seems like we are in for a cold winter. I love it when you smile Jan, you always project a positive attitude which is my favorite thing about you and your video's. I have PTSD and struggle with depression! people like you give me hope during the times we are living. I love you and your family Jan!!!
I agree with you Michael! He's very entertaining, knowledgeable & totally enjoys what he does! I'm a 66yr. old grandma and totally entertained by him no matter what he's doing. Plus I LOVE cows!!
Make a double Y splitter on the end of a second long discharge nozzle for the green pump. That would blast 2 smaller streams of water out 45 degrees to either side of the impeller/mixing propeller on the green pump. Would hopefully help break down the sand dunes alone the outer walls of the pit. Other option would be make a crossbar to sit across the forks of a bobcat, and put a sheet or 1/4 inch/6MM plate on the end. Could use that to break down the dunes after you run the green pump the first time. The green one is obviously capable of mixing the sludge when its thick, just its limited to a narrow area directly out from the impeller, being able to break the dunes down, so the sand is sitting back in this area would help get additional sand out without much extra work. Something simple as a length of 2 inch pipe, maybe with a cable from the far end, back to the top bar of the forks for extra rigidity.
If you have access to a large air compressor on wheels with a high volume. Use lances placed into the sump and then use the lances to disturbed the bed. This idea Is basically what’s used to agitate large softeners in water treatment plants in the far north oil sands.
No matter how deep in *hit you are Jan, you always have that happy smile going. The world needs a whole lot more of guys like you that are willing to tackle any job and see it through! I much admire you and your work and always positive attitude, and appreciate all of the information and education you provide in every video!
I agree with the fire hose. And for it to work the best it needs to have the same pressure as they use for fighting fires. I don’t know if you have “volunteer fire departments”, but here ours have pumper trucks they use for fighting brush fires. And they are glad to help out farmers from time to time when they are doing agricultural burning. With that kind of pressure, I’ll bet you could put a major dent in that sand. Good luck and keep up the great work!
A neighbour near me took the cover off his agitation point like you and then was called away forgetting to cover it. That might as he was looking at his animals in the dark he walked right into the hole which was 10 feet deep. Thankfully it was only half full but he had to wait a long time before he was missed and somebody heard him and put in a ladder to get him out. Motto, never ever leave manholes to slurry pits unattended. Great video and presentation
Another safety thing I thought might help but I don't know for sure is when he was putting rope tie on the impeller cover, that maybe he should put a rope on himself, also. He did have his Dad there to get him out if there was a problem, though. I don't pretend to be a safety expert: I just spitball ideas sometimes.
Not only is your operation astounding but also that you take the time to educate us with your camera, drone, soundtrack and editing talents. Thanks so much fantastic work all around.
You could hire one of those oilfield "Super Sucker" vacuum trucks with the boom hose and they could get the rest of that sand out for you pretty quick. They'll even put it in the "honey wagon" for you if you want. Next time you have a sump full of watery manure and you're ready to pump it out, try dumping a couple sacks of oilfield gel mix or bentonite in the sump before you blend it all up. The gel will turn the contents into a thick slurry and help to keep the sand suspended while you pump it out. It might make it easier to get out more of the sand without too much extra work or expense.
@@timothymbonham4453 It's basically Jello. Bentonite is what a lot of people use to plug holes in their fishing pond so it'll hold water. It could affect the soil's ability to retain water though. But maybe that could be a good thing.
You should build/buy a dock/ramp over the manure pit, made of grated material. Then when you are power washing tools, like an auger, you can clean things while adding much needed water to your pit.💡
I hate to disagree with you, but, as a dairyman, I find that it's not 90% of the time working with crap. My percentage is 99% in crap, but maybe since you are a lot further north than me, the curvature of the Earth affects the percentage.
It seems strange that produce farmers, who have almost the same equipment as the Dairy guys, are fairly meticulous about keeping their tractors and other equipment clean. On the opposite side. The Dairy guys equipment is coated in some kind of dark green mushy stuff. Walls, fences, loaders, spreaders. You would think a wash once a week would be in order. That stuff is corrosive. It is also unsanitary for cows and humans alike. One thing nice about a dairy farm, you certainly can recycle that stuff. I notice that Jan is quite careful about the areas where the calves grow up, but some of the walls around the staging areas, parlor.... Not so much. You have to wonder what the older wood structure barns must small like and how far the contamination has penetrated the wood structure. You can sell corroded equipment. What do you do with a decrepit barn?
