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As slurry spreading systems get bigger in the move to greater output, there is a constant challenge between field surface damage and soil compaction both competing with the need to get the ground covered fast. Soil conditions are the ultimate arbiter of spreading ability and the poorer the soil conditions in terms of soil moisture levels, the more difficult the spreading challenge becomes.
Tractor and tanker systems have notable problems in soft ground conditions, usually just when the slurry spreading season starts to open. These problems have forced many farmers and contractors to look at the advantages of umbilical or pipeline slurry spreading systems to minimise loading the soil.
These too are not without their challenges and other than using very low ground pressure tractor tyres on the spreading tractor, there will be some field surface damage. These tyres are expensive and are prone to damage with costly replacement costs.
Leitrim farmer and contractor Cathal McCrann took a different approach to low ground pressure slurry spreading. Initially, Cathal had developed a rubber track slurry tanker with a standard vacuum 1,300 gallon tanker on board in place of the tipping body that came with his Japanese-built Mooroka rubber track machine.
Contracting business
Over the past year, Cathal, who operates a dairy farm and contracting business from Tooman, outside Mohill, has gone a step further and fitted the rubber track transport machine with an umbilical slurry spreading nozzle. The end result is a machine that has go-anywhere ability even in soft ground conditions. It has the added advantage of creating no field surface damage. In fact, other than the sight and smell of a field spread with slurry, there are virtually no field surface marks to be seen.
Cathal and his father Michael, who has many years of experience operating construction and land drainage machinery, as well as operating a very successful dairy farm, developed the new rubber-tracked spreader along with Joe Wynne to extend their slurry spreading season. When used in combination with a Slurry Mate umbilical slurry spreading system, the machine has allowed Cathal to get spreading as soon as the season opens in late January or the start of February, depending on the county he is working in.
He has been able to operate the rubber-tracked umbilical spreader earlier in neighbouring Co Longford, and two weeks ahead of the opening of the slurry spreading season in Leitrim, all to good effect.
“In the Leitrim area the earliest we can spread is the first of February so we have no bother going out once there is no big splash of rain. Once there is no lying surface water, the rubber-tracked machine will drive anywhere,” says Cathal.
“We started on 15 January in neighbouring Longford. The opening day of the season, ground was a bit tender but there was no surface water and themachine worked very well. The pumping system allows us to achieve high field spreading rates with no field surface damage,” says Cathal. “By 31 January we are ready to start spreading closer to home and still be sure of no field surface damage with the light footprint of the machine.
“The machine leaves little or no mark on the ground and it’s still only 2.4m (8ft) wide compared with big wide tyres where you could be up to 3m (12ft) wide sometimes, while the machine will travel anywhere.”
The fact that the Mooroka tracked machine only carries the hose reels on the rear and the spreading nozzle on the front means the overall load is low relative to the machine’s rated capacity, according to Cathal.
“We developed the reel holding kit to carry two reels around a quick coupling system that is relatively easy to lift on and off. We built a galvanised front linkage kit to take the spreading unit with nozzle and we attached this to the left hand side of the machine,” he says.
This arrangement means that once the operator goes into a field he spreads from left to right. Half of the time he is driving forward and alternating that with a reverse journey as he moves across the field pulling the umbilical pipe with him.
This means he is moving across the field as he spreads from left to right and always towing the pipe on the one side. “You have to be conscious of the field shape and also the wind in order that you are not spraying slurry on top of yourself, but generally it works well and gives a clean finish to the field and the machine,” says Cathal.
The Mooroka MST 1500 is powered by a 150hp six-cylinder Mitsubishi diesel engine, driving a series of hydraulic pumps that provide drive to two individual rubber-track drive motors. There are two forward speed gears with variable speed controlled by a simple T-bar. The further forward or rearward the T-bar is pushed the faster the machine travels in either forward or reverse.
The machine has a 7,000kg load-carrying capacity rating so the pipeline reels and spreading nozzle do not overload its capacity – their front and rear fitting provides an element of balance. With a full load it is rated to have a ground pressure figure of just 2psi, significantly lower than any rubber-tyred tractor.
“We had the machine as an old tracked tanker and when we bought the umbilical system we priced around for tyres and they were expensive. And no matter what size of tyre we looked at, they were never going to do the job machine could do because of the footprint of it. The machine was sitting here so we modified it so that it could operate with the umbilical system,” says Cathal.
Inexpensive
He claims the machine is not expensive to run in terms of fuel burned. “With an eight-hour day we would burn about 30 to 35 litres of diesel depending on the conditions. There are no real other running costs other than that; maybe replacing an occasional track roller. With the ground being soft it keeps them all lubricated so there is very little to go wrong with it,” he adds.
Cathal operates at a forward speed of up to 1.5km/hr depending on the conditions. On a good eight-hour day Cathal has been able to spread about 170,000 litres of slurry across three different farms. The machine is transported between jobs on a standard low loader.
The twin-hose reel can carry 1km of piping, which suits most applications, according to Cathal. “We will rarely be pumping more than 800m in this area, so there is plenty of pipe capacity on the machine,” he adds.
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