6/30/2009 8:48:00 AM From humble beginnings to one-of-a-kind operation Scherping Farms Field Day showcases new sand-separator, manure management system
Clean, recycled sand flows onto a pile as it is separated out from the manure. Approximately 99 percent of the sand that goes through the Scherping’s new, state-of-the-art manure handling system is reclaimed, with 97 percent being reused for bedding. “It’s really working great,” Vern Scherping said of the system. (photo by Jennifer Burggraff)
Decanted gray water mixed with wash water from the parlor and leech-off from the feed storage facility on Scherping Farms runs through a fine-screen strainer, a Rotostrainer, which removes any remaining solids from the effluent. From there, the recycled water goes into a storage tank to be used to clean and separate sand from the manure. (photo by Jennifer Burggraff)
Jennifer Burggraff Staff Writer
LITTLE FALLS, Minn. - Nearly 250 people gathered at the Vern and Ginny Scherping farm west of Little Falls, Minn., on June 16 to observe the latest in manure management technology for dairy and livestock facilities. The Scherpings just recently installed a sand separation system with two slurry storage units on their 800-cow dairy. The system has been in operation since December, and the Scherpings couldn't be happier with the results they are seeing in the areas of cow comfort, milk production, udder health and manure management.
The first of its kind
The Scherpings had many reasons for putting in their new manure system. One reason was because Vern was tired of hauling out 40 loads of manure and sand onto his fields every six days due to limited manure storage space. Another reason was the increasing expense of buying replacement sand to restore that lost in the manure.
"We were bringing in up to 12 loads of new sand each week," Vern Scherping said.
At around $75 per load, those costs added up fast.
A third reason for building the new system was quite simply because they had to. With Vern and Ginny's two oldest sons, Bob (28) and Brian (26), and their wives, Stephanie and Tracy, joining the operation in a partnership and their two younger sons, Danny (22) and Dean (20), working on the dairy full time, expansion was needed. Their daughter, Lisa (25), a registered nurse, and her husband, Nick Smeby, were also contributing to the dairy by operating a bred heifer facility on an adjacent farm and helping out on the Scherping farm occasionally. But before the expansion to 800 cows - with plans to eventually grow to 1,200 - could take place, improvements to the facilities and the manure management system were needed.
"They couldn't go forward [with their expansion] until the permitting process was complete," said Matt Silbernick, sales manager for Genex Farm Systems, who worked one-on-one with the Scherpings throughout the planning and building process. "They had to get a new manure system."
The Scherpings spent about one year planning and developing their new system. Several specifications were made by the Scherpings as they researched different systems, with the top two being a system that would efficiently clean and reclaim sand used for bedding and a system that would fit in a confined area on the Scherpings' 30-acre farmsite.
After visiting Sugar Creek Dairy in Elkhorn, Wisc., and tweaking the layout and figures to fit their specific needs, they found the system they were looking for: a compact sand separation system with 100 percent above ground storage that would use 100 percent recycled water and reclaim 99 percent of the sand. They began updating the facilities in July of 2008 and began construction on the system last fall. They had it running at full production last December. It is the first system of its kind in the United States.
At the Scherpings' Field Day on June 16, Silbernick was quick to point out several aspects unique to the system. The system is completely automated and works together as a one-step system, from scraping the barn to depositing the clean sand to decanting the gray water, Silbernick said.
It works like this: the six-row freestall barn is scraped twice daily - at 2:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. - into a crossbox gutter system. From there, the manure flows into a 20,000 gallon (20- by 20- by 10-foot) reception pit where the waste is agitated and pumped to the sand separator at a rate of 52 gallons per minute. In the separator, the waste is met by gray water (recycled water), which flows to the separator at a rate of 30 gallons per minute and is used to wash the organic material from the sand. Handling 80 gallons of waste and water per minute, clean sand is augured onto a pile while effluent runs to a second separator, which removes any remaining fine grit from the effluent.
The cleaned sand is pushed into a pile and can be re-used immediately for bedding. The fine grit removed from the second separator is caught in a manure spreader and hauled out once a month.
