The College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., 一直在为学生创造教育机会吗, 游客, 自1894年以来的社区成员和农民. 他们的教学奶牛场, home to 150 milking cows and about 20 dry cows and pre-weaned calves, 让兽医学生了解奶牛, 群健康, 小腿健康, 乳腺炎, 牛奶生产及其他, and is a place to showcase best practices for dairy management.
案例研究
“We like to use state-of-the-art technologies as a way of not only teaching veterinary students how to care for the animals, but also to teach other dairy managers what the state-of-the-art is for dairy management,保罗·珍妮特说, Director of Biocontainment Operations for the College of Veterinary Medicine.
其中一项最先进的技术是砂层理. The College has been bedding their cows on sand since the Teaching 乳制品 Barn opened in 2012 because of the many benefits it provides, 包括奶牛的舒适和乳房健康.
挑战
多年来, the Teaching 乳制品’s manure management practices included land applying the sand-laden manure from the barn to Cornell’s commodity crops, but when the university stopped growing their commodity crops, 他们不再需要肥料了.
“We needed to implement another approach for managing our manure,” Jennette explained.
The Teaching 乳制品 Barn considered many options for manure disposal and sand reclamation, 包括改用有机垫层材料, hauling the manure elsewhere and growing commodity crops themselves. 然而, since their main mission is to teach veterinarians and demonstrate the best practices for cow health, they decided to stick with sand bedding and find a more sustainable way to dispose of their sand-laden manure. 这让他们想到了麦克菠菜网最稳定正规平台_最全菠菜网大全SMS12系统.
解决方案
“When we decided that we were going to manage the manure ourselves at this facility and look at sand separation, we basically went out to the industry and did a quick survey of what farms in the area were doing,”珍妮特说. “We found that the farmers in the area had good success with 菠菜网最稳定正规平台_最全菠菜网大全.”
The Teaching 乳制品 contacted 菠菜网最稳定正规平台_最全菠菜网大全 and explained their need for a sustainable way to separate their sand-laden manure. 菠菜网最稳定正规平台_最全菠菜网大全 worked with staff in the Teaching 乳制品 Barn to design the SMS12 sand recycling system, a sand separation system ideally suited for smaller herds like the Teaching 乳制品’s.
“I really have appreciated the working relationship we’ve developed with 菠菜网最稳定正规平台_最全菠菜网大全 over the development of the SMS12 System,”珍妮特说. “The people that we’ve interfaced with have all been professional and good folks to work with that, 最重要的是, 和我们一起工作. They worked with us to adapt their equipment to our needs so that we came up with a system that works really well for us.”
The SMS12 separates the sand from the manure so that it can be recycled. Sand-laden manure from the alleys is scraped into a reception pit, 把它泵进一个调理箱然后稀释. 稀释后的肥料流入转鼓, which removes the manure fibers from the liquid and sand and sends them to a storage pit. The liquid and sand are pumped from the Rotary Drum to a Hydrocyclone, 是什么把沙子和液体分开的. The sand exits out the bottom of the Hydrocyclone into a Sand Washer. The sand is rinsed as it travels from the washer box up an auger to discharge onto a 脱水 Screen. The 脱水 Screen removes the excess moisture from the sand and discharges the dewatered, 将无滴漏的沙子放入储存区.
结果
自实施SMS12系统以来, the Teaching 乳制品 has exceeded their initial sand separation goals.
“One of the nice surprises we’ve had is how well it does the sand separation for us,”珍妮特说. “Our initial estimate was a target goal of a 90% sand separation rate, and our long-term average is now somewhere in the 93% range. We consistently have weeks where we’re looking at 97% plus in terms of sand separation, 这是巨大的.”
They’ve also saved thousands of dollars in purchasing new sand.
“在我们实施SMS12之前, we were trucking about 30 tons a week of sand into this facility,”珍妮特解释道. “我们不再用卡车把沙子运到这个设施了.”
因为他们的沙子回收率很高, Jennette said they’ll only have to buy a few tons of sand every now and again.
除了给奶牛场省钱, the SMS12 helps the Teaching 乳制品 Barn and Cornell in sustainability efforts.
“I think one of the benefits of installing the 菠菜网最稳定正规平台_最全菠菜网大全 SMS12 System for us was that it enables us to do something much more environmentally sustainable, not only in terms of operating the dairy barn and reusing the sand, 还要处理粪便本身,”珍妮特说。.
The sand-free manure effluent is hauled to the Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility, and methane gas generated from the manure in the facility’s anaerobic digester produces electricity and heat.
“The SMS12 is a huge benefit to us on the environmental sustainability side,”珍妮特说.
He added that the SMS12 has helped their dairy in multiple ways, 但最重要的是, 它使他们自给自足.
“We’re not as dependent anymore on outside entities to take care of the manure in terms of hauling it to somewhere else, 传播到其他地方,”珍妮特说。. “We’re taking care of our manure management needs here on-site.”
