It’s human nature to be drawn to bright, shiny things, like the newest combine, the biggest baler, or the most up-to-date manure spreader. While those purchases can have tremendous value in getting certain tasks done, the biggest gains on the farm will often come from equipment and practices that influence everyday work.
“It’s those daily tasks, and what you can do to automate them or simplify them, that’s where it’s at,” according to Josh Waddell, who farms with his family in Townville, Penn. “I think that gets forgotten on a lot of dairies.”
He said big investments like machinery may be useful for a few weeks out of the year, but there are jobs on the farm that need to be done all 365 days, and it might not take a lot of money to make them better.
“That’s what I focus on – looking at the simple tasks and trying to make them even more simple,” Waddell said.
That doesn’t mean that Waddell shies away from technology. At Apple Shamrock Dairy Farms, an animal monitoring system tracks daily milk weights, detects heats, and identifies sick cows sooner. Feed software is used to make timely adjustments to the rations. Precision technology is used out in the fields for planting and harvesting.
But when it comes to manure management, Waddell and his family were seeking a solution that was less automated and lower maintenance.
When Waddell returned to the dairy after college, his parents, Rob and Christine, were milking a few hundred cows. With Waddell and his brother, Joe, joining the family business, they continued to grow the Holstein herd to reach its current size of 1,200 head. Along the way, they added their first sand-bedded freestsall barn. The herd’s cull rate went down immediately, and the Waddells were hooked.
Recognizing the benefits sand brought to their dairy herd, a major requirement of an updated manure handling system was that it must handle sand. But Waddell knew this would create some challenges.
Must handle sand
“Sand makes your manure a nightmare,” Waddell noted during an episode of the Center for Dairy Excellence’s “Cowside Conversations” podcast. So, they had to find a way to remove sand from the manure. The Waddells researched various mechanical systems but determined they didn’t want to deal with a lot of maintenance problems. In the end, they settled for a simpler system using a sand lane.
First, manure is scraped from the barn alleys three times a day and pushed into a holding pit. Then, sand-laden manure is transferred under the barns using an electric pump and a pipeline.
Perfecting this pipeline took some time, though. “I definitely didn’t get it right the first time,” Waddell admitted. But after some trial and error, they figured it out and can now pump 1,300 gallons of sand-laden manure per minute 1,500 feet to the sand lane.
The underground pipeline replaces the need to truck manure to the sand lane, saving time and labor. Waddell said the pumping system also helps them make better recycled sand, as they have a more consistent flow of manure coming to the sand settling lane.
Tweaking the system
The Waddells were happy with the sand lane and its ability to reclaim sand, but as the herd continued to grow, they were not able to move sand and get it ready for the barns fast enough. That led to the installation of a system designed to clean and dewater sand recovered from the sand lane. This includes an inclined auger and a shaker screen, which removes excess moisture and then discharges sand that is ready for stacking on their concrete pad.
With this system, Waddell said they can reclaim a little more sand and stack it in higher piles, saving space and preventing them from needing to expand their pad. The sand is also cleaner and ready to go into the barn faster. This is key to maintaining cow comfort and milk quality. He also praised the system’s durability and ease to use.
From the sand settling lane, manure moves through a three-cell manure pit. The first two cells act as big settling ponds, and by the third cell, most of the remaining sand is removed.
“There’s a lot of functionality to those pits and the way they work,” he said. “It allows us to use sand but not have the nightmare.”
From barn to field
The Waddells do their own manure application. Waddell said the sand lane really extends the life of their manure spreaders, as they are not hauling that heavy, sand-laden manure. “It’s been a game changer to pull out the sand,”
he emphasized.
Today, most of the manure produced at Apple Shamrock Farms is injected into the ground, which is their preferred method of application. “We find an agronomic advantage to that,” Waddell said. “It’s a huge fertilizer savings.”
He said the practice also helps with public perception. Waddell believes that injecting the manure reduces odor during application by 70%.
“We wouldn’t go back to top spreading any more than we have to,” he said.
The right fit
In the parlor, Waddell emphasizes the need to milk the “right” cows. “Just because your facility is full, it does not mean you have the right cows,” he shared. But with the technology they have in place to monitor the dairy herd, Waddell believes they can really watch their cows, find the animals that fit their system best, and create replacements accordingly.
On the manure side, it took a few years to build the system, but Waddell feels they have also found the right method for managing that part of the business. “Now that it’s all running, it’s pretty slick,” he said. The system accomplishes the goal of being modern but not too mechanical, and it works with sand, their bedding of choice. Manure must be handled year-round, and this is one example of how Waddell and Apple Shamrock Dairy Farms found the right solution to simplifying some of those everyday tasks.
This article appeared in the February 2026 issue of Journal of Nutrient Management on page 18.
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