New Delhi, March 30, 2020: UK farmers are being urged to consider slurry separation systems that can help them comply with tighter environmental controls, avoiding the need to create more storage space or paying the economic price of transporting the manure away.
GEA, a company with 40 years’ experience supplying high-tech kit for the farming industry, is offering a leasing facility to spread the cost of its robust and reliable manure decanter, which can significantly cut the overall volume of slurry and poultry waste, while recovering the fibre to produce compost or bedding for crops and grass.
Farmers and landowners can be fined for non-compliance with government legislation introduced for managing the waste from cows, pigs and poultry, especially if their land is in a nitrate vulnerable zone (NVZ). NVZs are areas designated as being at risk from agricultural nitrate pollution.
While farms in NVZs are more likely to comply – because of the pollution threat to water courses, waterways and wetlands of excessive agricultural runoff from fields, particularly when hit by a lot of rain – there have been calls for the environmental agency to increase policing and impose stiffer penalties on those that persistently flout the rules.
Dairy herds of around 200 cows alone can produce on average 12,000 litres of manure a day, resulting in around half the volume again of water for washing. Farmers must be able to store all the slurry they produce, reduce the volume by sending it off farm or by spreading on fields with a low risk of runoff. Separating manure by decanter centrifuge manages the solid and liquid fractions individually, with greater flexibility and efficiency.
A manure decanter is a continuously operating centrifuge developed specifically to dewater liquid manures and digestate. Its efficient capture of solids means there is little or no settlement in storage lagoons and tanks so regular agitation and digging out is not needed. Solids can then be used as good quality fertiliser under the right conditions and in compliance with legislation.
Chris Clarke, GEA’s Business Manager – Environmental, said: “The younger generation of famers react differently and are more inclined to accept new technology for improving nutrient separation, while older farmers sometimes have a different mind-set rooted in tradition, despite modern herds being of a size that means there is more slurry than land.
“We can ease the problem for all farmers by allowing them to get more out of their land by cleaning it up. A manure decanter can be customised to meet requirements, whether from a herd of 200 cows or 2,000 strong. It processes up to 80cu m of slurry an hour, extracting more than 85% of the liquid fraction. It’s economical, affordable, reliable and simple to use.”
For further information visit https://www.gea.com/united-kingdom/manure-management.jsp
GEA’s technology is supported by the welsh government and Natural Resources Wales through project slurry at Coleg Sir Gâr’s Gelli Aur agricultural campus where further treatment steps are also being developed.
GEA understands that demands on the farming and dairy sectors have never been higher in terms of quality requirements, production standards, animal health and welfare. Its expertise and solutions are playing a central role in helping to drive greater efficiency, resilience and productivity across the whole of the UK’s agri-food sector.
Corporate Comm India (CCI Newswire)
