New irrigation methods being utilized by Premium Standard Farms will result in reduced odor and a safer land application season.
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New irrigation methods being utilized by Premium Standard Farms will result in reduced odor and a safer land application season. The company has announced a near 50 percent decrease in the utilization of the traditional traveling reel method of spreading fertilizer.
Effluent stored in the company’s hog production lagoons is 99 percent water. The liquid is used to fertilize fields for hay and crop production.
The company and industry have traditionally used the traveling reel method of irrigation — a system that requires high-pressure hoses to feed a system that sprays the liquid in a wide arc. The company this summer will use this method to spread 33 percent of its fertilizer compared to 63 percent last year.
The company is phasing out the traveling reel by using center pivot, aerway/injection and reel/boom cart methods of spreading fertilizer. This center pivot irrigation, liquid drizzles from low-pressure drop nozzles very close to the ground. This method drastically reduces the distance odor can potentially travel. The aerway/injection method of spreading fertilizer is a tractor-drawn implement that injects the liquid directly into the soil. Newly purchased reel/boom carts spread effluent very close to the ground using low pressure lines connected to a retractable cart.