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Post by JoshuaGA on Jul 3, 2012 20:12:15 GMT -5
Looking at going ahead and pressing forward on building a grazing dairy at this point. One of the issues I am looking at is the location I want to place the barn in does not provide enough room to build a lagoon. My idea at this point is that I am going to have to build a concrete pit to hold my manure and washwater in, design not determined, ie I need to contact a engineer to help me design it. Anyway, the plan would be to pump it off every month to six weeks, depending on how much pit capacity I can get, and buy a vacuum tanker to pump and spread with. Can a vacuum tanker pump off a pit that is filled only from parlor waste and washwater, or am I going to require much agitation to get it properly emptied. I realize that is probably a loaded question, but I am curious if it can be done.
PS: Doing all the groundwork for a dairy is proving quite interesting to say the least.
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Post by rowfarmer on Jul 3, 2012 21:14:00 GMT -5
Josh is a lagoon that will only hold a month to six weeks of waste going to be big enough? I will admit I do not know GA but I know east central MS and you will not get anything in the field from December till about Feburary in most years. But to answer your question yes you will need to agitate the lagoon when you are pumping it.
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Post by JoshuaGA on Jul 3, 2012 21:46:21 GMT -5
I aint worried about getting in the field, I can usually catch a couple of weeks dry spell to get in the field, usually. Worst comes to worse, always a grass field I can run on, might not be my own. Also could get it out with a traveler, would just limit the distance I could pump. I wish I could use the existing lagoons, but they are a 1/2 mile down the road and in bad shape. I am going to push them in, might try to rent a dozer for a week this winter and do a little pushing. I don't know how big I can go in the location I am going to try to use, I would prefer to size big enough for six months, but I don't think there will be the space to do it, plan as of now is to put it on top of the hill, will be situated inbetween two pivots, small space to work with, and there is alot of water that goes down a waterway on the back of the hill. Other alternative would be a reception pit and pump into a tank across the road, but I want to take up as little land as possible as well. I am basically asking for the impossible.  |
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Post by johnwayne360 on Jul 4, 2012 10:38:29 GMT -5
I used to farrow pigs, and had two approx 3000 gal cement tanks next to the farrowing house. I used a 2250 gal vac tank to empty every 4 weeks. Got pretty much everything down to 8 inches on the bottom. It never got too thick to pump off the bottom, just sucked air.
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Post by cousinit on Jul 4, 2012 13:27:03 GMT -5
Josh, how many cows are you planning on milking?
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Post by kwestfarms on Jul 4, 2012 14:03:43 GMT -5
Josh : Dairy that I feed on does about what you are thinking of....all parlor waste and wash water goes into the original pit used by the former 60 stall conventional dairy operation. Operation is now a 300 cow free-stall , parlor set-up. The only difference would be that we do pump the cross-pit from the free -stall barn over to the pit maybe 2 or 3 times. Pit has to be emptyed Spring and Fall. Pit is very liquid and hard to agitate because of all the detergent from the parlor clean-up. Normally the free-stall cross-pit is spread in the field year-round weather permitting. I think what you are thinking of would work OK....would want to have a lower corner in the pit for more complete removal. Pat : Been on vacation  Always enjoy your posts on NAT. Hope all is well....John |
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Post by cousinit on Jul 4, 2012 14:20:10 GMT -5
John, Don put me a temporary leave of absence. I said "$hit" and that got me 30 days of vacation.
Mizzou Tiger says "fing" all day long and that's apparently ok. go figure.
I wish this site had more posters. Agweb is about dead as well.
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ogden
Hired Hand
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Post by ogden on Jul 6, 2012 8:04:52 GMT -5
John, Don put me a temporary leave of absence. I said "$hit" and that got me 30 days of vacation. Mizzou Tiger says "fing" all day long and that's apparently ok. go figure. I wish this site had more posters. Agweb is about dead as well. Mizzou Tiger provides usefull info over there. You, not so much.......... |
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Post by cousinit on Jul 6, 2012 12:18:17 GMT -5
Ya, everyone thinks MT is a wonderful guy over there. Not.
Whine whine whine is all he does.
The problem with Agtalk is, in a nutshell, way too many corn farmers & not enough dairy farmers.
