MEMBER’S PRESS RELEASE: GEA UK installs the latest ‘super long’ SuperPump!

When David and Philip Hardy at Slipperlow Farm, Matlock installed a new AD plant, they built a suitably large lagoon to store the digestate.

Luckily for them, they had the foresight to look into machines that were capable of mixing such a large lagoon before they started filling it. Looking at various websites, not much was on offer in the way of solutions, until they discovered the GEA and the range of very large (long) lagoon mixers that are built and used in the US and Canada. The longest one they produce is 22.86 meters mounted on wheels to move like a trailer.

They contacted the GEA dairy farming team in the UK, and with the help and advice from their specialist Anthony Andrew, they plumped for a 15.85m machine, called a Trailed SuperPump.

The machine uses a powerful jetting device to both break up crusts and also fire down through the liquid to break up sand dunes in any lagoons that have them.

David and Philip took delivery in early March and on the first day backed the Trailed SuperPump into the lined lagoon to try it out. The hydraulically operated undercarriage with its ability to raise and lower the mixer was invaluable to get the machine down the steep slope and into the lagoon. Philip had some concerns about whether the machine would go through the thick crust, but that was not an issue and in a matter of minutes they were mixing the lagoon.

David said:

I was pleasantly surprised at the ease it did this. We had an old 180 H.P. tractor working the pump, and that knew it was there! But the jetting device got the whole crust moving in a circular motion and as the heavy lumps came to the 28” manure inlet, it gobbled them up without any issue.

The machine is capable of jetting some 48.77 meters (depending on manure consistency) and in a 320-degree arc. With its 15.85 meter length on top, it made the lagoon look quite small. Top-filling of slurry tankers or the ‘force feeding’ of umbilical pumps was also a feature that appealed to David and Philip.

We have found you have to be careful when filling tankers as the filling speed is so high, not only do we get frothing, but also the rubber tube that hangs over the tanker can go oval shaped. It is not always easy to park the tanker exactly under the fill pipe and so we were getting spillage over the tanker. We have added a steel ring to the rubber tube, to keep it in shape, and that is working well now.

 

Umbilical pumping was our intention, but since we have experienced the quick turnaround time with tankers, due to the filling speed, we now think a trailing shoe on the tankers would be a better option, and probably quicker than laying out, and rolling up, umbilical piping. Because the pump is so efficient at mixing the lagoon, we may consider mixing it once or twice in the winter which should reduce the thickness of crust, but we will know more once we have done this. We have learnt one thing – the jetting device is so powerful, despite the machine weighing 2,832 kg, when jetting close to the machine we almost flipped it onto its side! We ended up strapping it to the gate posts at the entry to the lagoon for safety. Quite impressive really!

GEA has always sought to expand its portfolio with technologies that serve the company's ambition to be the first choice partner for customers worldwide and in the dairy farming market these include Houle, Milfos, Mullerup and WestfaliaSurge. GEA’s strong track record of proven technologies, many of which have set the standard in dairy farming, is based on many years of experience in developing the right solutions for the markets the company serves.

See the SuperPump at Grassland & Muck on the 24th & 25th May 2017 at Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire! http://www.grasslandevent.co.uk

gea.com