Parkend’s Weatherup family optimise farm slurry management
THE Weatherup family, known to many for their success inside the ring showing black and white and red and white pedigree Holsteins, farm at Parkend, Crossgates, Fife.
Having moved to Parkend in 1990 from Tailend near Bathgate, family members including Brian and his wife June, plus their son Brian and his wife Gillian, tend to herd prefixes including Parkend, Lesmay, Pinupgirl, Hunter Lane, and Moozik.
The 200-cow herd of Holsteins follows a milk contract with Sainsbury’s with an average yield of 40kg each day, milked through four M2erlin robots which were fitted in 2017.
With the cows housed all year round, quality feed is made a top priority, beginning from the get-go with successful slurry management.
The Weatherup family have recently increased their above-ground slurry storage capacity with the addition of a 546,920-gallon concrete slurry store, complementing an already existing 30-year-old Malgar steel 277,000-gallon store.
An additional 540,000-gallon store is positioned under slats in the cattle sheds, bringing the total storage capacity to 1,363,920-gallons.
Brian senior said: “Following a Agri
Environment Climate grant, the decision to undergo building a new slurry store became apparent as we had been meaning to increase our storage for a while. It allows us to futureproof ourselves and gives us more opportunity as to when we wish to apply the slurry instead of being pressured by reaching full capacity.”
Brian junior added: “We opted for Northern Irelandbased Moore Concrete to carry out the build because we have worked with their products before and always found them to be very good quality. Additionally, they provided a reliable and quick service – with the job complete in a matter of days from workers arriving on site.”
Moore Concrete has been developing slurry storage solutions for the past 20 years, offering slurry storage tanks in three heights:
4.0, 5.0 and 6.0m. This proposes a wide range of capacity from 74,140 gallons (337m3) to 1,034,000 gallons(4700m3).
The company offers a complete service from supply and construction of materials, including both the base and store itself, with each store inspected by a chartered engineer following completion.
Additionally, as the precast concrete panels are pre-cured prior to arrival on farm, the construction process is designed to take days as opposed to weeks.
Lastly, Moore’s slurry stores can be fitted with a variety of mixing equipment, including side stirrers, jetters, up and over mixers, bubbler systems, umbilical under wall drawoff points, and gravity pipe in-filling.
Both Brians worked together to level the site ready for building the slurry store, thus helping to reduce costs.
“We originally intended for both slurry stores to be level across from one another so we could empty either. However, we realised we needed to dig further down to reach a more solid foundation,” said Brian junior.
“This means the new store sits lower and is therefore gravity fed which also works well for us.”
The slurry store at Parkend stands at 6m tall with a tank diameter of 22.78m and is kitted with pre-cast panels, tension cables encased within a PVC sheath, platform, ladder, jetter with detachable nozzle, plus 150mm underwall draw off including two valves, and a side stirrer.
Brian senior added: “We now have ample room for in excess of six months of slurry storage.”
However, slurry management is not complete without application, and for the Weatherup family over the last 10 years, they have been working alongside agricultural contractor Davie Robertson from Auldhouse.
“Most recently the increased costs of mineral fertiliser have amplified the role slurry has for us in helping to grow our crops,” said Brian junior.
Across the farm’s 255 acres of lowland fields, Davie operates John Deere 6155R tractors complete with a
15m SlurryKat dribble bar working in conjunction with an umbilical pipe system, enhanced with technology in the form of GreenStar
GPS in co-operation with HarvestLab™ 3000 fitted to the dribble bar.
In addition, Davie can monitor the application of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in a kg per hectare basis.
This allows for a more precise application depending on nutrient requirements across different areas of the fields, saving on mineral fertiliser while increasing a more consistent crop growth and quality.
Davie adds: “The HarvestLab™ is capable of taking thousands of infrared readings each
second. This information is relayed back to the tractor to either increase or decrease the forward drive speed depending on the requirements of the ground being covered.”
Brian senior added: “We now manage most years without spreading mineral fertiliser, although with the wet spring we’ve witnessed this year, fertiliser still has its role in helping us to get caught up from when the fields have been as wet.”
While the Weatherup family continue to look to the future, Brian junior concluded: “Slurry management has become evermore important to the grassland at Parkend, not least because of the huge financial benefits of applying little and often, accurately and in an environmentally sympathetic way.
“We soon hope to be able to apply it to our cereal crops too, with even more potential savings possible there.”