Give muck the squeeze to boost nutrient management

摘要

Investing in a slurry separator has reduced labour requirements on a Shropshire dairy unit. Tim Dale installed the separator last autumn to alleviate the need to pump slurry into a second pit.Slurry produced by the 360 milking cows plus followers at Little Shrawardine Farm, near Shrewsbury, is scraped into an open lagoon with a concrete bottom.A second, earth-lined pit was added 10-15 years ago to increase capacity and meet nitrate vulnerable zone requirements. This second pit acts as an overflow facility, but thick slurry was clogging up the pipe.