All the stirrers I've seen have brackets that mean the propellers don't hit the bottom of the lagoon. It just needs agitating.
I've just searched images of stirrers - many of the basic ones have no guarding at all at the business end!
Using Digestate on arable land
- Thread starter casper74
- Start date
All the stirrers I've seen have brackets that mean the propellers don't hit the bottom of the lagoon. It just needs agitating.
I've just searched images of stirrers - many of the basic ones have no guarding at all at the business end!
There's usually a lot of readily available N in digestate, so you risk serious leaching losses over winter. It's best applied in spring when crop growth starts that can use it. Around here the contractor put the lagoon in then charged a spreading fee of around £2/cubic metre.
I'd consider taking professional advice from a specialist dealing with waste streams as what seems cheap at the time becomes very expensive when you lose your Basic Payment for a non compliance by the contractor. Your land - your liability. This is the kind of thing @360farmsupport and @NeilT123 do for a living.
Obtain a PAS110 deployment licence and it's fertiliser...
Supply and demand dictate the price. A few ex dairy farms around here take it where they have the lagoons or towers. Some have dug pits of their own but we're on hungry light land. The local water board have no trouble finding homes for their sewage cake.
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Thanks. It was a conversation with Neil that kind of planted the seed and got me thinking about it. Be a good idea to speak to him now crop up and growing.
It's on very hungry land that's been continually cropped for years. Mainly p&k and trace elements I'm after. Would obviously speak to landlords before putting it on.
Its coming out of new exhibition centre teca so nothing coming out at moment.
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Think a lot of folks will be chasing that stuff!
TheEarlOfMoray
Member
- Location
- Morayshire
We plough it in and it works well. It’s the hassle and time putting it on that’s the problem. Where you can spread 100 acre of fert in an hour it takes about 4 days average to put on the digestate if you are running a fair distance also have the cost of the tanker and wages/diesel etc to factor in.
- Location
- North Norfolk
If you do that, please use cover crops. That will conserve much of the nutrient value over winter. See our Innovative Farmers Field labhttps://innovativefarmers.org/field-lab?id=8fb224cb-df5c-e711-8149-005056ad0bd4
Sandy
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Only use an umbilical on top a tanker wouldnt be ideal up here
- Location
- Minehead,Somerset
Re lagoons again, yes all the ones around here are stirred but after a few years there is too much sludge and it's a slew job plus a damaged liner probably .
Be careful just digging a hole and lining it, the EA would not be happy and if you had a pollution incident they would would be even less happy - think heavy fines!
I wouldn't apply it in the winter, it has a high readily available N content so is a great source of N, you'd lose that benefit through winter leaching. Dribble bar/trailing hose it on in the spring at the point you'd normally apply bagged N. If growing OSR you could justify a lower dose to establish the rape after drilling. I say this noting that you're not in an NVZ area.
If using for grass then apply in line with the normal timings for bagged N. Obviously could be multiple applications on silage land so having a 'suitable' store would give the supplier and you some flexibility over delivery and application times rather than having to coordinate as would be the case with a nurse tank.
Final point, if it's got plastic in it don't take it.... as long as they can find someone to take it they'll not improve their quality control.
I wouldn't apply it in the winter, it has a high readily available N content so is a great source of N, you'd lose that benefit through winter leaching. Dribble bar/trailing hose it on in the spring at the point you'd normally apply bagged N. If growing OSR you could justify a lower dose to establish the rape after drilling. I say this noting that you're not in an NVZ area.
If using for grass then apply in line with the normal timings for bagged N. Obviously could be multiple applications on silage land so having a 'suitable' store would give the supplier and you some flexibility over delivery and application times rather than having to coordinate as would be the case with a nurse tank.
Final point, if it's got plastic in it don't take it.... as long as they can find someone to take it they'll not improve their quality control.
- Location
- North Yorkshire
How consistent is the analysis of liquid digestate? Can anyone give an example of analysis please? Land here is high P already due to using broiler muck for years so it would be no good to me if it was too rich in P
Is it 'whole digestate', 'liquid only digestate' or 'digestate fibre'? Nutrient present will depend on that answer.....
In digestate you have a large amount of liquid as well as solids that haven't broken down, if it is both of these then it's whole digestate, if the whole has the solids removed then you get two fractions, fibre and liquid. When I refer to solids its organic solids I'm talking about nothing to do with plastics as that's a separate matter. The nutrient profile of the material depends on what type of digestate it is.
I could give you an analysis from elsewhere but that's not as useful as the actual analysis of the material you're looking at - get that and you'll be sure. The supplier is supposed to provide a representative analysis. I would ask for a couple of years worth of analyses just to see if there is variation over time but I'd guess it would be fairly consistent as they will be feeding the digester roughly the same feedstocks from the same sources (Normally!!)
Is this from Leeming Bar or one of the digesters further south? Does it also have the PAS110 certification or are they talking about a 'deployment application to the EA'?
- Location
- North Yorkshire
You're getting yourself about 3 steps ahead of me at the moment, I'm just sat here enquiring with generalisations on an internet forum having not spoken to any specific company about it, I assume (possibly incorrectly) you're talking about AWSM and their products/services?
Like I said, if the product is phosphate rich then it is no good to me. I was just hoping to gain a bit of knowledge about "it" before wasting people's time ringing up
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Where we use it, we apply the maximum n and this also gives around 75p and 90k
Chae1
Member
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
It's all very well saying take it in spring when crop growing and utilise N put it on grass when it starts growing, but everyone will want it at that time?
I'm not very important, I hope to offer a outlet In winter as not in Nvz, on some light land which will hopefully allow them to travel when they can't in other places, with good access off a main road.
If they choose to put any on here it's up to them. Don't intend paying them.
ollie989898
Member
It varies according to their feedstocks. So no two digesters will be the same. They can alter a bit if they change but they like to try and keep upsets to a minimum to get the optimum gas out of it.
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
The issue will be how long before it leaches and the ground is reclassified. I thought they have do check P as well and are not allowed to go above a certain index?
ollie989898
Member
You are not technically supposed to apply anything to land which is already at index 4 or 5 anyway....
Where do you think the N will go if most of it's leached during the winter? Why would you not want to use the available nutrients...... It's a bit like saying to a fertiliser merchant that because he's got too much 20:10:10 and can't affarrd to store it that they can turn up in winter and get rid of it on your land as long as you don't pay. It's basically disposal....... Plus, why have wheelings all over the place further screwing the soil structure in winter. Get real!!
It's the digestate producers responsibility to recycle the digestate and put storage and haulage in place..... you're a mug if your giving them a disposal route. Get a proper agreement signed up, build a store and use it properly. It's up to them to negotiate their costs with the waste suppliers so they can do the job properly.
- Location
- Minehead,Somerset
Another thing to bear in mind , which has really shown up this year as the JD Harvest Lab system is finally working is how digestate changes in analysis even when stirred as tanks and lagoons empty . Some of the product this spring is upto 20% different from different ends of lagoons and bags which harvest lab is picking up and changing rates which before would have been applied flat rate before based on a sample taken and tested at start of a tank .