Comprising of a 500 gallon concrete water trough and a 200 gallon concrete water trough, the small scale effluent system was designed and built by Tony for less than $8000.

Although it is relatively labour intensive, as the top pond must be shovelled out four times a year, the system meets Environmental Protection Authority requirements.

However, more importantly its extremely low cost has enabled Vicki and Tony to continue milking, something they wouldn’t have done if they’d been obliged to build a larger system.

The Greigs milk 110 cows on 65ha at Buffalo in South Gippsland.

 “We only plan on milking for another four or five years, and we don’t have kids to pass the farm onto,” Vicki said.

“We probably would have gotten out early rather than make that type of investment.”

Previously, the couple applied their effluent and washdown water directly onto a sloping paddock beneath the dairy, but there were concerns that run-off could make its way into a nearby creek.

The system applies the same principles used in the two dam effluent systems seen on many larger dairy farms.

The effluent and wash down water flows from the dairy and yards into a drop pit, then passes through a two metre length of 100mm PVC pipe into the first pond.

The solids component settles to the bottom of the pond, allowing the liquid to flow through a short length of PVC piping into the second pond, which is sited directly below.

The liquid is then pumped, via 100 metres of 50mm poly piping and flexi hose, to a relatively flat 4ha paddock nearby, where it is irrigated using a manure sprinkler.

The remaining solids are spread out over other paddocks.

Advantages of the system are its cost – the three horsepower mains powered pumped used for irrigation, which was $5500, was the most expensive component of the system – and ease of construction – it took Tony just two days to build.

A main disadvantage of the system is the lack of capacity for storing the nutrient-rich liquid. This means that Vicki and Tony must irate after each milking, regardless of weather conditions or fertiliser requirements.

Further, they are not able to recycle the water for wash down, for which they currently use fresh water.