Don’t settle for less A few key maintenance tasks help sand settling lanes reach their full potential.
s dairy farms grow in herd size, the amount of required bedding also goes up. Dairy farmers often use sand as bedding because of its availability, comfort, and effectiveness in maintaining herd udder health. With farms using as much as 100 tons of sand weekly, any type of sand recovery could be a substantial money saver. To recycle this bedding, sand settling lanes are becoming more prevalent in the dairy industry. In Illinois, we have seen a surge in this type of system, and as with any new process, producers have experienced some trouble getting the settling lanes to perform as intended. In evaluating the sand settling lanes, it was found that most of the problems had to do with the operation and maintenance of the system.
Takes effort to operate Dairy farmers are always busy, and time is at a premium. Most do not want another structure on-site that requires more time to operate. Producers may assume that a sand settling lane is a “plug and play” system. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Sand settling lanes require continual operation and maintenance to function properly. In 2016, we visited five Illinois dairy farms with sand settling lanes. Various parameters were measured to see how the sand lanes were functioning. During the visits, the producers
Abby Bauer
by Matthew Robert
The use of sand settling lanes reduces the amount of sand that ends up in a manure storage structure, but they need to be properly maintained to maximize their potential. shared information about their operation and maintenance. Most were never given operation and maintenance instructions, which meant they had to determine how to run the sand lane on their own. Because of this, the sand lanes at each of these facilities were not separating the maximum amount of sand out of the waste stream. This led to excessive sand in the waste storage facility at the end of the sand lane and the producer having to purchase extra sand for bedding.
How to do it From this small field study, we recommend that the producer understands the following key features before the
20 | Journal of Nutrient Management | November 2020
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sand settling lane is put into operation. This way, the sand lane functions at its optimal performance. Know the system’s capacity (both flow rate and velocity of the waste stream). Every sand lane is designed for a certain flow rate or capacity. The flow rate is determined by the time it takes the waste stream (coming from the flush system of the freestall barn) to go through the sand lane and the dimensions (length and cross-section area) of the sand lane. For sand to settle, the waste stream needs to be at an optimal velocity — not too fast and not too slow. When the velocity is correct, sand will settle in the sand lane and solid manure particles jofnm.com
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