Your advantage

Why should nitrogen losses be limited during manure application?

· Nitrogen losses are harmful to the environment.

· Nitrogen losses are expensive: They increase the need for synthetic fertilizers.
(Cow manure contains, for example, approximately 3.5 kg of nitrogen per cubic meter. This corresponds to a value of approx. 6 euros per cubic meter.)

On what do the nitrogen losses mainly depend?

Most farmers believe that the maximum nitrogen loss during manure application occurs while the manure is flying through the air. But actually, the evaporation occurs primarily in the time between the application and the infiltration/incorporation of the manure into the soil (see Graph 1, Graph 2).

An important objective of manure spreading is therefore to slow down the evaporation. To this end, on the one hand a more favorable time for applying the manure should be selected (ideally: low temperatures, little wind, shortly before precipitation/incorporation into soil). On the other hand, appropriate technology should also be employed. The most well-known and effective technique for this is to apply manure with drag hoses. The surface of the manure is greatly reduced and the evaporation process is slowed down. It is still little known that this effect is also achieved with the MOESCHA swivel spreader.

How does the MOESCHA spreader help to minimize Nitrogen losses?

Because of the geometric shape of the swiveling head and because of the deflection of almost the entire manure stream, the patented MOESCHA swiveling spreader forms very large drops. The bigger the drops, the better the nitrogen is protected from evaporation. Cube example:

Width of cube (d)	1 cm^1	2 cm^1
Surface of cube (d^2)	6 cm^2	24 cm^2
Content of cube (d^3)	1 cm^3	8 cm^3
Relation of content to surface	1 : 6	1 : 3

As a consequence: Drops that are twice as large, yield half the drop surface per unit of manure and, thus, significantly less nitrogen evaporation.

Large drop manure application via patented swivel spreading

(detailed view by clicking on the figure)

However, in order for the manure also to come to rest on the ground in the form of large drops, its impact speed must not be too high. The following graph makes this clear:

With the MOESCHA swiveling spreader, the drops are released with reduced speed in an almost horizontal direction:

· Exit speed at the nozzle: 11.6 m/sec corresponds to 42 km/h

· Exit speed from the swiveling head: 8 m/sec corresponds to 29 km/h

This is a clear advantage over impact spreaders, because only in this way is a large-drop spreading pattern produced and, thus, a slowing of the nitrogen evaporation.

What further advantages does large-drop MOESCHA manure spreading provide?

Because of the reduced surface and because of a better ratio of weight to surface, there is clearly better spreading even in the presence of crosswinds (see DLG test).

In addition, the wetting/soiling of the plants and, thus, damage to them is clearly reduced. The company MOESCHA therefore recommends applying manure in pastureland at a crop height of approximately 10 cm. The soiling of the leaves is minimal and the nitrogen losses can once again be sharply reduced (protection of the manure from sun and wind).

Conclusion: The MOESCHA spreader is above all the best solution for grassland!