Dairy Australia’s Raising the Roof conference was held in Shepparton at the Riverlinks Eastbank venue.
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Ashley Darling
Dairy Australia’s Raising the Roof event, held in Shepparton from May 20 to 22, brought together experts on a variety of topics relevant to intensive farming, including effluent management.
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Farmers and other stakeholders gathered at Riverlinks Eastbank to hear from soil scientist and director of South East Soil & Water, Christian Bannan, about land capability for effluent management.
Mr Bannan spoke about the need to follow regulations from councils that often refer to effluent as waste and said “in the dairy industry, we like to refer to it as a resource”.
He also discussed the importance of considering the proportion of clay in the soil when constructing ponds, as lower levels are more permeable.
Mr Bannan advised getting plans on paper, commencing investigations early and engagement with regulators.
Sharon Aarons and Jose Lopez from Agriculture Victoria spoke about developments in manure management and chemical separation that they have been involved with in their work at Ellinbank SmartFarm in Gippsland.
Dr Aarons discussed the treatment of manure to retain gas emissions and the potential for hydrogen extraction for use as an energy source.
She also spoke of a new piece of handheld scanning technology that can estimate the volume and nutrients contained in piles.
José López discussed his research on chemical separation of manure and the effectiveness of a new, more environmentally friendly alternative.
Tanfloc is a new plant derived alternative to metal-based chemicals used for coagulation that instead relies on tannins from the bark of black wattle trees.
The tannins are biodegradable and avoid the contamination issues associated with traditional chemicals.
Mr López’s research found that when the resulting separated sludge was used for fertilisation, it was able to grow a biomass similar to or greater than urea.
Alain Houle of Valmetal presented the company’s recycled bedding pasteuriser, Xpress PS, an electricity-powered machine that sanitises separated manure solids.
The machine runs at 25 cents per cow per day, inclusive of all costs, and has models that can accommodate up to 2500 animals.
The resulting bedding is dry, aerated and less prone to packing.
The output from the machine is usable immediately without storage and is compatible with automated systems.
Mr Houle said that the Xpress PS machine exposes the manure solids to between 65 and 70℃ for five to six hours, well above pasteurisation standards.
The talk also featured Calivil dairy farmer Jade Clymo and Cath Lescun from Dairy Australia, who both spoke about utilising manure nutrients.
Alain Houle answered questions from the audience alongside Calivil dairy farmer Jade Clymo.
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