@@organbuilder272 look man. I'm not sure how much you know about farming, but dairy farmers are some of the cleanest and most regulated professionals out there. And, yes... there is manure, but if you think " produce farmers" have similar challenges, you really have no idea what you are talking about
@@alexdrake9931 Alex, you did not read what I said. Specifically EQUIPMENT, WOOD BARNS And the walls of these buildings. Defined, Tractors, trucks, wagons, grain hoppers, silos, bins and the interior walls of some buildings. Am I wrong? The milk parlors may be clean and so also the milk transport and storage tanks. I can direct you to sites and posting that show what I spoke of. I don't want to go that far as you can see for yourself. I grew up on a farm. I have some knowledge. But what I know and what I did has little to do with modern facilities of this age. Let's not bicker, okay. I did not say produce farmers have similar challenges. I did say they keep their equipment clean (Mostly) and they DO have SIMILAR EQUIPMENT. Alex, words have meaning. I don't leave much to the imagination when I write. I have stated nothing that is not true or factual or that can not be confirmed. Read my last carefully. I am sure you will agree. Or, I can name names, buildings and equipment and the farms they are owned by. I hope your farm is the absolute perfect example of cleanliness. It certainly sounds like that is your intention. Okay, let's end the dissertation with this one. Take care, be well.
How about waterbeds for bedding? In the Netherlands they are used more and more because of the cleaner result. In top of the rubber waterbeds a thin layer of sawdust is spread. Very thin, like flower used for rolling a pie 😂. This way the manure doesn't stick to the rubber. Oh and is your dad originating from the Netherlands? Seemed like a dutch accent coming through the english during the conversation at the pump. Love these video's, always fun tot watch!
It’s always been my question as to what happens to all the sand going into the pit. Now I know.thanks for the education on how you deal with that problem. Good job. Nice to always see your dad.
Nonsense! Electricians do this all the time. The wires would be USE of UF type, which are designed for direct burial in the ground. Much heavier, sturdier insulation than regular electrical wiring.
Here's a suggestion (from a 78 year old city slicker) Use your high pressure wash down hose (the one you use to clean the floors in the milking parlor) and aim it into the pit inside where the red pump is located and force all the sand toward the outside wall so the green pump can extract the mixture. Hopefully that will work, or dad might be asking you to climb down into the pit with a shovel.
Another most interesting video. It takes so much work to maintain a modern dairy farm. Yan, you are an amazing fellow, bright, positive, knowledgable, which is a delight to see. And I am sure a lot of your character comes from your fine parents. So nice to see you work with your dad. Inspiring. Good on you.
Keeping your equipment clean and in good shape increases it's useful life and gives it a good trade in value. Shows how much you care about your farm and life. Well done.
We have a roller mill and it cracks the grain very well. But we are going to get a disk mill when we next need new rollers in the mill. Thanks for the video!!
Jan that was good work for never have done that since the shed or( barn as you call it), went up. Like us all you learn as you do a job. Great video Jan
It’s unfortunate that the pit wasn’t extended for another 6’ or so from the barn, it would have made this work much easier for you. Another enjoyable video!
Gives a totally new understanding of "when the sh*t hits the fan"....good job, not the most satisfying one, but it is what it is and you got the job done....bravo!
Dank Jan for showing this manure mixture and sand challenge. Clear, why you are using sand instead of straw or so. How is the sand built up elsewhere in the pit underneath? Wonder if would help for a final solution to use that floating manure mixer that you used (rented) to release the lagoon and mix all the liquids, solids and sand sufficiently, or other solution?😉 Probably there is no sufficient room to let that big machine go down? How big is the pit (m3 of cubic feet?) underneath the cow barn you are showing us? Please and as you know, be very very CAUTIOUS with these kind of jobs with regard to manure pits!! Never, ever go down in such a pit, with all the gases as you know. There are horrible stories out there where even several family members died in one occasion entering such a pit one after another, trying to help each other. Never ever enter the pit! And if needed you need a harness or rig around your body with a strong rope to enable others to save you from outside. But better and please never ever enter the pit yourself. Ok! 👍😯
nice video Jan , you should think about adding an air tank to your manure pipe to lagoon, sand can get packed in there if your adding too much water to manure. cheers
We could sure use some rain down here in the northeast ! I can't say why I enjoyed this particular video so much...lol....basically just a crap shoot for the most part, but fun to watch ! x-D
That's all we're doing today amounted to quite a bit. The girls seem to like the sand too. What if you pounded the sludge with water and let the high pressure pump take it out to the swimming pool? Why wasn't that shielded cable or inside some pipe? You run some pretty heavey toys over that soft ground. Anyway, just my cautious nature. I didn't realize how big that impeller was on the poop pump. No wonder it broke the shaft. Good show SDK. Peace.
when you had the pump in the pit beside the barn try grabbing your pressure washer and as the pit gets pumped down start spraying the areas where the sand is still built up. Might help break up the piles.
