Two New Designs for Manure Solids and Liquids Sampling from Tank, Pit, and Lagoons at Various Depths

Abstract

The wide variety of animal manure slurry storage structures and the spatially heterogeneous nature of manure within the storage structure present a difficult challenge to researchers studying the composition and activities within manure storage systems. The objective of this study was to design and construct a manure sampling system that could be used to sample manure at various depths greater than 7.6 m (25 ft) from a variety of swine manure storage systems, including deep pit, lagoon systems, and above ground manure slurry storage tanks. Two slurry sampler systems were devised that could be lowered to a variety of depths within the manure slurry and then opened and closed remotely in order to collect a sample from a specific depth with minimal contamination from manure slurry from shallower or deeper depths. Over more than a year, these two samplers were repeatedly field tested at four animal production sites. These two designs proved to be low cost, robust, and possessed a combination of several features (easily transportable, large sample orifice, minimal sample contamination, ample volume collection, and variable depth collection) that were not available in commercially-available wastewater collection systems designed for sample collection at municipal wastewater plants.