Canada - Solid Manure Injection System Testing Targeted for Spring 2006

The Prairie Agricultural Machinery Institute is targeting the spring of 2006 to field test the first prototype solid manure injection system. The University of Saskatchewan has completed the development of a solid swine manure applicator and handed the next phase of the project, the development of an injector, to PAMI. The project, entitled "Development of a Precision Applicator for Surface and Subsurface Land Application of Solid and Semisolid Manure" is headed by Dr. Hubert Landry. He says the basic prototype was developed, by the university, over the past four or so years. "We already have a prototype manure spreader that is capable of precision broadcast application as well as precision banded application. This machine has got four discharge screw conveyers and, from there, material flows under a metering gate and then into a transfer screw conveyer that distributes it very evenly on the ground surface. What we want to do is gather that material that is discharged by the machine and put it underneath the soil surface. What we need to do here is to figure out, first of all, how to engage the soil and then to somehow convey this material down under the soil surface. We need to look at different options because, to our knowledge, solid manure injection has not been achieved yet. We want to look into two different conveying systems to bring the material from the spreader to underneath the soil surface and probably also look at two to three soil engaging tools." Dr. Landry says the plan is to have proof of concept for solid manure injection by this fall, conduct the engineering over the winter and go full swing into evaluating the technology at the field scale level next spring.