slurry flow channel

kevinm177

Just wondering if a flow channel would work with a 90 degree turn or
would it have to bea straight line. Slurry would be pretty dry
while cows are dried off nov,dec time. The channel would be 40ft
across the end of a shed a 90degree turn and then 40ft straight
to a tank. Site would be level with top of open
tank same height as floor level of shed. Any ideas welcome,

Alibaba

kevinm177 wrote: »

Just wondering if a flow channel would work with a 90 degree turn or
would it have to bea straight line. Slurry would be pretty dry
while cows are dried off nov,dec time. The channel would be 40ft
across the end of a shed a 90degree turn and then 40ft straight
to a tank. Site would be level with top of open
tank same height as floor level of shed. Any ideas welcome,

I have something similar and it works fairly ok.
The only problem is in dry weather when the slurry is dry or if you are feeding dry forage ie. hay , it can clog up.
But just flush it with a tank of water to get it going again.

You have to put in a couple of steps on the floor of the channel to keep the slurry moving.

rliston

Would it work better if there was a drop at the turn?

kowtow

I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work - especially if you put a second 'dam' in at the right angle / change of direction. From recollection slurry forms a specific slope which is steeper the drier the material is. The trick is to ensure that the fall between dams is sufficient to cope with the driest slurry.

If I remember correctly the idea is not to wet the slurry, but to make sure that the water in the channel beneath it remains intact. Done properly it forms a liquid conveyor belt underneath the slurry which slides along on top as soon as it has formed the appropriate slope.

We found with ours that covering the channel (corrugated offcuts screwed to 4x2 frames) made a big difference, stopped the wind drying the slurry and slowing things up. Even with only a few cows in the shed the slurry stayed on top and the water beneath it remained relatively clean.

kevinm177

rliston wrote: »

Would it work better if there was a drop at the turn?

I was thinking this also but seeing as the whole site is level I am
Afraid I would be down too low entering the open tank thus losing a lot of capacity. If I could have no step it would suit a lot better

kevinm177

kowtow wrote: »

I can't see any reason why it wouldn't work - especially if you put a second 'dam' in at the right angle / change of direction. From recollection slurry forms a specific slope which is steeper the drier the material is. The trick is to ensure that the fall between dams is sufficient to cope with the driest slurry.

If I remember correctly the idea is not to wet the slurry, but to make sure that the water in the channel beneath it remains intact. Done properly it forms a liquid conveyor belt underneath the slurry which slides along on top as soon as it has formed the appropriate slope.

We found with ours that covering the channel (corrugated offcuts screwed to 4x2 frames) made a big difference, stopped the wind drying the slurry and slowing things up. Even with only a few cows in the shed the slurry stayed on top and the water beneath it remained relatively clean.

We are planning on crossing a main yard with the channel so we will be covering it with concrete slabs .

Brown Podzol

kevinm177 wrote: »

I was thinking this also but seeing as the whole site is level I am
Afraid I would be down too low entering the open tank thus losing a lot of capacity. If I could have no step it would suit a lot better

3% drop needed. Slurry will stay on a slope of 3% or less, so a drop of c.2.5ft needed for your 80ft channell.

Greengrass1

I've a bit more reading to do up on them but we're going to put one in here
roughly 110ft from back of a shed to slurry store.
will cross behind parlour so everything from yard will be scraped into it and yard washed into it.
Site is level but I thought it needed to be dead level with a stopper at end of channel to hold water in?

einn32

Would it be able to flow in over slats at the end or would it need direct piping in to a tank? If it worked it would be a good solution for me here. Not sure would I be able to get that fall though.

kevinm177

einn32 wrote: »

Would it be able to flow in over slats at the end or would it need direct piping in to a tank? If it worked it would be a good solution for me here. Not sure would I be able to get that fall though.

it would be going straight into an open tank. Tank is only 7 ft deep so the higher it can be kept up the better. with a 3% fall and including the lip at the end i would be losing alot of capacity , more than half the Tank. Too much I think

einn32

Yeah I had the lad who built the tank looking at it and he advised me that I would lose a fair bit capacity. It was too much horse work to do it anyway hr said! Easier build a tank nearly.

Greengrass1

einn32 wrote: »

Yeah I had the lad who built the tank looking at it and he advised me that I would lose a fair bit capacity. It was too much horse work to do it anyway hr said! Easier build a tank nearly.

If your building a new tank it would be easy do.
Where my tank is going it will be under yard so channel will sit on top of it

Brown Podzol

Greengrass1 wrote: »

I've a bit more reading to do up on them but we're going to put one in here
roughly 110ft from back of a shed to slurry store.
will cross behind parlour so everything from yard will be scraped into it and yard washed into it.
Site is level but I thought it needed to be dead level with a stopper at end of channel to hold water in?

