One piece of equipment stood out—literally—at this week’s North American Manure Expo near Prairie du Sac, WI. The Tasch Overpass by Tasch’s Custom, Malone, WI, helps custom manure applicators and livestock producers deal with the perplexing question, “How do I get my drag hose over the road?” The Tasch Overpass is made of double-walled well casing. A manure drag hose can be attached to either end. Manure flows through the heavy-duty pipes suspended 14 ft. over the road, making it easier to pump and apply manure without having to extend additional drag hoses to work around roads in order to access the right field. Chad Tasch, a custom applicator himself, designed the Overpass to exceed legal road height limits of 13 ft. 9 in. and conducted research with the Department of Transportation to make sure all clearance rules have been met or exceeded.
“We’ve posted it at 14 ft. 4 in. tall. The Overpass measures 65 ft. from support stand to stand, and 45 ft. wide where it needs to clear the road,” he says. Tasch has been using and testing the equipment for four years as part of his custom application business. “I didn’t want to market it until I knew it worked,” he explains. “I’ve had many requests from dealerships and custom applicators. There has been a lot of interest in this, so I decided to roll it out this year. We have the ability to customize the equipment, depending upon what people may need.”
When asked how he got the idea, Tasch explains that he came up with the creative solution when a client’s neighbor wouldn’t allow access to the most direct route between where manure needed to be pumped and the field where it was to be applied. Going around the property was going to require nearly 1 mile of drag hose, while simply crossing a road could solve the dilemma. Of course, drag hose cannot obstruct public roads, thus Tasch conceived of the idea of moving the solution into the air.
Contact Tasch to learn more at (920)375-0900, or email ctasch13@hotmail.com.