The key to future-proofing business
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When dairy farmer Anthony Gothard upgraded his cow cubicles and went over to a sand bedding system, he saw significant benefits straight away.
Cows were clearly more comfortable in the new beds and spent more time on lying down. And the improved grip on the concrete meant fewer slipping incidents. Cow cleanliness, udder health and milk hygiene also improved. Happier cows were generally more productive. |
There were downsides too, with wear and tear on concrete and any equipment used to scrape, store, separate and spread slurry being detrimentally affected over time. But these were a price worth paying, given the main herd welfare benefits.
Twenty years on and Anthony has expanded and improved his herd, with 830 all-year-round calving Holstein Friesians now averaging 11.900 liters/cow/year on a three times daily milking regime.
With herd size and performance close to his optimum, it was time to start challenging where the next areas of improvement would come from, and the focus fell on the use of sand.
“Sand bedding is our best option from a cow welfare and performance perspective, but it's a big cost on unit using around 90 tonnes a week and there are on-going issues with the wear on equipment and disposal,” says Anthony.
“Over the years we've targeted the spread of slurry with a big sand component onto the heavier parts of the farm, to improve soils, but the areas where we need to do this are running out. We've improved our efficiency and sustainability in other areas with the installation of solar panels on roofs and heat recovery facilities, so finding a system that could separate sand economically was an important next step.”
Anthony travelled as far as the USA to research systems not then available in the UK and saw Daritech One Shot SRS sand separation equipment in action. He met Klaas de Vries from Mavasol, worldwide distributor for Daritech, and saw the potential to install a system for his herd size and situation.“The One Shot system is built around an internally flighted auger that effectively separates sand from slurry,”explains Klaas.
Installed as part of a custom built system that integrates with existing farm facilities and infrastructure, it has the capability af 95% clean sand recovery and maximum re-use of water. In some cases operating with a zero requirement for fresh water. The system also provides a range of options regarding the remaining fibre component.
“We now have more than 70 systems operating succesfully around the world, and many are operating cost effectively in herd sizes comparable with the larger UK herds.”
Slough Court had previously operated with a separator to remove water from the slurry and sand, with the residue being mainly spread with a tanker onto heavier land where the sand could help improve the soils. It was a costly and time-consuming process and offered no opportunity to recycle any sand.
Now, with the new system up and running, slurry is scraped from the sheds into the first reception pit (as previously), and is mixed vigorously with recycled water, creating a solution that is then processed through the One Shot auger. Clean sand is tyhen deposited from the end of the auger chute. With the remaining solution then going into a secondary separation lane with a 25cm auger bringing sand back into the auger shot pit. The solution that goes beyond the secondary lane then goes through two more gradually sloping settlement lanes that allow further sand separation to take place.
After the series of settlement lanes, the solution (which is now virtually sand-free) enters a further settling pit and is pumped into the existing separator that produces a sand free fibre. The remaining water flows into a lagoon from where it is pumped back into the system.
“Thre are numerous variables in how the system operates, such as the quantity of water, speed of augers and the timing applied at different stages,” explains Anthon. “We are at the point now of fine-tuning these variables, to miximise the amount of sand we are recovering and to minimise the fibre component remaining in the sand, but we're already well over 80% sand recovery.”
“The bottle neck in the system at the moment is the old separator, so we are about to install a second separator unit to speed up the removal of the fibre at the final stage. This will increase the overall speed of operation significantly.”
Recycled sand collected from the end of the One Shor auger and recovered from the settlement lanes, is currently stockpiled for a period of weeks, to allow any fibre to dry up and break down, to leave the sand inert and for re-use as bedding.
In time the system is fine-tuned, the fibre left in the sand will become insignificant allowing sand to go back into bedding more quickly.
With the cost of sand currently anywhere from 16 – 20 British Pounds / tonne, the opportunity for savings on bedding will be up at around 1500 – 2000 Pounds per week.
This saving, plus the additional benefits that will come from the enhanced fertiliser value of the fibre, allow Anthony to budget on a total pay-back on his investment within five years, without taking account of a capital grant.
“It's not only the savings on sand that make this system stack up,” he adds.
“We are reducing the wear and tear on machinery and we have a dry and more manageble manure product that we can store effectively and spread more uniformly, cutting down our requirement for bought phosphate and potash.
“It's about future proofing our business. We've secured our use of what we see as the best bedding system for cow health and welfare, through recycling a finite resourse, reduced our requirement for fresh water and cut our reliance on bought-in fertilisers.
