Livestock Facility Siting: Sludge Boat

Many lagoons in the United States were built between 1970 and 1995. Since then, very few of these lagoons have had the sludge removed. Sludge is a very nutrient dense material that is left after manure treatment. Every year, sludge will accumulate and decrease the treatment and storage volumes in the lagoon. The current method to determine sludge depth is to use a johnboat and a long pole. A person must launch the boat onto the water and feel the sludge with the pole. The process is time consuming, labor intensive and fairly inaccurate.

A new measurement system should allow the user to gain an accurate sludge depth reading in less time and with less labor. Additionally, the process should be simple enough for anyone to perform the measurement. The sludge boat developed by the University of Illinois Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department can assist a person in determining the sludge depth in a manure storage.

The fiberglass hull sludge boat carries a fish finder (depth finder) with GPS coordinate tracking. The boat is powered by two above surface propellers and guided with a remote control. Data recorded by the boat as it traverses the lagoon are downloaded to a computer for graphical interpretation by the user.

Contact Matt Robert at mrobert1@uiuc.edu for more information.