The ability to agitate and pump liquid manure is highly dependant on the moisture content of the manure. Pumping and agitation becomes more difficult to achieve as the moisture content of the manure is reduced. For this reason the storage should be thoroughly mixed before removing any liquid. Agitation time will vary from 2 to 8 hours or longer, depending on conditions. When the manure is agitated, emptying of the storage may begin.
Many operators remove the high powered tractor from the agitator and use it to haul a liquid tanker.
A much smaller tractor can then be used to pump manure into the tankers and to keep the previously agitated manure in suspension. The pumps available have a high capacity in relation to the size of the tanker. This means in average conditions a large tanker can be filled in a couple of minutes. Therefore it is important to have proper conditions to enable the tanker to be moved quickly into and out of position for loading. As with solid and semi-solid systems, as large a tanker as practical will reduce the number of trips to the field.