Replacement manure/slurry store

[DaveJ]

Our existing muck store has - at least in part - reached the end of it's life. It was built mid '70s at a time of less strict regs and whilst the size is about adequate, the railway sleeper wall along one side isn't. And we'll gloss over where the liquid fraction that escapes between the sleepers goes...

Current store is approx 60ft by 60 by 6ft deep and can't be made any deeper without ripping up the existing floor due to the one side being flush with the top yard. Takes slurry from 52 cubicles housing sucklers on pit silage plus scrapings from behind the barrier of bedded areas housing another 40.

Problem is depending on the year and rainfall, the slurry can vary from just about too thick to pump to stackeable. With the low rainfall this winter it bridged by the scraping edge and we ended up having to tip it in with a telescopic. So I'm concerned if I do put a sealed wall all the way round, on a normal year I'm going to have something that's too liquid for spreaders, but need to pump loads of water in/divert drains and roof water in order to make it handleable by tanker let alone umbilical.

However if I simply replace the girders and sleepers in the existing weeping wall, then to collect the liquid will require a separate large tank, the cost of which would go a long way to renovating/replacing the existing store.

Opinions please?

 

[Pan mixer]

Our existing muck store has - at least in part - reached the end of it's life. It was built mid '70s at a time of less strict regs and whilst the size is about adequate, the railway sleeper wall along one side isn't. And we'll gloss over where the liquid fraction that escapes between the sleepers goes...

Current store is approx 60ft by 60 by 6ft deep and can't be made any deeper without ripping up the existing floor due to the one side being flush with the top yard. Takes slurry from 52 cubicles housing sucklers on pit silage plus scrapings from behind the barrier of bedded areas housing another 40.

Problem is depending on the year and rainfall, the slurry can vary from just about too thick to pump to stackeable. With the low rainfall this winter it bridged by the scraping edge and we ended up having to tip it in with a telescopic. So I'm concerned if I do put a sealed wall all the way round, on a normal year I'm going to have something that's too liquid for spreaders, but need to pump loads of water in/divert drains and roof water in order to make it handleable by tanker let alone umbilical.

However if I simply replace the girders and sleepers in the existing weeping wall, then to collect the liquid will require a separate large tank, the cost of which would go a long way to renovating/replacing the existing store.

Opinions please?

I made a large tank quite cheaply - I have written how I did it in the thread on effluent tanks below yesterday, At the time it was approved by MAFF and it is still fine.

My main muck pad hasn't got weeping walls, our muck is stackable but rainfall and juice mount up. I have a Briggs rotorainer on duty clearing that, Giles at Midland Slurry is the man to tell you if that is good enough for you, unfortunately it is about another £10K but it sorts the job out and the tank only has to be big enough for a day or twos juice. My muck pad is 50 by 120 and the thing copes when the pad is empty.

 

[DaveJ]

I made a large tank quite cheaply - I have written how I did it in the thread on effluent tanks below yesterday, At the time it was approved by MAFF and it is still fine.

My main muck pad hasn't got weeping walls, our muck is stackable but rainfall and juice mount up. I have a Briggs rotorainer on duty clearing that, Giles at Midland Slurry is the man to tell you if that is good enough for you, unfortunately it is about another £10K but it sorts the job out and the tank only has to be big enough for a day or twos juice. My muck pad is 50 by 120 and the thing copes when the pad is empty.

My late Dad always fancied the irrigator route. I must admit I had discounted it as I assumed using one all winter was no longer legal so was working on the principle of needing a much larger tank.

 

[Pan mixer]

My late Dad always fancied the irrigator route. I must admit I had discounted it as I assumed using one all winter was no longer legal so was working on the principle of needing a much larger tank.

The rotorainer when it is dealing with dirty water (ie juice from an open muck pad) can be set to spread a low enough volume to satisfy the NVZ regs of less than 6mm at a time I think it is, mine seems to be stuck in a slightly higher gear than that as it is not in an NVZ

http://www.briggsirrigation.co.uk/products/roto-rainer/