Pumping manure over long distances

We are already working on a handful of other projects in the USA, but we also know that there is great interest in being able to pump slurry over long distances in other parts of the world. Therefore, we would like to share these experiences here.

LSM Pumps & Fair Oaks Farm USA

Fair Oaks Farms Indiana is one of the largest cattle farms in the USA with 36,000 dairy cows, 35,000 acres or 14,000 hectares spread over 8 properties.

LSM Pumps has its own branch in the USA, and our representative spoke with the daily manager of the biogas plant at Fair Oaks, who explained that they had tried to pump slurry from one of the many barns to the biogas plant, a distance of 3 km, but without success. Ten years ago, they had buried a 6" pipeline and tried a variety of different pumps. The last resort would have been a high-pressure pump with about a 300 hp motor, which is not attractive in the biogas context due to the energy calculations and, of course, the overall energy consumption.

After some internal discussions at LSM, we decided to offer the customer at Fair Oaks an LSM 125 hose pump - in a slightly reinforced version on rental terms - with the agreement that they could buy the pump if they were satisfied with the result.

In August 2022, the pump was operational and proved that it could pump the slurry the 3 km with only a 22 hp motor. Naturally, the customer purchased the pump.

Since then, we have fine-tuned and upgraded this installation by adding a booster pump halfway, which allows them to pump about 40% more, but still with very low energy consumption.

Currently, work is underway to upgrade at Fair Oaks with another 2 LSM125 hose pumps, where they will pump slurry long-distance from 2 other farms, avoiding the need to move slurry with tractors and slurry tanks. They expect the project to be completed in 2024.