Dairy farm benefits from automatic slurry handling system
4 Jan 2011
Aars, Denmark – A chronograph-controlled slurry pump and mixing system from Landia that can also handle sand, has eliminated manual labour at Soerensen’s dairy farm in Aars.
In five minutes, the fully automated system sees Landia’s mixer generate a homogeneous and therefore easier to back-flush end-product by mixing the sand with the slurry and then pumping it away from the reception tank.
The mixer also provides a more powerful vortex than a pump would, so that the sand in the reception pit cannot accumulate.
With 300 dairy cows producing a milk quota of 2.25M kg in a new 3,500 m” cowshed, Landia designed the system so that the pump only has to pump slurry into the first of the two 3,900 m” storage tanks.
The pump is not used for mixing in the reception pit, hence the decision to save energy by installing a smaller motor size than usual for drainage and because the pump operates for shorter periods.
The use of sand at Soerensen’s dairy farm has increased milk production by 20% and led to a much healthier herd. The owners were reluctant to return to straw bedding but knew from other dairy farmers that sand proves extremely corrosive for most pumps and mixers.
“Since the Landia pumps and mixers have been installed we not only have a highly efficient, automated system, but we also haven’t had any problems with the sand in the slurry either” said Boerge Soerensen.
“Our cows are happy with sand and they reward us with a greatly increased amount of milk - and we have become far more productive without all the daily time-consuming preparatory work on slurry handling”.
Every day, a time-controlled starter activates the mixer in the reception pit and ensures that is it drained to a designated level.
“The automatic slurry handling required an additional £3,000,” added Soerensen, but compared to our old manually operated facilities I actually consider the investment cost-neutral because of the work reduction. And this doesn’t include the massive savings on equipment and maintenance we will make by investing in Landia’s pumps and mixers that can cope with sand for far longer than most”.
In total, the Soerensen dairy farm now includes:
A 0.75 kW submersible pump, which pumps wastewater from the pump-well in the milking centre into the slurry channel by the reception facilities.
A 15.0 kW submersible pump that is installed in the reception pit at the end of the milking centre’s slurry channel. It pumps slurry and waste water from the milking centre into the cross-channel of the cowshed. The cross-channel is placed at one of the end walls in the cowshed and crosses the scraping channel outlets.
A 15.0 kW submersible pump and x1 7.5 kW mixer installed in the reception pit at the end of the cowshed.
A 18.5 kW submersible pump in a new storage tank. This pump is removable and used between the two storage tanks for either mixing or filling of a slurry truck prior to distribution.
