Reducing Risk When Entering a Confined Space Manure Storage
Reducing Risk When Entering a Confined Space Manure Storage
Length: 00:03:02 | Dennis Murphy, Ph.D.
Farm operations safety includes the storage of manure. This video will show you some of the dangers of manure pits and ways to reduce those dangers.
- This brief video presentation, today, is designed to increase your knowledge about confined space manure storages.
It will answer some basic questions about the hazards associated with manure pits located beneath solid and slotted covers.
The dairy farm that we are visiting has a herd of registered Holsteins who not only produce a high volume of wholesome milk, they also generate large quantities of manure that must be periodically and efficiently removed.
On this farm, the owner utilizes a slotted cover floor over a 10 foot deep manure pit that must be emptied regularly.
The slotted cover is designed so that the movement of the cows over the surface forces the manure slurry through the slots and down into the pit beneath the animal housing area.
In those slotted cover areas where there is less animal traffic this farmer uses a scraper blade that can be attached to a skid steer to spread out the manure in order for it to move downward through the slots.
Obviously, the manure that has gone through the slots fills the pit beneath the floor and must be pumped out on a timely basis.
As you can see, pump out pits have lids that can be raised to check manure levels at numerous locations around the barn.
This reception pit appears to be about half full and will need monitoring over the next week or so.
Once the pit is full, at this farm, the owner moves a tractor with a pump and agitator to the pump out pit to start the emptying process.
This requires a large tanker, like this one, to haul the effluent from the barn and pit area to farm land for field application.
While the entire process of checking, emptying, and hauling the manure usually proceeds in a trouble free manner, hazardous conditions may arise involving the ventilation of manure pits located under animal living quarters.
We encourage you to continue your visit to our website and view the more extensive video programs on solid and slotted cover facilities.
Don't let malfunctioning equipment and other problems in the pit change a routine day into a hazard filled encounter with dangerous manure gasses.
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