Trailing Shoe or Dribble bar

reilig

Anyone spreading slurry with a trailing shoe or dribble bar? If so are you doing it yourself or contractor?

Was at a discussion group meeting last night and a lot of talk was about about the possibility to import pig slurry to farms in order to offset fertilizer prices. They talked about the benefits of spreading with a trailing shoe or dribble bar above a splash plate. Apparently you lose 35% more ammonia or Nitrogen to the Atmosphere with a splash plate than by trailing shoes or dribble bars. Relative to recent figures of €30 per 1000 gal of slurry. If you use a trailing shoe or dribble bar then your 1000 gal of slurry can have a value of €40 to you.

Any opinions???

Muckit

Don't put out our own, but if a contractor in the area had a direct injection system, i'd definitely give it a go. It'd want to be in or around the same price though.

Sure it stands to reason it makes sense benefit-wise (no grass contamination, quicker response, better spreading accuracy and nitrogen utilisation), but it mustn't be economical or it'd be more popular.

I couldn't see the dribble bar having much of an advantage over a splash plate.

Would you consider an alternative to the splash plate yourself Reilig? I'd be interested to know how much a farmer version would cost.

Extra tail swing to take into consideration too then and it could make reversing and filling at sheds awkward. The balance and handling of the tanker on the road would change also I'd imagine.

Just my twopence worth

jeff greene

I’m unconvinced for a number of reasons, the trailing shoe reduces ammonia emissions compared to the splashplate in a dry, sunny May day. if conditions were overcast and damp there is no significant difference between the splashplate and trailing shoe.

Cost of machine is prohibitive and contractors rates are higher, contractors locally have to use massive tractors just to pull them which has to mean compaction, also working width is often only 6-8 meters leading to more travelling on land

I read in the IFJ that 100,000 gallons spread with trailing shoe in April is worth €450 odd over splashplate. I know there are other benefits to trailing shoe but I feel there over hyped

http://www.farmersjournal.ie/2008/0510/farmmanagement/farmbuildings/index.shtml

JohnBoy

I dont get why the dribble bars arent more common, they should be substantially cheaper than injection systems and still deliver some of the benefits.

The ammonia is quite easy to take out of suspension in slurry, think of it like a can of coke. if you pour it gently you'll still have most of the CO2 in the drink to fizz in your throat (and belch to your hearts content) but if you spray it out the fizz is all gone when you drink it.

The ammonia gets all fizzed out by being sprayed everywhere by the splash plate.

So the dribble bar should still be a more gentle process on the slurry.


Still though dont know if I've ever actually seen one on the road.

Pat the lad

Not sure about advantages of dribble bar over splash plate. It wouldn't be too difficult to make up a dribble bar of your own!!! Looking into sharing a 2nd hand injection system to share with good friend/ neighbour. He is a big enough dairy farmer so should have enough use between us both to justify it ?? See one in done deal for 20k last week. Same Neighbour get a contractor in now and again to inject slurry. He finds it good. Also aerates the ground a small bit too. One disadvantage is that you would always have to have the slurry well agiated or thin. Side filling point on front of tank does away with the need to reverse( for me anyway)- great job!

leg wax

reilig wrote: »

Anyone spreading slurry with a trailing shoe or dribble bar? If so are you doing it yourself or contractor?

Was at a discussion group meeting last night and a lot of talk was about about the possibility to import pig slurry to farms in order to offset fertilizer prices. They talked about the benefits of spreading with a trailing shoe or dribble bar above a splash plate. Apparently you lose 35% more ammonia or Nitrogen to the Atmosphere with a splash plate than by trailing shoes or dribble bars. Relative to recent figures of €30 per 1000 gal of slurry. If you use a trailing shoe or dribble bar then your 1000 gal of slurry can have a value of €40 to you.

Any opinions???

as far as i am concerned the cost of attachment plus the cost of haulage and the length of time covering ground with the pig slurry does not add up compared to a bag of fert and job done in minutes

Muckit

leg wax wrote: »

as far as i am concerned the cost of attachment plus the cost of haulage and the length of time covering ground with the pig slurry does not add up compared to a bag of fert and job done in minutes

Smell off the bag might be nicer too

djmc

I would think the most cost affective way to do it would be after slatted tank is empty get truck to draw in slurry and fill tank around 6000 gal per load
then hire contractor with umbilical system to spread it.
Also pig slurry would have more N in it than cattle slurry hence more grass growth per 1000 gals

reilig

leg wax wrote: »

as far as i am concerned the cost of attachment plus the cost of haulage and the length of time covering ground with the pig slurry does not add up compared to a bag of fert and job done in minutes

We can get pig slurry for free here at certain times of the year. They will deliver it right into our tanks or field spread it.

reilig

Dribble bar's, trailing shoes and injection systems are expensive. I suppose that's what's most prohibitive. Its very difficult to make a dribble bar as you need to build it with a macerator which will chop and small bedding in the slurry so that it doesn't block the smaller pipes. I doubt there's anyone in the whole county with any of them either.

