I needed to lime our food plots. I searched all over the net, talked to tractor salesmen, combed ther classified listings, rental agencies, etc., to find a lime speader that would handle pulverized lime pulled behind ATV or small tractor. Found a listing for a small company in central Pa in a food plot acticle in the net. I don't know of another source for that type of unit. It handles about half a ton at a time and works great in the woods where I have to maneuver around on our woods trails. I provide the phone # to anyone in similar predicament.
LIME SPREADER FOR FOOD PLOTS
- Thread starter flINTLOCK
- Start date
Robert_in_NY
Super Member
- Joined
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- Silver Creek, NY
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EZ Flow made a ton of small lime spreaders a long time ago. You can find them usually in the junk yards because they are too small for most operations now. They would work well behind a small tractor or large ATV. I have one up in the woods, we fixed the handle on it a couple years ago and freed it up again and put her away because we don't have a use for it. I know around grape country you can find them quite easily and should be able to buy them cheap. I will try to get a pic of it soon. It is just a drop spreader but is great for small jobs and you don't dust yourself like you do with the large spreaders.
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Would a seed spreader be the same thing? If not, why wouldn't it do the same job?
It seems they are everywhere, from Lowes, Home Depot, Tractor Supply to the catalogs like Nothern and Cabalas. Did you look on Ebay?
Maybe I missed something, but for a few hundred bucks, you should have all sorts of options.
Eddie
It seems they are everywhere, from Lowes, Home Depot, Tractor Supply to the catalogs like Nothern and Cabalas. Did you look on Ebay?
Maybe I missed something, but for a few hundred bucks, you should have all sorts of options.
Eddie
millsnhills
Silver Member
Check with a few local farmers or larger farm stores. Around here you can get a truck to deliver and spread the lime via the truck and its cheap. The truck usually carrys around 3-5 tons and broadcast as it drives around the field.
I tried to get one to do my 2-3 acres yard but understand why they stopped doing residential (crushed lines & septic). I ended up renting a pull behind spreader with 3 tons for under 200.00 full from a local chemical plant that sells fetilizer and lime. It was much cheaper than buying the bagged lime.
I tried to get one to do my 2-3 acres yard but understand why they stopped doing residential (crushed lines & septic). I ended up renting a pull behind spreader with 3 tons for under 200.00 full from a local chemical plant that sells fetilizer and lime. It was much cheaper than buying the bagged lime.
millsnhills
Silver Member
Oh BTW thats how we do our 4 acre food plot every year.
You guys raised good questions and provided interesting solutions. The seed spreaders I've see are broadcast types and only work for pelletized lime, not pulverized lime. If we only had small plots to lime, could use a walk behind spreader like I use on the lawn. All of the spreaders I came up with on the net or elsewhere were broadcast types which would be OK except pelletized lime costs at least $1 per 50 lb bag more than pulverized. Since we were working about 5 acres, it would require about 15 tons to do the job. About 15 x 40 = $600 more. No local farmers in our area to help. The guy from Agway where we bought the lime wanted $1200 to deliver and spread 4 tons. No limestone quarries in our area, so had to buy bagged product at about $2.20 a bag. Expensive proposition, this food plot business. I thought someone might benefit from the extensive search I've already done, but I guess not.
Robert_in_NY
Super Member
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2001
- Messages
- 8,588
- Location
- Silver Creek, NY
- Tractor
- Case-IH Farmall 45A, Kubota M8540 Narrow, New Holland TN 65, Bobcat 331, Ford 1920, 1952 John Deere M, Allis Chalmers B, Bombardier Traxter XT, Massey Harris 81RC and a John Deere 3300 combine, Cub Cadet GT1554
Post a pic of your setup if you can as well as the contact info. The more information in this one thread the better it will help others in the future.
Sorry I don't have a picture to show. Spreader's at deer camp now. Probably won't be getting up there this month. Hope to frost seed clover toward end of Feb. The gentleman I bought my unit from was Norm and his # 717-201-2640. Very knowlegeable guy from working his own food plots. Also sells a beautiful machine that will run rings around the plotmaster equipment, IMHO. Hope this info is useful. I did some research after the responses I got and all of those spreaders were broadcast types as far as I could determine, and would not work for my situation. But thanks for the suggestions.
millsnhills
Silver Member
Both the truck and the 5kLB tow behind I rented were broadcast spreaders capable by adjustment for 30 foot or more throw.
When I said check with farmers I did not mean they did it but may know someone who did. There are a few guys in our county that do it for the farmers. Southern States, Tractor Supply or other larger outfits may be a choice as well. Just trying to think of some ideas for ya. I could not imagine trying to broadcast 3 tons on a food plot but ya gotta do whatcha gotta do..
Good Luck Jeff
When I said check with farmers I did not mean they did it but may know someone who did. There are a few guys in our county that do it for the farmers. Southern States, Tractor Supply or other larger outfits may be a choice as well. Just trying to think of some ideas for ya. I could not imagine trying to broadcast 3 tons on a food plot but ya gotta do whatcha gotta do..
Good Luck Jeff
Actually, the spreader we used would drop about 1/2 ton per load in about 5 minutes on lowest setting. Whole process went pretty quickly, although we looked like ghosts afterwards, our coveralls completely white. Local tractor suppy places, Agway, you name it--nobody had any leads for us until I came across the phone # in an internet article. Large part of the problem is all farms up that way have sold out to developers or just stopped farming. Nice thing about the 5 foot wide drop zone of the spreader is you can lime narrow woods roads without broadcasting into the surrounding brush.