Of course it's important for our business to be viable, but it's also a good message for consumers to now that farms are investing in sustainability for the wider benefits this brings,” he adds.
The original article was places in “British Dairying” Februari 2019
Twenty years on and Anthony has expanded and improved his herd, with 830 all-year-round calving Holstein Friesians now averaging 11.900 liters/cow/year on a three times daily milking regime.
With herd size and performance close to his optimum, it was time to start challenging where the next areas of improvement would come from, and the focus fell on the use of sand.
“Sand bedding is our best option from a cow welfare and performance perspective, but it's a big cost on unit using around 90 tonnes a week and there are on-going issues with the wear on equipment and disposal,” says Anthony.
“Over the years we've targeted the spread of slurry with a big sand component onto the heavier parts of the farm, to improve soils, but the areas where we need to do this are running out. We've improved our efficiency and sustainability in other areas with the installation of solar panels on roofs and heat recovery facilities, so finding a system that could separate sand economically was an important next step.”
Anthony travelled as far as the USA to research systems not then available in the UK and saw Daritech One Shot SRS sand separation equipment in action. He met Klaas de Vries from Mavasol, worldwide distributor for Daritech, and saw the potential to install a system for his herd size and situation.“The One Shot system is built around an internally flighted auger that effectively separates sand from slurry,”explains Klaas.
Installed as part of a custom built system that integrates with existing farm facilities and infrastructure, it has the capability af 95% clean sand recovery and maximum re-use of water. In some cases operating with a zero requirement for fresh water. The system also provides a range of options regarding the remaining fibre component.
“We now have more than 70 systems operating succesfully around the world, and many are operating cost effectively in herd sizes comparable with the larger UK herds.”
Slough Court had previously operated with a separator to remove water from the slurry and sand, with the residue being mainly spread with a tanker onto heavier land where the sand could help improve the soils. It was a costly and time-consuming process and offered no opportunity to recycle any sand.
Now, with the new system up and running, slurry is scraped from the sheds into the first reception pit (as previously), and is mixed vigorously with recycled water, creating a solution that is then processed through the One Shot auger. Clean sand is tyhen deposited from the end of the auger chute. With the remaining solution then going into a secondary separation lane with a 25cm auger bringing sand back into the auger shot pit. The solution that goes beyond the secondary lane then goes through two more gradually sloping settlement lanes that allow further sand separation to take place.
After the series of settlement lanes, the solution (which is now virtually sand-free) enters a further settling pit and is pumped into the existing separator that produces a sand free fibre. The remaining water flows into a lagoon from where it is pumped back into the system.
“Thre are numerous variables in how the system operates, such as the quantity of water, speed of augers and the timing applied at different stages,” explains Anthon. “We are at the point now of fine-tuning these variables, to miximise the amount of sand we are recovering and to minimise the fibre component remaining in the sand, but we're already well over 80% sand recovery.”
“The bottle neck in the system at the moment is the old separator, so we are about to install a second separator unit to speed up the removal of the fibre at the final stage. This will increase the overall speed of operation significantly.”
Recycled sand collected from the end of the One Shor auger and recovered from the settlement lanes, is currently stockpiled for a period of weeks, to allow any fibre to dry up and break down, to leave the sand inert and for re-use as bedding.
In time the system is fine-tuned, the fibre left in the sand will become insignificant allowing sand to go back into bedding more quickly.
With the cost of sand currently anywhere from 16 – 20 British Pounds / tonne, the opportunity for savings on bedding will be up at around 1500 – 2000 Pounds per week.
This saving, plus the additional benefits that will come from the enhanced fertiliser value of the fibre, allow Anthony to budget on a total pay-back on his investment within five years, without taking account of a capital grant.
“It's not only the savings on sand that make this system stack up,” he adds.
“We are reducing the wear and tear on machinery and we have a dry and more manageble manure product that we can store effectively and spread more uniformly, cutting down our requirement for bought phosphate and potash.
“It's about future proofing our business. We've secured our use of what we see as the best bedding system for cow health and welfare, through recycling a finite resourse, reduced our requirement for fresh water and cut our reliance on bought-in fertilisers.
Of course it's important for our business to be viable, but it's also a good message for consumers to now that farms are investing in sustainability for the wider benefits this brings,” he adds.
The original article was places in “British Dairying” Februari 2019