Floating slurry 180ft for over 20 years, including a 7 bay slatted shed with no tank under just a flow channel,with no problems. Even with feeding a lot of baled silage.You may have to flush with a tanker of water now and again. Maybe 5 or 6 tankers a year here. 18" concrete pipes used under yards, set level with a lip at the end to hold water. Silt could eventually be your biggest problem, cows bringing soil from paddocks and cubicle lime.

Greengrass1

Brown Podzol wrote: »

Floating slurry 180ft for over 20 years, including a 7 bay slatted shed with no tank under just a flow channel,with no problems. Even with feeding a lot of baled silage.You may have to flush with a tanker of water now and again. Maybe 5 or 6 tankers a year here. 18" concrete pipes used under yards, set level with a lip at the end to hold water. Silt could eventually be your biggest problem, cows bringing soil from paddocks and cubicle lime.

That's good to know.
yeah o remember cleaning out a blocked channel before not nice but where silt will build up it'll be near the end if it and could clean it out easily with if I had to.
would make life alot easier

Brown Podzol

Greengrass1 wrote: »

That's good to know.
yeah o remember cleaning out a blocked channel before not nice but where silt will build up it'll be near the end if it and could clean it out easily with if I had to.
would make life alot easier

Put in a few manholes over the length. An 8"/10" pipe coming to the surface would do. You can then put in the 6" from the tanker to force any blockage.

Brown Podzol

Greengrass1 wrote: »

I've a bit more reading to do up on them but we're going to put one in here
roughly 110ft from back of a shed to slurry store.
will cross behind parlour so everything from yard will be scraped into it and yard washed into it.
Site is level but I thought it needed to be dead level with a stopper at end of channel to hold water in?

In that case the channel would have to be over 3' deep.

Greengrass1

Brown Podzol wrote: »

In that case the channel would have to be over 3' deep.

Local concrete crowd here make them in precast so what ever size they are
idea was I'd go to back of shed with channel and then each cubicle passage scraps into it then all I have to do is scrap out feed passage into channel
will be about 15 ft then out side shed with just concrete slabs and then where cows walk up to enter collecting yard would be slats again. It's a long run out of yard till they hit a field could be 150m this more than likely will be concrete which is scraped up into the channel

kevinm177

Brown Podzol wrote: »

In that case the channel would have to be over 3' deep.

I think it would have to be more than 3 ft for that distance.
you would have to take in the height of the slat and the lip at the end as well as some
free board at the furthest away point. I could be wrong though

Brown Podzol

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Local concrete crowd here make them in precast so what ever size they are
idea was I'd go to back of shed with channel and then each cubicle passage scraps into it then all I have to do is scrap out feed passage into channel
will be about 15 ft then out side shed with just concrete slabs and then where cows walk up to enter collecting yard would be slats again. It's a long run out of yard till they hit a field could be 150m this more than likely will be concrete which is scraped up into the channel

That 150mtrs could be a problem with a lot of clay, especially in wet weather. I scrape this with a 7ft bucket on the loader, load against wall and toss on dung heap.

dmakc

Question about these, in particular where they drop into the slatted tank. Should the slatted tank slurry level always be kept below the channel lip (which facilitates a layer of water kept the channel side). Look at putting down a 26ft channel (4ft depth).

The numbers could mean the a foot or two from the top of the slatted tank's wall, which is a lot of storage to give up depending on the tank if so.

Or do they still work fine once the tank's slurry level is above the channel's lip?

Wildsurfer

No need to keep tank level below channel depth so you're not losing any capacity. Even if slurry backs up flow channel when main tank is full to the top, it will just flow out when your emptying tank.

dmakc

Thanks. Would it be a case where I need to wash out the channel if slurry goes above the lip level? Was thinking for a 1m depth channel so maybe a 50cm lip to tank to hold the water

Wildsurfer

I've never needed to wash it out, it just flows back as it should. You are probably aware, but the lip should be at a 45 degree angle so the slurry only has the tip to drop over.

dmakc

Thanks again so I'm thinking 2 different uses of the channels

1) Precast channel - My scraper passage is higher than it's destination tank on right - I assume using this precast channel frame to step the level down like this will work, and can always be washed out even if the slurry goes to the tank rim as there's an easy slot for a hose

2) Poured channel - I have cows walking between 2 tanks (approx 10m apart), this channel would benefit in 2 ways - one being make the yard easier to clean. Another being that the left tank is small and receives 2 scrapers so it'd be great to see it overflow into the bigger tank on right. I know you said how it's fine for the slurry to go to the roof of the channel, but a scraper man here told me that this way would lose 2 foot of capacity in my tanks. I disagree but just making sure as it'll be a lot of work to go into it thanks

carlowforsam

quick question on slurry channels lads what is the maximum width or could you make them any size with shutters instead of precast