SLURRY PUMP HELPS WITH EFFICIENCY AT RESOURCEFUL ORGANIC DAIRY FARM
At an organic dairy farm in Lancashire, where the ethos is firmly on maximising efficiency over maximising output, a Landia chopper pump is playing a vital role in the use of slurry as fertilizer.
Using energy captured from solar panels at the all-electric, 100-hectares farm, the 7.5 kW pump transfers slurry 510m, directly from the main dry cow house to the external lagoon, making considerable savings on fuel and labour.
"First, we tried a diesel pump" said Ian Pye from Old Holly Farm near Garstang, but the process was costly and took up way too much time. Every drop of slurry is important to us, so we wanted a simple and long-lasting solution, which to be honest, we believed we could achieve with Landia, but given their pedigree, thought would be too expensive. However, this just wasn’t the case at all with cost, and five years on, the decision has been more than justified; very good value for money, actually. It just works; very reliable. Compared to scooping up slurry with a tractor and then transporting it, sending it directly to the lagoon with a decent pump is a no brainer”.
When manure from the farm’s 140 cows is particularly thick (depending on time of year/diet/maternity), it is moved 100m to the lagoon in the yard, but the vast majority of time, the Landia Chopper Pump (which for flexibility, was supplied with a moveable control panel), sends the slurry straight to the lagoon. Continually breaking down solid particles, the pump’s knife system prevents harmful debris from entering the pump’s casing, so that it remains clog-free.
Ian Pye added: "In five years, all we’ve ever needed for the pump has been a new float switch, which is very good going. Even then, it was all very simple and economical; quick turnaround, with a part that our electrician could fit easily. Some companies can make the supply of spares unnecessarily difficult and very costly, but we’ve had nothing but friendly and helpful support from Landia. From day one, they listened hard to understand what we wanted to do, and how they could help us best achieve our goals".
A supplier to the Arla dairy co-operative, which has one of the world’s largest externally-validated climate data sets from dairy farms, Old Holly Farm is run almost entirely by one person; Ian Pye.