Another fact that was thrown out last night is the fact that if you spread slurry with a splash plate on a windy day you will loose 75% more Nitrogen to the air than if you spread it on a calm day. They were also saying that in the coming years, it is likely that all farmers spreading slurry will have to do so by means other than a splash plate by law so they're telling people to be thinking about their options. Is there a measure in AEOS about slurry spreading???

blue5000

Just one word

PALLETS.

ihatetractors

reilig wrote: »

Dribble bar's, trailing shoes and injection systems are expensive. I suppose that's what's most prohibitive. Its very difficult to make a dribble bar as you need to build it with a macerator which will chop and small bedding in the slurry so that it doesn't block the smaller pipes. I doubt there's anyone in the whole county with any of them either.

There's a lad near us that's got a dribble bar(Hi-spec model), neighbour did it on silage ground last summer and it seems a rite job. Places it below leafage of the grass, and avoids caking on top stunting growth alot better than splash plate. Seemed handy enough sort of a machine... but i believe it cost over 30k new and your man does charge abit more than say for a splash plate

bogman_bass

the dribble bar gives you the opption of applying slurry to tillage crops which the trailing shpe cant do.
if you have it that the pipes are slightly trailing on the ground I dont see how it cant do 90% of the action of the trailing shoe for less cost and no risk of pulling up stones

Agri contractor

We have a 3000 gal abbey fitted with the trailing shoe. Any farmer we have done work for are happy they said they have better growth and can leave cattle back faster into grass and No problems with smells near houses or villages.ts.JPG

F.D

for getting slurry out onto grazing ground when weather conditions are favourable, instead of skipping it because the cattle will be out on it with in say less than 3-4 weeks i can see an advantage when the grass is not getting contaminated,
Just looking at the journal Conor are bringing out some sort of light weight easy on the pocket system for their tankers, but as usual with all these great articles no idea of the price!!!
I suppose if there is more demand for these systems they may get cheaper over time

Muckit

blue5000 wrote: »

Just one word

PALLETS.

I'm not with ya?

pajero12

Agri contractor wrote: »

We have a 3000 gal abbey fitted with the trailing shoe. Any farmer we have done work for are happy they said they have better growth and can leave cattle back faster into grass and No problems with smells near houses or villages.ts.JPG

Ah so thats why its 55 + vat per hour

emu2000

dribble bar is an alternative to trailing shoe but is not as accurate. they can be used on crops without damaging them. better than splash plate as ammonia etc not lost to the air. it is placed at the root of the grass were needed

Agri contractor

pajero12 wrote: »

Ah so thats why its 55 + vat per hour

Sorry should have mentioned this.

denis086

Muckit wrote: »

I'm not with ya?

I think hes talking about human waste in pellet form comes in lorries tipped in the field and spread with a bredal fert/lime spreader terrible smell if it gets damp were right over the ditch from a neighbour that uses it but thankfully he ploughs it in straight away used be worse when it was liquid :eek:
This is crazy lads i was only looking at getting a dribble bar for our hispec tank from abbey a few days ago the abbey agent mention a while back that he could sell us a dribble bar for a couple of grand for the current hispec tank with minimal modification. But that trailing shoe is a different job altogether hispec brackets are 250 on a new tank abbey are something like 800 because they do a serious job on theirs would definitely go for abbbey if i was going for one. Plus the dribble bar would be more suited to our stoney ground. There is also less risk of some eejit backing up with it down like ive seen some lads do with a trailing shoe.

pajero12

Muckit wrote: »

I'm not with ya?

I think he's making a reference to bagged fertiliser? Although, Dont know what it is?

newhouse

blue5000 wrote: »

Just one word

PALLETS.

good man 5k. knock a bit of reality into the discussion

blue5000

Muckit wrote: »

I'm not with ya?

Hi muckit,
have you ever had a corner block of a euro pallet stuck in the outlet of a splashplate?

Now imagine the bits of wood stuck in a pipe somewhere between the outlet of the tanker and where the slurry eventually 'dribbles' out:eek:.

pajero12

blue5000 wrote: »

Hi muckit,
have you ever had a corner block of a euro pallet stuck in the outlet of a splashplate?

Now imagine the bits of wood stuck in a pipe somewhere between the outlet of the tanker and where the slurry eventually 'dribbles' out:eek:.

Thats why the lord gave us macerators!

Muckit

blue5000 wrote: »

Hi muckit,
have you ever had a corner block of a euro pallet stuck in the outlet of a splashplate?

Thank God no, but I can imagine the frustration and problems! :rolleyes:

newhouse

neighbour has a trailingshoe his 2k+ tanker and overall says he happy with it, but because of the extra weight when it's attached (while the tanker is empty) there is verry little weight on the tractor hitch

Agri contractor

Most of the tankers have two macerators one when the slurry in going in and the other for the slurry going out. If the one for sucking in is not working properly it won't suck it in.