Look up MS t and t cleaner for washing you’re manure equipment, hooks up to washer end and foams the whole machine. Makes for a lot less work when cleaning
To charge the pit you gotta get it completely empty no sand and add one foot of water or liquid from the lagoon every time you pump the manure to the lagoon
It is fun watching you do a crappy job lol. Thanks for letting us have a chance to see more of your daily work. I would put the electrical feed into pvc pipe rather than directly into the soil.v Love the power washing for some reason. It is so satisfying to see crap fly off.
I’d be wearing rubber gloves around all that poop! Glad we don’t have smell vision!🤢 but very interesting jobs on the farm isn’t all roses... and playing with your cows
If I didn’t work in a dairy barn I’m not sure I would know just how bad that is but after working in one I can picture the smell in my head just by watching the video
You should try a high pressure fire house and spray that sand on the walls down with the water it will help pump it out and u also clean out more sand so it’s a win win lol
Should have made a larger lid on the pits so you could reach in pit with backhoe or excavator. We have a large opening into our pit and we use our backhoe with a bellhole bucket to clean out the sand and manure very rarely do we aggitate it we just pump off the liquids and scoop out the solids into our regular manure spreader we aren't setup to do any kind of liquid manure spreading and have a neighbor that comes with his liquid manure trucks and pulls all the liquid off our lagoon and then we go in with loader and skidsteer and take out the solids and spread it on our fields with regular spreaders it works for us without the expense of liquid manure handling equipment
Have you ever considered switching from holstein to a different breed of milking cows ? Norwegian red cattle have a really strong health reputation. Then you can quit all that sand... It makes a ton of problems.
Have u heard of a butter worth tank washing head, originally designed for crude oil tanks to wash them as they are discharged to make sure that all the crap and sediment is mixed in. You can set them to spray the nozzle 360 deg in all planes
Maybe add some water into manure? Perhaps it could help. Edit. Watch out for hammer mill. It could take your cows in serious acidosis. In EU we got hammer mills now we come back to roller mills. Cereals wont digest too fast causing acidosis. Cheers
I know you have different field crops and do some straw for bedding for the calves and your steer stock outside in the corrals do you have the acreage to do more straw for bedding for the milk cows. I know here in BC farms have gone from sawdust to sand but the sand was hard in the barn cleaners and the pits and manure tanks fill up with sand and switched back to sawdust.
Is the floor of your lagoon sloped to one end, or is it flat? Are there companies up there that have small sand dredges, to such the sand out of the lagoon? Also, unrelated question... I have noticed you switching the tractor on the feed wagon around often, have you thought about mounting it on a truck. If you lived closer to Minnesota, I would love to come tour your dairy. Great job.
I't oddly satisfying watching the slo-mo power-washing of cow crap off stuff. Probably because I'm saying over and over to myself: "Boy, I'm really glad I don't have to do that!"
What if you put a permanent pipe all the way around the top perimeter of the pits with spray nozzles periodically like ever 10 feet with the ability to turn them on and off individually so you could pump into that pipe (while agitating) and then spray down the trouble areas as needed. The lagoon is probably to big but the pits look like something like that might work.
Can't you move the green pump with Impeller so it points in a different direction or angle to move the sand from other side? Means raising the pump and moving the PTO to opposite side, but jet hits the other direction....
Have you looked at putting in a disc mill, I use one and it cuts the grain so you don't get as much dust as the hammer mill. I think it does a lot better job than a roller mill or hammer mill.
Cause you shower yourself in Manure.. the wa< they did it was kinda smart, if jan and his father keept some patience, add 1-2 days of Manure&cleaningwater to the pit, and opened that second lid to get the manure pump in a diffrent angle, they would have more luck.
Do you have a firehouse hook up, now that you have it pumped down low you should try hitting it with some high volume/pressure water. Should break all that solid up and allow u to pump it out also. Bit more work but it looks to be necessary
