Agricultural contractor, Darren Russell, is confirming that umbilical systems come into their own during the early weeks of the slurry season.
He is a member of the ‘Russell Brothers’ team. The business works out of premises close to the village of Templepatrick in Co. Antrim.
Russell said: “We have invested heavily in umbilical systems over recent years. This has included the manufacture of our own reels.
“Had we not made the investment, we would be doing very little slurry work during the early part of the season.
“The ground in our area is quite heavy. As a result, it would be impossible to put tractors and heavy tankers on to it until later in the spring.
“So, the use of umbilical systems is the only option on farms where the objective is to get slurry out as early in the season as possible.
“Umbilical systems also suit the small field sizes that would be the norm in the south Antrim area.”
The staring flag will be dropped on Northern Ireland’s slurry season on Thursday, February 1.
“Once the tractor and reel system has been set up, the combo is supplied with slurry from tankers that are located on the road side, adjacent to field gates,” he added.
Each of the Russell Brothers’ tankers is fitted with a Doda pump and a self-aligning, fully automatic latching and locking arm (SAFALLA).
“We have found that a SAFALLA is a very efficient way of connecting to an umbilical system. Once the first tanker has emptied it’s load, the second one can come along and connect into the systems very quickly.
“The set-up allows us to spread slurry effectively in fields of all sizes. We can also make use of an engine-driven umbilical pump unit. This allows to pump slurry directly from a farmer’s yard.
“Prior to putting the hoses back on to the reel, we blow the entire system out with air pumped by a diesel-powered compressor. This makes the job of reeling back in the hoses so much easier.”
Russell Brothers have a strong customer base, located within a 10 mile radius of Templepatrick.
Like most of the country, the south Antrim area has been affected by heavy rainfall levels throughout most of last autumn and now into the New Year.
This has resulted in significant quantities of additional water ending up in slurry tanks.
As a result, livestock farmers will be keen to get their tanks emptied. Ground conditions will dictate just how much slurry can be put out post the beginning of February.
Winter wheat
Meanwhile, the dry spell at the end of last September and early October allowed contractor Russell to plant out a 20ac crop of Spearhead winter wheat on behalf of a local dairy farming client.
The ground is situated in the townland of Killead, close to Belfast International Airport in south Co. Antrim.
He added: “The fields had previously been in grass. They were sprayed off with glyphosate at the end of September.
“The ground then received a combined dressing of dairy cattle slurry and farmyard manure. The slurry was sped at a rate of 3,000g/ac.
“To be honest, we ran out of slurry, why is why some of the ground received farmyard manure only.”
Ploughing followed as soon as the glyphosate had completed its work.
“The crop was sown out using a one-pass, three-metre drill on October 7, 2023. It established very well, which allowed us to apply a herbicide on October 17,” he said.
Darren opted for ‘shooter’ from Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik (BASF). The active ingredients are flufenacet and pendimethalin.
“Ground conditions still remain very tricky. It could well be the beginning of March before we could event attempt putting machinery of any kind on the fields.
“We put in 15m tramlines, which ties in well with the sprayer and the drill size that we work with,” he said.
Most of south Antrim is a marginal-enough area, when it comes to growing cereal crops. As a consequence, Russell manages crops that will be destined for either the grain store or the silo.
The very poor weather last back-end, very few winter cereal crops were drilled in the Russell Brothers catchment area.
This raises the expectation that quite a number farmers will look towards a spring cropping option over the coming weeks.
The Spearhead wheat planted-out last autumn is destined for the combine.
“Some of the tramlines, particularly around the head rigs, are very ridged. The first job that we will do, once ground conditions permit, is put 900mm tyres on a tractor and run up and down all the tramlines.
“This will draw in the soil in those areas of the field where ridging is a problem.
“This will also help the combine get through the crop that bit faster come next harvest,” the contractor said.