester
Sorry thought I wrote how much do you spread! We are going to roughly have 600m3 a year to deal with.
How big a area do you use to get rid of it? Or do you try and speak over a big a area as poss to make the most of it.
I have no idea how much I spread a year, at present it hasn't moved for weeks as there is a drought here - no.2 of this year.

It spreads about 12 m wide and in an NVZ you have to have it on the fastest gear in the wet to spread less than a certain amount per square metre.

I spend more time moving mine from field to field - cattle don't get on with it at all, sheep are ok but the wool does build up on the cable a bit. I usually move it about 4 times a year but it will do about 10 or 12 acres over the winter. It is difficult to spread the field evenly without lugging the thing about a lot, I tend to do a lot of W's across the field.

You can really see where it has been.
 

davedb

Member
Location
Staffordshire
Are you not wasting valuable fertiliser by spreading all this dirty water? A farm I work for just have a million gallon lagoon that I pump out on the grazing block following cows around, the watery slurry is brilliant for getting grass growing without it sitting on the leaf (use a dribble bar) obviously there’s the contractors pumping costs but how much is this dirty water system going to cost nevermind the price of bagged fertiliser
 

Pan mixer

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Near Colchester
Are you not wasting valuable fertiliser by spreading all this dirty water? A farm I work for just have a million gallon lagoon that I pump out on the grazing block following cows around, the watery slurry is brilliant for getting grass growing without it sitting on the leaf (use a dribble bar) obviously there’s the contractors pumping costs but how much is this dirty water system going to cost nevermind the price of bagged fertiliser
Mine cost about 10,000 I suppose.

To dig a lagoon, get planning permission, fence, loss of land, pumping costs etc - many times that level.

The fertiliser value is low - it is just dirty water after all, the machine talked about here does it all on its' own for most of the time.
 

Matt

Member
Are you not wasting valuable fertiliser by spreading all this dirty water? A farm I work for just have a million gallon lagoon that I pump out on the grazing block following cows around, the watery slurry is brilliant for getting grass growing without it sitting on the leaf (use a dribble bar) obviously there’s the contractors pumping costs but how much is this dirty water system going to cost nevermind the price of bagged fertiliser

I cant fault what you say with using the liquid on a year like this, however like pan mixer said the cost of constructing a laggon ect all adds up.
What does it cost to empty the million gallon lagon then?
 

davedb

Member
Location
Staffordshire
The lagoon is Earth banked so didn’t cost mega money but it’s needed anyway for slurry
Not actually emptied it yet as this is the first year but to pump a million gal will probably be £2500 to £3000 depends on fields obviously
 

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