Home Built Compost Windrow Turner

[Greg_Phillips]

Has anyone on here built their own compost windrow turner? We are going to try and start composting the manure from our cattle herd and two horses but I don't want to have to use the bucket on our front end loader or a pitch fork to turn the piles. Been wondering if anyone has built a turner similar to the Brown Bear auger type turners seen and the website Brown Bear Corporation only smaller.

I would really like to hear from anyone who has built their own or has ideas about building something similar.

Thanks
Greg

 

[SPIKER]

we built a few devices that were similar to these. one was a grinder that the raw new material was dumped into and it wind rowed and ground the manure the 2nd was a turner that rotated and fluffed up the older rows. not complicated but also not something the regular home farm would need. ones we built were for high production dairy and horse manure to be composted and we built a bagger than then weighed and bagged the compost for re-sale.

I think we put 35~40K into all the machinery/systems for my bosses brother and his partner, they sold the up-start business for 175K with a 35HP tractor/loader the equipment we built and the suppliers names. The manure was hauled in by semi dump truck loads. they used a 20 acre hay field to do the composting in..

For small time stuff I would buy a Roto tiller and modify it, a chain drive type. Cut the side plates and lengthen them adding more chain, remove 1/2 the tines and replace with long straight blades. build a surround (think box blade) that would go around the modified tiller and leave the back open or squish the sides in some to force the turned over material into a row.

run the tiller at lower RPM than normal so that instead of chopping a lot it is only tossing the material.... change to sharpened blades when the material needs more finer parts..

Mark M

 

[Greg_Phillips]

Thanks for the ideas. I have a question, what about modifying a snowblower? What I have considering doing is to make all the flighting on the auger run to the right to discharge the compost. Another idea was to take the rear auger off of a manure spreader and use that along with a homebuilt frame to turn the material over, similar to how the Brown Bear operates.

 

[jda1961]

just pile the cow crap up and leave it alone, it will compost just fine by itself.

 

[Just2quickz28]

How about a set up with a rototiller? I use some clamp on debris forks that I made to turn over the compost pile usually 1-2 times a week.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Te newfarm forms has a few pics and plans to the one they built. I t could be upscled to a bigger or smaller unit. I plan on making a smaller one from an old mower conditioner I found. Or making a purpose built unit out of an old cotton picker.

 

[bx24]

For a low cost solution, I second the idea of modifying a 3 point snow-blower. Another option would be to use some sort of snow type front plow that could "roll" the manure.

Letting it sit would be the easiest, but if you are in a hurry, I would modify an existing implement

Good luck

 

[easygo]

How about this one? It seems the tractor running it can't be more then 25-30hp.
YouTube - Mighty Mike small tow behind compost turner

Edit: How many animals do you have on the farm?

 

[Greg_Phillips]

Right now we have about 40 head of cattle and 2 belgian horses, but if this project goes well on a small scale, I have family who has about another 80 head of cattle and 10-15 horses and mules. Our are is also a very large poultry producing area so have manure of some type should not be a problem. I am leaning towards building a turner so that we can see if composting is even a worthwhile activity in our area. If it is and it takes off I will probably invest in a commercially produced unit in the future.

My current plan is to find a single stage snow blower so that it turns all the material over and moves it off to one side, or to modify a tiller and build a hitch so that it will straddle the windrow and the tractor will travel beside the material.

 

[bobodu]

Just use the beaters from an old manure spreader.