The use of Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) equipment is increasing on an annual basis with the dribble bar being one of the more common LESS methods.
One common complaint many farmers have with spreading their slurry with a dribble bar is that the slurry can sometimes cake in the lines where it is left in the field. Some farmers have reported noticing the slurry still in these lines at the base of the sward at silage cutting time.
Now, an entrepreneurial farmer from Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim, has developed a simple, patented device that solves the issue of dribble-bar slurry being left in lines.
Stephen McKeown is the mastermind behind the new product called ‘Splash It’. The product, which can be found on the Splash It ltd Facebook page, is a dribble-bar attachment and was officially launched on the market this week.
The video below shows the Splash It device in action on a dribble bar in Co. Antrim:
Speaking to Agriland, Stephen said: “We saw the problems that were created by dribble bars as in the lines of slurry being left in the fields and too much slurry being deposited in the one area.”
He explained that when the slurry was being deposited in lines on his fields, he noticed it was “killing the grass” below this area and said that in dry periods, “the grass was growing and pushing the remaining slurry up along with it and when it came to silage cutting time, the rakes and harvesters were all bringing the slurry back into the silo or the round bale”.
So, the farmer came up with a solution.
“We designed and developed a little product called Splash It which attaches to any dribble bar,” he said.
“It has two simple bolts which are bolted onto the pipes on the dribble bar. It’s very simple to fit.”
Stephen said that the tank in the video above has 40 hoses and he fitted the attachments “in less than an hour”.
“It’s still low pressure spreading, it will still meet government requirements [for low emission spreading] but it will spread a more even coat over the silage field,” he said.
The material used to make the product is polypropylene, made using injection moulding.
“It’s a durable, hard wearing, strong piece of material. There is a little bit of flex in the product so it won’t easily break,” he added.