The slurry manure produced by cattle is important to farmers because its nutrient content helps to fertilise soil and therefore improve crop yield.
EnviroSystems’ SlurryBugs product – a micro-organism and enzyme-based inoculant – has been successful in treating small to- medium sized slurry pits, tanks or lagoons because it can be manually applied without proving too labour and time intensive.
However, this is only true up to a point, after which customers find the process too arduous and this has proved a barrier in selling the product to larger farms.
Dr Henry Russell, Operations Manager of EnviroSystems, who is a qualified biochemist and microbiologist, said this is the challenge they have taken on.
“Over the last 15 years the results we have seen are striking and we believe that SlurryBugs has huge potential,” he said. “It has been shown to improve the fertilizer value of slurry, thus reducing the need for chemical fertilizers and saving farm businesses money, and consistently reducing odour on-farm.
“The average sized herd of 150 cows is manageable using our product. But some farms have 2,000 cows, these are mega farms, and for them that treatment process is too laborious.
“For the big farms it’s not automated enough – and there is our opportunity.”