Muck and slurry: Some new thinking from Vogelsang

With the new compact UniSpread, it is introducing a powerful system for spreading liquid manure close to the ground and with low emissions, while its BlackBird trailing shoe system with a 24m working width is the focus for larger machines.

“Our goal is to completely utilise liquid manure and all of its nutrients to help farmers save on mineral fertiliser and reduce emissions. This not only makes the entire liquid manure management process more economical, it also boosts social acceptance and environmental sustainability,” pointed out Harald Vogelsang, MD of the business at the launch of the new tackle.

The newly developed products are also intended to enable farmers and contractors to continue using their existing spreading technology and retrofit it for compliance with regulations, at a reasonable investment, he added.

UniSpread is a retrofitting solution based on its universal system and with small working widths of 6-9m and with a lower total weight. It has the same precision and power as the Vogelsang spreading systems already established on the market, but with a more a compact design.

This makes it easy to manoeuvre and can be equipped with various liquid manure outlets, such as a dribble bar or trailing shoe technology.

The company's new ExaCut precision distributor delivers a homogeneous, flowable liquid manure evenly across all outlet hoses, which means that there is only a variation of less than 5%, allowing the UniSpread to spread the load precisely and close to the ground.

The BlackBird trailing shoe set up has a massive 24m working width, for even greater area coverage and precision. Its side arms are arranged centrally on a robust frame to ensure stability, whilst also giving the booms the flexibility they need for optimal adjustment to ground contours.

These side arms can be individually controlled and collapsed into a transport width of under 3m. These also feature innovative runners and outlets, as well as the award-winning ExaCut ECQ precision distributor.

And, to optimally utilise the nutrients in liquid manure and make them more available to the plant, Vogelsang has co-operated with Danish company, BioCover, to develop the slurry stabiliser, SyreN.

A pan-European partnership has come up with a chemical process which stabilises the liquid manure by adding sulphuric acid. It is claimed to reduce nitrogen losses by up to 70%.

SyreN uses a sensor to automatically measure the pH value of the liquid manure and adds the necessary quantity of sulphuric acid to lower it and stabilise it at the target value. This is because liquid manure contains a high quantity of nitrogen that is dissolved in fluid and appears in the form of ammonia and ammonium.

Both forms of nitrogen can be chemically balanced in the liquid manure medium and when the pH value of the liquid manure is lower, this balance changes. A greater share of the gaseous ammonia is then converted into ammonium (salt), which does not evaporate from the liquid portion.

A pH value of 6.0 triggers this chemical reaction and is considered the target value for SyreN.

The concentrated sulphuric acid is kept in a front tank and fed into the liquid manure stream in a mixing chamber directly upstream of the linkage. The mixture of sulphuric acid and liquid manure splits into ammonium and sulphate of sulphur.

Both compounds are optimally suited as plant nutrients because the plants can directly absorb them as nitrogen and sulphur fertilisers.

Mr Vogelsang added: “SyreN is a closed, reliable system with which farmers and contractors can retrofit their existing technologies, such as dribble bar and trailing shoe systems, and thereby achieve low emissions comparable to those achieved with slitting technology.

"At the same time, they benefit from the power and high area coverage of this spreading technique.”

Vogelsang has also further refined its pumps to deliver greater efficiency. New HiFlo resist rotary lobes have a ribbed core that is lighter compared to the previous completely cast core. This is now partially cast with rubber that can reach into the intermediate cavities due to its design, interlocking more closely with the core. This not only makes it lighter, but also increases its stability.

Vogelsang has also modified the wear plate and added shoulders on both sides in order to form a stepped closure when screwed. This ensures that fibrous matter is kept away from the seal to reduce wear on it.

The new wear plate can also be installed in the rotary lobe pumps of the VX series and serves as a one-to-one replacement for the standard plate, said Vogelsang.