Spreader Manure Spreader Suggestions?

[Heywood Jannockitov]

IMO, those Millcreek ground driven spreaders are toys. How do those beaters work when the temperature is about 0 degrees F and your load has been in for a day or two.

Your tractor is large enough for something bigger. Find a nice, older pto driven spreader. I'm not sure what part of MN you are in, but here in WI you could find something that is a true implement and still has a lot of service.

I agree with L3650.
Find yourself a good used "Real" spreader.
My wife found ours, a private sale, parked at the end of a driveway.
Old retired farmer selling off his stuff. Machine looked well cared for.

It's a 1967 NH 327. I think it holds 110, or maybe 130 bushels.
Checked first with a NH dealer about this particular model before buying it.
Dealer said it was one of the best models NH ever built.
Not too big, not too small.
Paid $1000.00 for it. Works like a dream.

Personally, I would avoid those little "estate" ground-driven units.
With a pto driven one, you can unload them in one spot if you want.
Oh yeah, bought a brand new owner's manual for it, off eBay!

 

[bota7800]

I agree with L3650.
Find yourself a good used "Real" spreader.

The first (therefore - real) manure spreaders were horse driven. Where did they put the PTO shaft? Just kidding.

1. You should not leave manure in a spreader anyway.

2. Why would you want to discharge in one place? Sounds like a miserable activity.

3. My thought was to attach the spreader to ATV so that I can load it with the tractor without reattaching it. Anyone have any thoughts on that? Has anyone pulled a GD unit with a larger ATV (good or bad)?

 

[Heywood Jannockitov]

1. You should not leave manure in a spreader anyway.

Agree, I know some fancy equestrian show barns that muck stalls and wheelbarrow to a spreader parked in an inside heated garage bay attached to the stables. When it is full, it is taken out and the manure spread on a field. In winter, it is transferred to a big manure pile located away from the barn to a concrete bunker where it is left until spring. We're not supposed to spread manure in the winter on top of the snow.

2. Why would you want to discharge in one place? Sounds like a miserable activity.

Saves buying a dump wagon.

3. My thought was to attach the spreader to ATV so that I can load it with the tractor without reattaching it. Anyone have any thoughts on that? Has anyone pulled a GD unit with a larger ATV (good or bad)?

Why not pull it with your pickup for that matter. I'm sure an ATV could handle it though. I have routinely pulled my double snowmobile trailer around with the sleds on it with my 500 cc Traxter, even the flat wagons when empty. Probably the biggest workout it gets is pulling the 6ft. arena ring conditioner. That sucks the gas.

 

[canoetrpr]

There are a lot of old spreaders that come up for auction, in the classifieds, etc. There also seem to be a number of dealers - at least around southern Ontario that have taken in old trades. Some of them seem to specialize in fixing up older spreaders and reselling.

At auction, I've seen some pretty decent looking Schultz speaders go for $500 to $700 (anyone know if they are any good?)

I too prefer the idea of a ground drive as I only have one tractor. New Idea made some really good ground drive spreaders. That said, I will probably borrow one from a neighbour when it comes time to spread. The job goes much easier with two tractors.

 

[KennK]

My thought was to attach the spreader to ATV so that I can load it with the tractor without reattaching it.

That is our plan eventually ... when we can afford to get an ATV. For right now I load and spread with the same tractor.

Living on just five acres with the three horses we don't have ag or hay fields in which to spread fresh manure, and we won't spread fresh manure - taken from the horse stalls - in the pasture areas, so instead we compost it in a corner of the property for several months. We collect fresh manure in muck buckets, haul the buckets to the compost pile using carts, and then spread it on our lawn acreage two or three times per year (usually late summer, late fall, and late spring).

Since we have limited space and we're spreading on only a few acres, we didn't want a huge manure spreader, and since we load & spread with the same tractor, we didn't want to deal with hooking the PTO each time too. The ground-driven spreader does just great. It beats very well so long as I pre-plan corners so the drive wheel is on the outside of the corner - this is easy to do. The next time I mow the mower will chop up the few chuncks that might be on the lawn.

If we had a large property with ag fields that could take the fresh horse manure (is there really such a thing?), then we'd probably want a huge manure spreader with PTO, but the smaller ground-driven one has worked well so far.

 

[rmonio]

I spent time this weekend looking over some of the various brands and decided to purchase a new (yes, new!) Frontier unit. It is the PTO-driven MS1112 and I brought it home on Saturday morning. It's a bit bigger than I might have purchased, but I got it for the same price as the PTO-driven MS 1108 during the local JD Dealer's "John Deere Days" sale.

Needless to say, I think I might have the neighbor next door asking me about spreading his manure in the spring now....

Thanks for the insight and support, folks!

-Bob

 

[ddivinia]

Mine cost me just under $2800, if that helps. There is an MS1108G that is 48" across interior, rather than the 36" across that mine has. It's rated capacity is 80 bushels vs. my 50 bushels.

This morning I posted a bit more info on how I use it over at the JD buying forum.

How long ago did you buy the MS1108G? Did you buy it new? All the prices I have seen they are close to $3900 or so. I am going to hit up my dealer tomorrow. I am going to pick up my new pallet forks.

D.

 

[dixie306]

JD makes one, they work well for manure and it will spread ag lime since it works by a "conveyor belt" in the bottom of the hopper

 

[4720 OWNER]

I spent time this weekend looking over some of the various brands and decided to purchase a new (yes, new!) Frontier unit. It is the PTO-driven MS1112 and I brought it home on Saturday morning. It's a bit bigger than I might have purchased, but I got it for the same price as the PTO-driven MS 1108 during the local JD Dealer's "John Deere Days" sale.

Needless to say, I think I might have the neighbor next door asking me about spreading his manure in the spring now....

Thanks for the insight and support, folks!

-Bob

Hey, bring it on over and lets get it all dirty!!

Always spread with your nose INTO the wind!

 

[Rara Avis]

One thing NOT covered in this thread is that if you are spreading woodchips along with the manure...You should not spread directly, but you need to compost it first...
Woodwaste
Adding carbonaceous material, such as sawdust, wood
shavings or woodchips, is often advantageous to the
composting of high nitrogen materials such as livestock
manure. These materials bring up the C:N ratio to a
more desirable level. Prior to composting, wet organic
materials should be mixed with a dry material or bulking
agent to reduce initial moisture content. Woodwastes
also have the ability to absorb moisture and odours.
Bulking agents are usually necessary to increase the
porosity of fine-textured materials such as poultry
manure, as well as to absorb excess moisture. The
amount of bulking agent needed may range from less
than 1:1 (parts by volume) to more than 5 bulking agent
to 1 part manure, depending on particle size and initial
moisture content.
High moisture livestock manure can be dried to below 60
percent moisture content by blending finished compost
or bulking agents such as sawdust or woodchips. The
end product usually has final moisture content of 20 to
40 percent. Which can be recycled as a bulking agent.