Installing a separator over a decade ago has helped the Singleton family to improve cow health, reduce bedding costs and make better use of slurry on their grassland. The more recent installation of a Vogelsang XSplit separator has seen separation become key to growing the dairy unit whilst carefully managing costs.
Brothers Andrew, James, and Colin Singleton farm in partnership at Whitehill Farm to milk 250 pedigree Holsteins near Preston, Lancashire. The cows average 10,000 litres of milk per cow per year and, in doing so, create enough slurry to near fill the farms 420,000 gallon, covered slurry storage tank.
“The main store is about two thirds of our total and we covered it when we installed the separator, which has eliminated the problem of rainfall contributing to the total volume. This means we have a homogenous slurry liquid which is stirred and a separated solid, which we have chosen to use for bedding,” explains James.
Covering our storage and using a separator has reduced the amount of liquid being stored by at least 30 per cent. Separating the liquid counts for at least half of this and also makes the contents of the store much easier to manage. It is also more energy efficient and only relies on a relatively small 600mm paddle mixer run off a 1.5kw motor.
The farm started green bedding in 2011 using an imported Chinese separator. The farm’s existing mats were worn, and replacing or moving to another bedding system was an investment the family did not want to make.
“Choosing the separator was a smaller capital cost, a way to improve cow comfort and reduce the amount of slurry we needed to store. In short, we had nothing to lose. Since we upgraded to the XSplit we have made greater savings, it is a much more efficient machine. There is no crust or build-up of silt and solids in the main store which means that every cubic metre is utilised. This has helped us save on installing an additional slurry provision as we have grown the herd,” he says.
It costs the farm £6 per day to run the Vogelsang separator. By comparison the cost of sawdust was crippling. “We would have used 600 kilos of sawdust per day at a cost of £90-£100 which amounts to over £30,000 per year. There are only benefits, as far as we see it,” he adds.
He stresses that the system needs to be run on fresh slurry because, as slurry begins to degrade and compost, the fibres are easier to separate. Whilst the cyclical process of slurry in, bedding out, continues, so does the need for the liquid to be applied to the farm’s 400 acres of grassland.
“The separated liquid is thinner, and the nutrient content is not dissimilar, so we are not losing much N value. Being thinner makes it much easier to pump and we are using less fuel and using narrower pipe,” he says.
The separated slurry can be pumped over 1,000 metres with 4-inch pipe, which saves time and outlay on larger, more expensive, umbilical equipment. “Most of our slurry is applied umbilically and we find the separated liquid much easier to handle and apply in a uniform manner,” he adds.
Whilst the separator has brought multiple savings to the farm, it has also helped improve cow health. Providing quality material for deep bedding has lowered the herd average somatic cell count (SCC) to between 60-80 from over 100.
“We tend to use at least three inches of green bedding. We have a cross conveyor distributor bucket fitted to our telehandler to fill the stalls. Sometimes we have to go in and scrape round the side to stop it building up but, on the whole, it is very easy,” he says.
“It takes just a few minutes to fill the stalls and the cows enjoy a ‘mattress effect’. We have seen foot health improve immeasurably. There is no dust, which we see as a big benefit to overall cow health and, because the bedding is dry, we also don’t have bedding sticking to the cow’s teats,” he says.
For those concerned about the cleanliness and bacterial load of the bedding, James suggests that using lime has been the key.
“We add 50 kilos of lime to every tonne of separated material. This naturally reduces the bacterial load and, because the same material is being constantly recycled, we have stopped applying lime to the land,” he says.
Following soil samples and the farms nutrient plan, there is no further need to apply lime to the fields. The lime that is added to the bedding has been incorporated into the slurry and the proportion present in the liquid has accumulated. This has been applied to the land at a sustainable rate which has improved soil health.
“It’s another job we don’t have to do and another pass over the land saved, which is helping to reduce compaction and improve our soils and grass yields. Separation really has improved every aspect of our system, and we would never be without it now,” he concludes.