Agri contractor

newhouse wrote: »

neighbour has a trailingshoe his 2k+ tanker and overall says he happy with it, but because of the extra weight when it's attached (while the tanker is empty) there is verry little weight on the tractor hitch

We had the same problem and got Abbey to make weights for the front of the tanker. Super job now.

vincenzolorenzo

blue5000 wrote: »

Just one word

PALLETS.

What?

cjpm

Agri contractor wrote: »

We had the same problem and got Abbey to make weights for the front of the tanker. Super job now.

Hmm, don't like the idea of adding weights to a slurry tanker, they are heavy enough for soft ground. :eek:

I presume on subsequent designs abbey shifted the barrel slightly forward to compensate for the weight on the back.

vincenzolorenzo wrote: »

What?

See further up in the tread, he's referring to the block of a euro pallet blocking the outlet of the tanker.

bogman_bass

how do you get a block of a euro pallet through slats?

F.D

bogman_bass wrote: »

how do you get a block of a euro pallet through slats?

Its probably the rotten one covering the manhole at the end of the with a bits breaken off :eek: Only joking before i'm attacked
On a serious note i have drawn slurry from a piggery and the amount of rubbish that gets blocked in the splash plate is a joke sometimes, from wood to bottles bits of plastic

blue5000

bogman_bass wrote: »

how do you get a block of a euro pallet through slats?

The cows lift the slats up and then ****e them out when you're not looking.

No seriously its usually the yard scraper that puts it down the slats along with bits of hydrodare and whatever else happens to be lying round the yard.

I'd like to see a macerator after it has macerated a few feet of hi-tensile wire, old bucket handles, bits of net wrap etc.:D

reilig

blue5000 wrote: »

The cows lift the slats up and then ****e them out when you're not looking.

No seriously its usually the yard scraper that puts it down the slats along with bits of hydrodare and whatever else happens to be lying round the yard.

I'd like to see a macerator after it has macerated a few feet of hi-tensile wire, old bucket handles, bits of net wrap etc.:D

The tanker won't suck up wire or bucket handles so it won't get to the macerator. There is a mesh to stop larger pieces getting to the macerator blades. But it will handle smaller bits of net, wrap or twine

BalingMad

reilig wrote: »

The tanker won't suck up wire or bucket handles so it won't get to the macerator. There is a mesh to stop larger pieces getting to the macerator blades. But it will handle smaller bits of net, wrap or twine

My nearly finished emptying the slurry tank, was out on field spreading and the splash plate got blocked, a fecking half a crow stuck in it

PMU

bogman_bass wrote: »

how do you get a block of a euro pallet through slats?

local contractor say "he was a great bullock to sh... out that board"

PMU

saw both dribble bar and trailing shoe at gurteen on thurs. both doing the same job and dribble bar is about half the price

I said

Many these been used this season with the glas specs on the way

darragh_haven

I said wrote: »

Many these been used this season with the glas specs on the way

we got a contractor in to spread approx 110,000gals with the trailing shoe. more to do with heavy covers of grass than Glas. The contractor said he was very busy with it.

Reggie.

darragh_haven wrote: »

we got a contractor in to spread approx 110,000gals with the trailing shoe. more to do with heavy covers of grass than Glas. The contractor said he was very busy with it.

I'll take it you had no hay or silage in the tank

grazeaway

The in laws use a dribble bar to spread thier slurry. They used to spread on grass in spring but have now changed to a dribble bar in early summer and put a good bit out on the corn too. Tank needs to have a chopper to break up the clumps and it needs to be well watered too. They reckon they get a much better up take but if the covers are bare the splash plate does just as well. Apperently you need the grass cover in summer to prevent evaporation. It's a pain if you get stones though.

darragh_haven

Reggie. wrote: »

I'll take it you had no hay or silage in the tank

there would have been a small amount of silage from feeding about 160 bales, but the mulcher on the trailing shoe unit would have taken care of it.
did a trial on one field where splash plate and trailing shoe was use. the trailing shoe has slight better cover than the splash plate, probably due to better nitrogen utilisation

visatorro

said on another thread that if you smell slurry your losing nitrogen. with dribble bar you can't smell much. first year using it here, only tried it because tanks were full at the time and driest field had a good cover of grass. spread back tank of cubicles so very little silage. worked out well I think. lad working for contractor said a tank at a feeding barrier can be very difficult to spread.

Reggie.

visatorro wrote: »

said on another thread that if you smell slurry your losing nitrogen. with dribble bar you can't smell much. first year using it here, only tried it because tanks were full at the time and driest field had a good cover of grass. spread back tank of cubicles so very little silage. worked out well I think. lad working for contractor said a tank at a feeding barrier can be very difficult to spread.

I know all about it. Spent 5 hours on an agitator and was an expert at unblocking it by the end of the day