A2B-lincaster Farming, Saturday, July 27, 1991
Tri-County Effort Hosts Manure Tour
VERNON ACHENBACH JR.
Lancaster Farming Staff
ELIZABETHTOWN (Lancas
ter County) When Greek
mythical hero Hercules cleaned
out the Augean stables by divert
ing the Alphaeus and Peneius riv
ers to flush them out, he may have
passed the test imposed by the god
dess Hera, but he was a far cry
from dealing with manure in a
responsible manner.
By today’s standards, Hercules
would have faced fines, com
plaints, and civil and criminal legal
action for willfully contaminating
the rivers.
(ln fact, to show how much
environmental considerations
have changed, Hercules was also
highly regarded in some myths for
being a swamp buster and eradica
tor of untamed wilderness. But that
was before the world reached its
.* V.
/-/ '
' / A
*/A
W M
Several farmers peer down into a manhole like opening at
the Jay Brandt farm in Bachmanville. The gutter scraper is
visible above their heads. The grooved cement in the fore
ground drains a heifer yard not seen to the left, and keeps all
manure and manure contaminated drainage from going
anywhere else but down the manhole, like a huge french
drain.
Farmers from Lebanon, Lancaster and Dauphin counties examine one of two small
er manure storage tanks at the George Ungemach farm In Campbelltown. Manure
from these tanks, If not used for field work within a reasonable time, is pumped uphill
to a large storage tank.
first billion population.)
Today such blatant disregard for
quality of water being sent to peo
ple downstream would not be
tolerated.
But, according to experts on
manure handling systems, there
are many options available, other
than diverting a watercourse
through the stalls.
In order to show regional lives
tock handlers what kinds of
approved manure handling sys
tems can be and are being used, the
conservation districts and coopera
tive extension offices from Dau
phin, Lancaster and Lebanon
counties last week held a tour of
six farms located in the three
counties.
All the farms visited had manure
handling facilities built with some
form of cost-sharing available
through the Chesapeake Bay clea-
V:‘
«, 5
« t*" !
lm\
|< 4 :
nup program
in a pre-event statement. Dau
phin County Agent Paul Craig
said, ‘The Chesapeake Bay prog
ram is now over 5 years old. Since
then, major emphasis has been
placed on manure management
and nutrient loading on farm
fields.”
The tour was specifically
designed to minimize traveling,
but also to show a number of diffe
rent, yet acceptable, approaches to
storing manure.
Dry Storage
The first site visited was the
farm of Roy Book, located west of
Elizabethtown in Dauphin County.
Book’s 50-cow milking bam is
designed with grated gutters and a
scraping system that empties out
onto a dry-manure stacking area.
The concept, around which the
facility was designed, is to keep
the manure at low moisture level
and to allow it to stack, or pile, up
on a concrete slab at the far, down
hill end of the stable bam.
Any runoff moisture from the
manure pile is contained in a catch
basin outfitted with overflow
pipes.
Milkhouse waste flow is taken
through drain pipes to a small tank
where a siphon pump is located.
Once the liquid there reaches cer
tain level, the siphon pump moves
it to a type of drain field, away
from the manure storage area.
Also, to eliminate excessive
water from getting into the stack
ing area, the contour of the land
around the bam is designed so that
all rainwater and surface runoff is
diverted away from the stable area,
maintaining the integrity of the dry
storage design.
The stack area has equal acces
sability from either side, so that,
when ground is open, it can be
hauled as needed. It can also be
stored for I'A to 3 months.
More Traditional
At the 30-cow tie-stall bam of
Glenn Oberholtzer, Elizabeth
town, gravity gutters and gravity
flow take the manure to a concrete
tank which then has to be pumped.
To accomodate 500 feeder
steers a storage pit for runoff from
a 4,500-square foot fccdlot was
created at the operation of David
Becker, in Elizabethtown. In addi
tion to handling waste that way,
Becker also docs weekly hauling
of bedded pack.
Variations
At the Elvin Kreider farm in
Lawn, Lebanon County, a 90-cow
tie stall bam has been outfitted
Some of, jse on the jur discuss the path of manure
flow once it leaves the scraper system, just behind them, at
the Kreider brothers’ farm in Lawn.
/g> -.id pipeline..
the Jay Brandt farm empties manure into this 12-foot deep
storage tank.
with a gravity system and a scraper
system.
The scrapers are chain driven
through the aisle gutters and bring
the manure out to an area beneath
the cement barnyard. From there,
the manure travels by gravity to a
steep-sided poured concrete pit.
The concrete was poured at a very
dry state in order to keep strength
and enable it to be poured without
forms.
The pit has a ramp access and an
area for barnyard scrape-in, with
tractor guards in place.
The manure storage was put up
in the fall of 1988 and Paul Kreid
er, who is in partnership with
Elvin, said it has been serving
them well.
He said that because of the cost
of buying pumping and application
equipment, they’ve been having
(he manure spread through a cus
tom operator.
Although the system has both
gravity feed and the scrapers, the
system could have been made to be
a complete gravity flow. However,
Paul said that because the scrapers
were already in place, they decided
to continue to use that system until
it wears out At that time, he said
they will re-evaluate their financial
position and decide whether they
will make it all gravity.
Paul said the reason he and his
brother decided to go with a man
ure storage system was several
fold, but he said environmental
concerns were among the most
important.
In addition, in the early spring,
when the ground is wet, he doesn’t
like to take equipment out onto the
fields.
He said that if any of the people
on the tour were considering have
a sytem installed, that they should
also make sure it has more than
adequate storage capability,
because weather and other unfor
seen problems can require that the
(Turn to Pago A 33)