A new $70,000 effluent system was expected to boost pasture production on the Telford Rural Polytechnic's dairy farm.
Such was the potential of the liquid waste, farm manager Zac Haderbache said effluent should be called nutrients, recognising its value but also removing the stigma and public concern about the term dairy shed effluent.
Telford's new system provided up to three months' storage, with shed waste first passing through a sand trap and then into one of two a sludge ponds where remaining solids could settle.
One pond would be operative while the other was cleaned out, a task that could be required every three to four months.
Liquid was then pumped into another pond where it passed through a wooden weeping wall with 5mm gap slats, before being applied to paddocks via a new network of 1.4km of pipes and hydrants.
An extra 40ha of mostly clay downs could be fertilised and irrigated from a low pressure K-line system which applied less than 4mm an hour.
The extension took to 81ha the total area under effluent irrigation.
Mr Haderbache said they still had the option of using a travelling irrigator to spread the effluent or, should the farm lose electricity, a third back-up system operated off a tractor.