Labour and machinery input for different manure application techniques and transportation systems

摘要

The handling and application of manure makes considerable demands on the capacity of technical systems, as significant quantities of manure will have to be applied within a short time frame in order to achieve the maximum utilisation of the nutrients. Consequently, from an operational machine planning point of view it is essential to understand the consequences in terms of labour input and system capacity from using various technologies, which might imply different degrees of utilisation of manurenutrients as well as different expected environmental influences. As part of a project creating basic knowledge on design elements for slurry application techniques, operational technical studies are being carried out on a number of private farms using different methods of transportation and different application techniques. Specific studies are made into transportation systems involving traditional slurry tankers, separate transport to buffer tanks in the field and systems for pumping the slurry to thefield by way of pipelines. As regards application techniques, the attention was focused on band spreading by means of trailing hoses and shallow injection on grassland or fallow soil. The studies included a detailed measurement of the time and labour requirement, the machinery capacity, the slurry characteristics, etc. The processed data and the results obtained from the studies will be incorporated into normative models for evaluation and prediction of the capacity and the labour requirement, considering certain prerequisites like size of field, machinery size, travelling distance to field, dosage, etc. By applying the developed model to different farm scenarios (specific size of herd, specific amount of slurry produced, etc.) and different management farm scenarios as regards handling systems (specific storage facility and mixing, specific type of transport and application technology, etc.) these scenarios will be evaluated with respect to operational technical consequences. In this way, both existing manure handling systems as well as more innovative systems may be considered.