2023-05-31 18:41:50
Here we show a great idea for children from the farm, how they can easily build a slurry tank themselves from a barren liquid manure tank for their pedal tractor or go-kart with modern trailing shoe technology.
Wed May 31, 2023 2:35 p.m
Reading time: 4 minutes
Driving manure is important. “After the first cut, the plants urgently need nutrients to grow,” says Marek Kopf. That’s why the ten-year-old from the Cuxhaven district in Lower Saxony put together particularly modern technology for his special slurry tanker. All he needed was three old teat liners, a discarded pressure equalization tank from an old milking parlor and a brilliant idea.
Baffle plate or trailing shoe?
“Before, I had an old slurry tanker with normal technology. That only drew a line of liquid manure,” explains the fourth-grader, who, by the way, prefers to drive a go-kart than a trampoline tractor. But his invention also works for liquid manure tanks for pedal tractors. But nice one following the other.
As I said, the one narrow line of liquid manure wasn’t enough for him. Marek wanted the manure to be spread more widely to provide more plants with the nutrients from the natural fertilizer. And so he thought.
Teat liners are perfect
“First I wanted to build a baffle plate. But nutrients are also lost. Then I came up with the idea of the trailing shoe linkage made of teat rubbers.” As a great role model, he took the modern machines on his parents’ dairy farm and used the milking accessories that were actually discarded. But why liners at all? – “They bubble so nicely and they can take a lot, are robust and elastic. Just perfect. I help build a lot there,” the little tinkerer explains the advantages of the accessories.
Scrap is not the same as scrap
But before building began, Marek made a sketch on paper. Then he procured the components or, to put it better, picked them up in the yard and from the “scrap corner”. “Yes, not all scrap is the same,” says Marek, “the best thing is that most of the parts are available on the farm anyway. You don’t have to buy anything there. That’s real recycling, what I’m doing here.”
These are the components that Marek has collected:
- An old surge tank from an old milking parlour
- Chassis of an old go-kart
- An iron chain from the scrap heap
- rods from scrap
- Guide rail / hollow tube
- Three old liners
- Ribbons – for example straw ribbons
- duct tape
- cable ties
- water bottle
Screw, drill, glue
The components went to dad’s workshop. And then it was screwed, drilled and glued.
Marek’s components and steps in pictures:
Marek built for two days. Then came the big moment: Marek hung his self-made prototype “slurry tanker with trailing shoe linkage made of rubber liners” on his go-kart and drove it for the first time. “It worked straight away,” says the ten-year-old. Still, he was missing something.
Water bottle for the manure stand
“I didn’t really like it that much.” The level indicator was missing. For this, Marek took a water bottle and attached it to the barrel. This way he can see how full the keg is when it is being filled – just like when the keg is empty.
30 liters of liquid manure fit into the barrel – of course from our own cows and diluted with water. For this, Marek has his own liquid manure lagoon, where he fills the barrel with a funnel and bucket.
“As it should be”
He puts the liquid manure on the lawn. With the full slurry tanker, he has to pedal hard to move forward. He stops on the lawn, loosens the rope, lowers the trailing shoe linkage and drives off. The slurry runs out of the tank evenly, leaving three tracks on the grass. Then the barrel is empty. Marek gets off the go-kart and checks his work. He says he is satisfied with the result. “The liquid manure lies really well in three narrow strips on the grass. Just like it should be in real life.”
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#Junge #builds #hightech #slurry #tanker #Kettcar