& ogden, do you have anything of substance to ever post, or is all you do is sit back and shoot darts? Tell me about yourself. Are you one of those sheep farmers? LOL
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ogden
Hired Hand
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Post by ogden on Jul 6, 2012 13:47:01 GMT -5
Ya, everyone thinks MT is a wonderful guy over there. Not. Whine whine whine is all he does. The problem with Agtalk is, in a nutshell, way too many corn farmers & not enough dairy farmers. & ogden, do you have anything of substance to ever post, or is all you do is sit back and shoot darts? Tell me about yourself. Are you one of those sheep farmers? LOL I raise deer for big game hunters and am thinking about dabbling in selling Amway. Do you do anything other than come on the boards and cry and whine about the poor dairyfarmer |
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Post by cousinit on Jul 6, 2012 14:37:20 GMT -5
Do you do anything except harrass new posters?
I thought harrassment was against this board's policies.
Dairy farmers are under-represented on all ag forums, except dairyforums.com. I didn't realize we were so hated until I started posting on Agweb, Agtalk, and now, here.
You will have to show me where I whined. I would like to see what you call "whining". Then I will point to Agtalk where any corn farmer who didn't received rain in the last month tells the rest of us on a DAILY, if not HOURLY basis that he did not receive any rain for the last month. But that is not whining, apparently.
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Post by JoshuaGA on Jul 7, 2012 21:21:31 GMT -5
If plan comes together, initial plan is to build a 80 head grazing dairy, would graze app. half of the farm, more or less, rest devoted to feed. If I could purchase the adjoining farm to the north, it would give a theroretical capacity of around 200, if I pursue that, although I doubt I could convince them to part with it, who knows. Am also strongly looking into the possibility of having a fully seasonal herd, freshen everything in Sept-November, dry off by July 4th, but that is a detail not worked out yet. Grazing isn't necessarily my first choice, but I am not fond at all of the idea of putting $400,000 in a freestall setup, I can do it for around half as a grazing setup, and tie up hopefully a little less land to boot. Slowly bartering and buying some of the more necessary pieces of equipment. I plan on grinding all my own feed and supplementing baled hay, to keep costs down. Do plan on a part time employee. Im only human, I don't mind the work but I refuse to work myself to death, and I don't have a wife, let alone one willing to help on a dairy or on a farm. Would help if I could lock in a long term lease on a rented irrigated farm, would keep my feed and fixed costs down, but land isn't too easy to come by anymore, got neighbors who are hungrier than me apparently, but that is a different issue. Certiantly not looking at anything fancy or at getting rich, so long as I can make enough to have a decent living without looking over my shoulder all the time I'll be happy. If this would give you any idea on sort of what I am looking at, www.cefs.ncsu.edu/whatwedo/researchunits/pasturebaseddairy.html Graze magazine has some interesting dairy articles as well. |
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dman
FFA member
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Post by dman on Jul 8, 2012 11:09:02 GMT -5
Why not put in septic tanks and drain field for the wash water? He were part of a project here with the U of M and have three tanks. First is a settling tank, second one has a aerobic digester in it, the third is pumping tank to the drain field. When the waste water goes into the system it is grey, coming out it is clear and almost drinkable. You would have to figure out the parlor manure though, as the system does not handle that well. Could scrape it to the end by hand then put in a bucket? Or maybe a small holding area at the end of the parlor just for the manure? Then you would not need as much manure storage or would last longer?
I'll see if I can find those links to our research project.
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ogden
Hired Hand
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Post by ogden on Jul 8, 2012 15:35:02 GMT -5
Do you do anything except harrass new posters? I thought harrassment was against this board's policies. Dairy farmers are under-represented on all ag forums, except dairyforums.com. I didn't realize we were so hated until I started posting on Agweb, Agtalk, and now, here. You will have to show me where I whined. I would like to see what you call "whining". Then I will point to Agtalk where any corn farmer who didn't received rain in the last month tells the rest of us on a DAILY, if not HOURLY basis that he did not receive any rain for the last month. But that is not whining, apparently. Im pretty sure Ive read several times on NAT where you were crying about high corn prices. As far as harrassment. LOL. Not even close. |
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Post by cousinit on Jul 8, 2012 16:10:07 GMT -5
Corn prices ARE high. You sell Amway. How would I expect you to know that.
Corn farmers cry about having no rain. Every minute of every day.
What's your point?
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Always enjoy your posts on NAT. Hope all is well....John