2 tips for farmers who plan to use molasses tanks on their farms

If you want to start supplementing your livestock's feed with molasses, you will need to invest in several molasses tanks so that you have somewhere to store this food. If you are planning to buy this type of equipment, you might find the following two tips to be helpful.

1. Position the tanks on tightly-compacted, level ground 

It is very important to choose the right place for your new molasses tanks. Whilst you might be tempted to simply put them as close to your livestock's feeding area as possible (so that you won't have to transport the molasses very far when you need to feed the animals), this is not necessarily a good idea, if the ground near the feeding area is neither level nor tightly-compacted.

The reason for this is that when filled to capacity, molasses tanks can be extremely heavy. If a tank of this kind is placed on loose, soft soil, and it then rains very heavily, the tank could tip to one side and fall over. If this happens, the molasses inside could seep out, and the tank itself could sustain damage (due to the force with which it would hit the ground).

If the tank is located close to your livestock, they could also be injured by the falling tank. In this scenario, you would have to replace both the molasses and the tank, and potentially pay for a vet to treat any wounded livestock. Given this, it is best to place the tanks on tightly-compacted, level ground, even if this means positioning them a little farther away from the livestock feeding area.

2. Be extremely careful about how you clean them

Because bacteria cannot grow very quickly in molasses, the tanks in which this food is stored do not need to be cleaned out on a daily or weekly basis. However, whilst it may take a while, molasses will spoil if left to sit in an unsanitary tank for an extended period of time. If you then feed your livestock the spoiled molasses, they may become ill. As such, you will need to clean your tanks at least a couple of times a year.

It is important to do this carefully, so as not to damage the tank or leave behind potentially toxic residue. An industrial steam cleaner is ideal for this particular cleaning task, as it will soften the sticky molasses that are stuck to the walls of the tank and in doing so, make them easier to wipe off. Because this approach does not involve any detergents, there is also no risk of there being toxic cleaning product residue left behind in the tank when you refill it.

However, if you do need to use a detergent to fully sanitise the tank, make sure to rinse the tank out thoroughly after doing this, to ensure that no traces of the product are left behind. Do not, however, use a pressure washer to do this, as the force of the water could damage the tank's interior.