Asphalt in the World of Agriculture
Every dairy and livestock farm operates with the goal of maximizing production in the most cost-efficient manner while maintaining sanitary conditions. For this reason, hot mix asphalt (HMA) has become highly popular in agricultural settings, because it is not just affordable, but also easy to install, long-lasting and easy to keep clean.
HMA surfaces prevent livestock from constantly being stuck in mud, which keeps them cleaner, improves overall animal hygiene and cuts down on the potential for disease at the farm. Farmers benefit as well, as the paved silage bunkers allow for improved working conditions. They can keep their equipment cleaner, which means less wear andtear and less need for ongoing maintenance.
Here are just a few benefits of HMA for agriculture and some of the other reasons why it’s highly recommended you seek it out from an asphalt paving contractor in Nashville, TN:
Durability: One of the biggest benefits of HMA is that, unlike concrete, it is highly resistant to silage acids and animal wastes, meaning you don’t have to worry about it deteriorating with long-term exposure. Instead, HMA remains both structurally sound and smooth, even after long periods of usage. This cuts down on the amount of time and money you have to put into maintaining the surfaces to ensure they stay in good condition.
Cleanliness: As we already alluded to, HMA surfaces are much easier to clean than other types of surfaces you mightconsider. When you think of how much mud, dust and other debris you’re going to encounter on a livestock farm, you can’t understate how important easy cleaning is. The smoother surface helps to make for easy cleaning.
Versatility: HMA is a highly versatile material, and you can use it for many different applications around a livestock farm. Some of the most common ways in which you’ll find it used are for farm driveways, equipment staging areas, equipment yards and much more. You can easily put together these HMA silage floors in stages over long periods of time based on your needs and what you can afford. In fact, the final surface course can be laid more than a year after the base course, if needed.
Multiple soil types: Expanding on the versatility of the HMA material here a bit, you’re also able to install it over multiple types and qualities of soils. You may just need to adjust the thickness of the HMA material depending on the soil you’re working with. Good soils that have solid drainage and are sandy or gravelly can use a two-inch HMA base. The lowerquality the soil, the greater the thickness you’ll need to use for your HMA surface. Soils that have a lot of heavy clay, for example, may require a four-inch HMA base course and a two-inch HMA surface course, with a six-to eight-inch aggregate base. Aggregate bases aren’t even required for really good soils.
For more information about the benefits of HMA surfaces for agriculture, contact RoadBuilders to speak with an asphalt paving contractor in Nashville, TN today.
Categorised in: Agriculture, Asphalt