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Manure-handling equipment among AE50 winners


November 30, 1999  by Manure Manager


Recently, the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) announced the winners of the 2011 AE50 awards, sponsored by ASABE’s Resource magazine.

The winners of this annual award represent “the best and the brightest” products aimed at agricultural, food and biological systems services.

The inventions and designs chosen were selected from numerous entries submitted to the AE50 competition. The judges who chose the winners represent all facets of the agricultural, food, biological and related systems engineering professions. The expert panel picked the best products first introduced into the marketplace during 2010. These products are expected to save producers time, costs, and labor while improving user safety.

The winners servicing the manure-handling sector included:

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Xpulse Twin Piston Pump
The XPulse Twin Piston Pump is a positive-displacement pump transferring livestock manure slurry between 76 and 587 L (20 and 155 gal) per minute. The dual pumping chambers in sequence provide a non-pulsing flow, ideal for feeding downstream processing equipment, while using 25 percent less power than conventional transfer equipment. The XPulse uses existing pumping-tube technology. The compact footprint and controllable flow rate make this pump easy to retrofit into existing systems as well as new construction. The flapper doors with a rubber and urethane-sealing surface, combined with an air relief, allow the pump to self-prime. The top-down assembly of the pump enables all working components to be removed from the top using standard tools. The openness of the base enables passage of solids found in manure; additionally, the placement of the access doors allows easy cleaning of unwanted material.


Xpress Cascading Roller Press System
The Xpress cascading roller press system squeezes liquid from the solid reject of a de-waterer, processing raw scraped manure or digester effluent to produce a material suitable for bedding or compost. The modular design increases the serviceability and performance of the system by providing drier fibers, and it can be tailor-fit to any size dairy operation. The equipment package can include a 1.8, 1.2, and 0.6 m (6, 4, and 2 ft) wide roller press system with primary or secondary screens. The virgin gum rubber and perforated stainless steel rollers squeeze material to produce a dry fiber with minimal power. The frame design allows individual removal of the rollers from the front and side access to the inside of the roller and the upgraded heavy-duty bearings. The air pressure suspension system limits mechanical shock loads while allowing adjustment of each squeezing step.


Nutrient Tracker

The Digi-Star Nutrient Tracker™system is an application management tool and documentation system for manure or fertilizer spreading operations. The Nutrient Tracker™System allows operators to see the application rate while spreading and automatically collects information for the time, date, field names, and amount of material applied with GPS verification data. The system then records the data to internal memory and makes it available for downloading to a USB drive at the end of the day, week, or month. The Nutrient Tracker includes scales on the spreader, the NT460 data-collecting indicator with GPS interface, and PC software. The proprietary PC software combines the data with downloaded Google satellite images of operator’s fields to show exactly where, when, and how much of the nutrients were applied. The N application information helps producers comply with EPA and DNR CAFO regulations and also aids in reducing the amount of commercial fertilizers needed to grow a successful crop.


Self-Cleaning Sand Lane (SCSL)
The McLanahan Self-Cleaning Sand Lane (SCSL) is an equipment system for processing flushed or otherwise diluted sand-laden dairy manure. Sand is the preferred bedding on dairy farms, as it maintains a comfortable and healthy resting environment for cows due to its cushioning capabilities and its inability to sustain mastitis-causing organisms. Conventional methods of handling diluted sand-laden manure are labor and machinery intensive while producing a poor quality (high organic matter content) sand product. Due to the difficulties associated with managing traditional systems, the quantity of sand recovered is poor, resulting in manure storage ponds and treatment systems failing as sand accumulates. The McLanahan SCSL is an automated, quarry-duty system for separating sand from highly dilute manure at flow rates in excess of 22,700 L (6,000 gal) per minute. The automated nature of the system allows for high recovery of sand both in terms of quality and quantity. Recycled sand is reused with lactating cows in less than one week.

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