After the effluent runs through the second separator it flows into a pit before moving into a 4.3 million gallon (176- by 28-foot) slurry storage tank. As the solids settle to the bottom of the storage tank, the liquid - gray water - is decanted into a second storage tank, this one 90- by 28-feet with the capacity to hold 1.8 million gallons. The effluent from either of these tanks can be agitated and pumped out to use as fertilizer for the Scherpings' 1,100-acres of owned and rented cropland.
As needed, the decanted gray water flows into another pit, where it is joined by wash water from the parlor and leech-off from the feed storage facility. This combined water is sent through a fine-screen strainer to remove any remaining solids before it goes into a storage tank to be used to clean the sand as the whole process starts over again.
(For a visual of the system, see the Scherping Farms process flow diagram above.)
Because the system is completely automated, should something go wrong in one part, the entire system will shut down, Silbernick said. At that point, the system will call pre-programmed phone numbers to let people know what is wrong. While this is one unique perk of this system, its efficiency is a major benefit. 99 percent of the sand that goes through this system is reclaimed, with 97 percent being reused for bedding. Whereas before he was hauling in new sand weekly, with the new system Scherping said he has only had to bring in four new loads of sand since January.
A big part of this efficiency is in the sand itself. When the Scherpings first began using sand bedding, they were using sugar sand, which is very difficult to separate out from organic material. Now, they use courser grade sand, which not only separates out more easily, but also cleans better leaving little to no odor and less opportunity for bacteria to grow.
"Our herd's SCC has dropped; we were at around 200,000, now its 120,000," Scherping said of the benefits of the new system. "And the cows are really comfortable ... they just lay there [in the stalls] and chew their cud. That's what really matters. They eat a lot more now and they don't hardly slip because they have grit under their feet."
All of this has led to a nice increase in production, Scherping said.
Since installing the new manure handling system the Scherpings have also decreased bedding use. When they began using sand bedding, they bedded the stalls twice each week, now they bed each stall only once per week. In-floor heat throughout the sand separation room helps keep the sand and manure from freezing during the cold winter months.
As another benefit, the nutrient value within the manure has skyrocketed since the Scherpings installed the new system. Previously, they were hauling loads of mostly sand mixed with manure weekly, they now dragline their fields, injecting the manure directly into the soil.
"It has been a night and day difference," Scherping said.
While the entire system cost around $1.5 million, Silbernick said they set it up on a 10-year payback plan. But after getting everything up and running, he and Scherping believe it will pay for itself in as little as eight years.
"This system might cost more to put in initially, but I believe in the long run it will be cheaper," Scherping said. "I don't think I'd change anything about [this system]. Right now it's really doing great."
As the Scherpings enjoy the benefits of their new system, everything was built with the future in mind. The manure system itself is designed to handle up to 3,000 cows; space was set aside to add another decanting unit and the system is set up for a methane digester should the Scherpings choose to add one in the future.
"What we looked at for Vern [when planning this system] was to take everything down the road 20 years for his boys," Silbernick said.
Scherping Farms
Vern and Ginny Scherping moved from Freeport, Minn., to a farm site eight miles west of Little Falls in 1985. After purchasing a herd of 54 cows, they began dairy farming and have steadily grown since then.
The Scherpings' first expansion was in 1993, when they doubled their herd and added 50 stalls onto their stanchion barn. In 2003, they expanded again, retrofitting a double-10 parallel parlor, a 400-cow freestall facility and a fresh cow and hospital area into their existing facilities. Two years later, they added a compost barn and more cows.
The 2008 expansion - converting their compost barn into a freestall facility and connecting it to their other freestall barn, building new feed storage facilities and the manure handling system, and growing to 800 cows - marked their latest venture. After adjusting to these newest changes, the Scherpings plan to eventually expand to 1,200 cows.
Reader Comments
Posted: Monday, June 14, 2010
Article comment by:
Diane R.
thanks for the coburn's free kemps select white milk 1 gallon, if is the right scherping family ~little falls, mn dairy!
