A new articulated slurry pump, designed to chop and agitate heavy-duty slurry, might be the answer for producers desperate to increase their storage capacity. Olivia Cooper reports.

Many livestock producers are facing the huge expense of increasing their slurry storage to meet new legislation on nitrate vulnerable zones. But a new slurry pump could help them to make better use of their existing storage, potentially saving them thousands of pounds.

DEFRA recently extended NVZs to cover almost 70% of farmland in England, bringing with them stringent slurry storage requirements. Livestock producers will soon require up to six months’ slurry storage and will not be able to spread muck for up to five months over the winter.

This leaves many farmers facing the massive expense of having to expand their slurry storage capacity. But a new articulated slurry pump from GEA Farm Technologies could help them to make more efficient use of their slurry, freeing up valuable storage space, as well as making the slurry easier to load and spread.

Demonstrated for the first time last week, at Collacott Farm, Muddiford, Devon, the Articulated Super Pump is designed for high-speed homogenisation and transfer of heavy-duty slurry containing straw, sawdust and sand bedding. By creating a uniform liquid, it makes emptying the lagoon and spreading the slurry far quicker and easier and also produces a nutritionally consistent fertiliser.

The pump attaches to a tractor, so it can be moved to different access points and reach varying levels of a pit or lagoon. It is capable of handling up to 11,300 litres (2500gal) a minute of 19mm consistency slurry. Featuring a heavy duty, double-jointed and vibration-free drive shaft, it is said to be capable of long-lasting, problem-free operation.

The gearbox housing is oil filled and fitted with three greaseable seal mechanisms for additional protection on each shaft. The pump also has a special rotating agitation nozzle to prevent swirl and promote high impact and fast mixing over a wide area.

A uni-directional valve allows the pump to be switched from mixing the lagoon to filling a spreader or tanker through either 150mm or 220mm pipes. The pump is also fitted with self-cleaning shredder blades to break up any large chunks and keep the equipment and flow running smoothly.

It comes with three pipe lengths of up to 16m (52ft) to reach the bottom of the deepest and largest lagoons, and can also be fitted with wheels and a tow bar kit for easy road transportation.

Tony Dallyn, a director of Exmoor Farm Services, arranged and hosted the demonstration day at Collacott Farm, where he keeps 650 dairy cows. Being in a nitrate vulnerable zone, he is required to have five months’ slurry storage, and cannot spread slurry or muck for four months over the winter.

“Because we bed on sand we have a lot of sand in the slurry, and we found we were leaving sand behind all the time, so the slurry pit was filling up,” he says. Clearly, this reduced his slurry storage capacity. So, faced with the prospect of having to expand the slurry pit, he instead opted to buy the articulated pump in January, becoming the first farmer in the country to install one.

“It stirs and blows the slurry, so it dislodges the sand banks. It has been excellent,” he says. The slurry is much more evenly mixed, so spreads far better via the umbilical system and injector that Mr Dallyn uses. And with no sand left behind, the pump significantly increases the slurry storage available.

At a cost of about £18,000, the pump is considerably cheaper than expanding the slurry lagoon, which Mr Dallyn ultimately plans to cover to prevent rainwater entering the store.