Near Intersection of I-35 & I-90 Southern Mn. | The main reason these systems are so expensive is the meter itself. Meters for liquid fertilizers and spray usually use a turbine that spins as the product passes through. The turbine has magnets on it which create "pulses" in a sensor which are communicated to the monitor or controller. The monitor or controller uses a meter cal to convert these pulses into common units such as gallons.
A turbine flow meter would not work well with manure as it would plug. Some systems have attempted to use a paddle wheel type meters with limited success. Most of the manure meters are the "mag" type meters. These meters have no moving parts to plug. They work on the principle that the product moving through the meter creates a change in a magnetic field. The electronics converts this change into pulses which are fed to the controller or monitor in the same way that the turbine flow meters do. These meters need to be large to handle the large volume involved
Measuring liquids with a turbine flow meter is quite predictable since the product is generally consistent. Measuring manure is a bit of an educated guess as the product is far from consistent.
That coupled with the fact that the nutrient value can vary tremendously makes monitoring and controlling manure far from an exact science. |
Tell me about flow meters for slurry applicators.........
