Straw yards and slurry storage

[Blue.]

A farm fairly local built a concrete store and basically shoved everything into it,he had a tap at the base and once settled would let the dirty water out into a lagoon,end of summer he’d empty the lot out with a rear discharge onto ground for reseed,a simple system that works without separators and pumps.

 

[dinderleat]

I heard some out you’re way blow chopped straw in the passages before scraping up? Adds a bit of fibre

No after scrapping up!! Retards!

 

[O'Reilly]

No after scrapping up!! Retards!

It will still be there for the next scrape up. If you put it out just before scraping, the straw just floats on the slurry, doesn't help at all. Having straw on the clean concrete helps cows grip a bit too.

 

[organicguy]

200 cows on straw yards, self feed and easy feed outside. all straw and slurry goes into a concrete walled weeping pit. massive amout of water weeps out of the slurry through the straw. have to heap it up to get it all in but the portion inside the "midden " goes out really easily through a rear discharge. The time spent "composting" is probably saved when spreading. Liquid portion is then pumped. Works ok but needs space.

 

[Agrispeed]

Something that works well for me is that I put ¼ t of sand per cow under the straw in my sheds at the start of winter and spread straw on top. Lowers straw use and I muck out every 2-3 weeks with a muck fork and the sand falls out, so the cows are cleaner for the first few days after, when usually you would have to use more straw. the cows walk some into the passages and it also helps to make the muck stiffer and stops them slipping. At the end of the winter I clear the whole lot out and spread it on fields going into brassicas.

I don't have any muck storage, so any muck I create is either spread straight away or has to be capable of being carted in trailers through the local village.

Will your silage pit be set up for self feed?

 

[Cows 'n grass]

300 cows loose housed- surely the saving on straw alone will near pay for cubicles instead?

Erect a cubicle shed and install automatic scrapers. Used ground straw to keep the tops of mattresses dry. You will get this kind of slurry through an umbilical system if you use a strainer box thing and the remaining solids can be put on maize ground etc once a year.

300 cows worth of solid FYM that has to be cleaned out regularly is a herculean amount of work.

We have another shed on a different bit of the farm so it's actually 500+ cows worth of FYM. It's a short winter here normally and I'd normally only empty sheds once in winter then once after turnout. We have low P K and OM so a decent heap of FYM is quite valuable

 

[Cows 'n grass]

I faced a similar dilemma a few years back. Cows on straw yards, but large outdoor feeding area and collecting yard generating lots of slurry. Considered a weeping wall, but wanted to future-proof the system for sand bed cubicles so put in a large shuttered concrete pit with access ramp. Would do the same again, really flexible.

Everything goes into it - scrapings off yards, any bits of straw dragged out of sheds, silage dragged out of feeders, wash water etc etc. Mix the lot up with a lagoon mixer and can splash plate tanker the whole lot out without a single blockage.

Trailing shoe is the big unknown though - we are looking at going down that route too, and tanker reps have advised me that macerator should be able to deal with the fibrous material as long as it isn't ridiculously long and there isn't ridiculous amounts of straw going into lagoon - not convinced yet myself and reluctant to spend £30k + on a trailing shoe equipped tanker only to find it does nothing but block up. My plan is to get a contractor here with a trailing shoe in next few weeks and have a go with our slurry and see what happens........ I shall report back the results........

Can't you just have a strainer box type setup in one corner of pit where you scrape strawy stuff, with a ramp down into it, then scrape everything else into main pit?

I have a trailing shoe for my tanker but it's been taken off for 2/3 years now became it blocks so readily. A small lump of baled silage in the macerator can be quite a major job to clear.

 

[Cowski]

We are spring calving and currently just have a milking parlour in the middle of an ex arable farm but have plans going in for housing 300 cows next to the milking parlour.

I don't intend to keep cows housed for more than 70-90 days and they will be calving in these sheds so we're just sticking to loose housing with a 15 foot feed/scrape passage at the front.

We're also putting in a silage clamp and slurry storage at the same time and the one bit I'm struggling to design is the slurry storage. With splash plates likely to be banned in a few years I need a system that separates out straw/silage from the slurry so that it can go through a trailing shoe. The slurry store will also take all the slurry from the collecting and feed yard .

Does anyone still use a weeping wall system?

Any advice welcome

Cheers

We’ve got an old school concrete upright weeping wall complete with slurry ramp for the cubicles our heifers are housed in. It actually works a lot better when we’re bedding cubicles on long chop straw as it helps stop thick slurry getting into the dirty water pits so it’s easier on the pump. It works fine and does mean you can pump a lot of the volume through Briggs or k line even if you have to have a big lined store for nvz storage.

Our calving yard feed passage is scraped into a slatted channel then pumped into a slurry tower which works fine. There’s an eight inch curb on the edge of the straw to scrape to so very little straw gets into the slurry.

Well done with the new shed, should really take the stress out of spring.

 

[Muddy Boots]

We are spring calving and currently just have a milking parlour in the middle of an ex arable farm but have plans going in for housing 300 cows next to the milking parlour.

I don't intend to keep cows housed for more than 70-90 days and they will be calving in these sheds so we're just sticking to loose housing with a 15 foot feed/scrape passage at the front.

We're also putting in a silage clamp and slurry storage at the same time and the one bit I'm struggling to design is the slurry storage. With splash plates likely to be banned in a few years I need a system that separates out straw/silage from the slurry so that it can go through a trailing shoe. The slurry store will also take all the slurry from the collecting and feed yard .

Does anyone still use a weeping wall system?

Any advice welcome

Cheers

Best I’ve seen was an above ground store with reception pit beside with steel slats over it. What didn’t go down between the slats was scraped into a heap and taken away and tipped on off ground. Leaving slurry to be pumped closer by.
Doesn’t have to be an above ground store. Could just be a grating in a yard in front of a dung store ( solids ) and a lagoon beside which slurry falls into.

 

[The Agrarian]

I can confirm from experience that macerators do not like fibre. We don't do straw, so in my case silage. I've had to go away and leave a slatted shed tank, and come back with the splash plate. Same tank every year actually.