Managing water around the steading

Depending on your area, rainfall could make up around 40% of your available slurry storage capacity (based on a slurry lagoon in SW Scotland). Yes, you need some water in with the slurry to aid mixing and pumping, but excessive water will be costing you money to handle, store and spread.

Did you know?

• Costs of slurry spreading vary from c.80p—£2.30/m³.
• Careful management of clean water around the yard can make significant savings
  • e.g. on a 30m x 10m apron, with an average annual rainfall of 1787mm equates to 536m³/yr
    • with an average handling cost of £1.55/m³ total cost = £831/yr
• Surface washing using a pressure washer can potentially save £602/yr on a 150 cow farm in comparison to using a volume hose (assuming surfaces are washed for 10mins twice daily).
  • A volume hose will require 1.6m³ whilst a pressure washer will only require 0.2m³ per day.
    • Assuming a total cost of £1.18p/m³ to allow for pumping costs on top of the water unit cost.
• For top tips on how to reduce the amount of dirty water you are collecting and adding to the store, leaving more space for slurry read our ‘Managing Dirty Water Around The Farm Steading‘ handout.