Manure Spreader

Roger Cordes posted, cropped
Saw this today at a draft horse sale

John Twait posted
Kody Thompson: ALL THANKS TO A SCHOOL TEACHER.
Phil Munson: Kody Thompson YES!! Perfected and produced on Maltbie St, by Kemp and Burpee, in Syracuse, New York!
Dennis DeBruler: At first I wondered why the ad bragged about only 41" to the top of the sides. And then I remembered that these would have been loaded with pitchforks. It is really hard to imagine what life was like back in the horse & wagon days.

 

Machinery Planet posted
Old Farm Machinery

It looks like it was filled with a pitch fork instead of a skid steer.

0:26 video @ 0:09

They were a still a big deal in 1920.

Kelly Sedwick posted it being showed off in Council Hill, IL.

Travis Keasling posted

Manure spreaders are the unsung heroes of farming. On my Grandfather's dairy farm, one was used everyday. It would be parked under the barn cleaner while it ran. The barn cleaner was a chain that ran along the side of the trench in the floor behind the 36 cow stalls. Blades were attached to the chain about every foot so that the poop would be pushed along the trench as the chain moved. At the end of the trench was a metal ramp that the chain and blades continued up to shove the poop up into the spreader.

After six years of looking, I finally found an image of the barn cleaner like the one in my Grandfather's farm. This was actually the second one he had. The first one used a bar that went back and forth. Before the barn cleaners, the spreader was backed down the center of the barn and a scoop shovel was used to get it in the spreader. Using a shovel or pitch fork is why low sides are important for an old spreader. Now the height of the sides is limited by the reach of a skid steer.

Farming Memories posted
Daniel Peters shared

As I stop to think about it, most farm implements are used just a week or two each year, not each day. When the tramp shed was cleaned out in the Spring, two spreaders were used for days so that one could haul a load to the field while the other was parked at the shed to get another load.

This spreader is the vintage we used when I helped. The beaters and web were driven from the wheels. One lever would engage the beaters. The other lever engaged the web. The web lever could be set at different positions to control the speed of the web. The speed of the web controlled how heavily the manure was spread on the field. Near the end of a run in the field, we would drop the web lever all the way down to quickly remove any remaining "stuff."

Cropped from Travis Keasling posting

Obviously, this one was horse drawn.

LC-DIG-highsm 40882
Credit line: Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Carol M. Highsmith's photographs are in the public domain.

Gene Niewoehner posted two photos with the comment: "Nice model 4 IH spreader I bought a number of years ago. I believe a 4A has the steel sides. I was thinking about selling it, but it is in such nice condition, I think I will keep it awhile longer. I used it with a team of horses, a number of years ago, to haul a few loads of their manure."

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The following five spreaders are an update from the Abandoned Farm Related Equipment Group

Kirby Lamp posted
ih plows loader 200 spreader
[The picture of the old loader has double-acting hydraulic rams.]

From rhe above photo at 2x magnification.

The lever on the right would control the beaters because they are just on or off. The lever on the left controls the web because you have a bunch of notches for a bunch of different speeds to push the manure into the beaters. At the handle, notice the bar. You would pull that bar to pull the pipe out of the notch then use the handle to shove the lever up or down, then release the bar to allow the pipe to set back into a notch and hold the lever height.

It is amazing that some of the wood ones have survived as well as they have.

Kevin Norwood posted
Two old spreaders on the Palouse
[The wood one was probably originally pulled by horses. That is why it has the front wheels.]

Jay Lane posted

Charles Bush posted
There is nothing quite like driving through the country and simply taking in the sights. You can go miles and miles and not see a single interesting thing, then other days you might stumble upon something so interesting that you come home with a couple of hundred photos that you are really excited about. I see lots of antique farm equipment laying around, I like to shoot it when I can especially if there is a good composition. I have seen a lot of these sitting out in fields but this is the first one I saw where a decent photo op existed. I think this is a manure spreader, I am sure someone can correct me if I got it wrong. I really liked the planks that make up the side the grain really pops and the straps holding them together provides great contrast. The wheels also caught my eye, especially the two large back wheels they would look great in my garden as an artistic focal point. If you could get the whole thing moved without it falling apart it would look really nice filled with Tidal Wave Petunias, which is one of my wife's favorite flowers and they smell great so I kind of like them too.

David Koieng posted

Robert G. Carrick Jr. posted
James Elkins looks like a J D 50

Timothy Gibson posted five photos of loading a restored Cockshutt spreader with leaves. Tom LePage posted a McCormick 100 spreader hauling mulch. Timothy posted two videos of spreading the leaves with the Cockshutt tractor pulling the Cockshutt spreader.

Jim Schwartz promoted a picture of a spreader to a cover photo

John Deere

Later designs used a PTO shaft instead of the wheels to drive the beaters and web. This was important in the winter when the field was frozen and the wheels would slip. It also allowed building bigger spreaders. A gate that could be raised with hydraulic rams avoided leaving any "droppings" on the road on the way to the field.

Update: The day after I publish, I come across a video of spreading. Unfortunately, the camera should have been mounted on the backside of the cab. Then I came across videos of loading with a skid-loader and a front-end loader (I suggest you stop watching at 3:30). The first minute of this video gives you a good shot of the web and beaters. A video with a skid-loader that follows the whole load, transport, and spread operation because it uses a drone camera. You can see the contents of the spreader being shoved toward the beaters. This is done by the blades attached to the web chains on the bed of the spreader that you can see in some pictures below.

Andrew Motley posted
I kinda like this!
[This is the first spreader I have seen with front wheels. Now that I see the seat, this is old enough to originally been pulled by horses.]

Tinker Moats posted two photos with the comment: "How rare is a ih model 100 manure spreader on factory steel?"

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Tenney Farm posted a video of a restored 1948 New Idea 12a running empty so you can see the beaters work.

My great uncle's pig houses had grates for the floor so that the pig droppings would fall to a lower level that had a concrete floor. Periodically, large water tanks one one side of the building would empty so that all of the manure would be flushed into a pond on the other side of the building. Here is a video showing a tank spreader that can be used to spread this "brown water" manure.

Kuhn also makes spreaders.

Video of a big tri-axle spreader. At the beginning of the video they show it being loaded with a big-bucket front-loader.

Ryan Berens posted
We still do it a lil old fashioned here. "50" and the 40 spreader. Plus a pitchfork. Lol
[Fortunately, it is a public group so you can read the comments. I can believe he is still using an old tractor and spreader. But I can't believe he is still using a pitchfork. The comments reminded me that my uncle not only had to use a pitchfork each day to clean the gutter, but he also used it to throw silage from the top of the pile in the silo. I'm trying to remember which he got first --- the silo unloader or the barn cleaner.]

Henry Nabbefeldt's posting has four more pictures of this spreader.

Screenshot from video, Bunning Tri-Axle Spreader
[As with other implements, they keep getting bigger to keep up with the horsepower of tractors and the size of farms.]

Screenshot
[The video's title was about the News T7.235 from New Holland. But the reason I saved the link was this new beater arrangement. The video also illustrates the size of some manure piles before they get hauled to the field.]

This is like mobile telescoping boom cranes --- they keep adding more axles, so they have to make some of the steerable. Expecially when you use big flotation tires.



A spreader was in with the lines of tractors at the 2016 Sycamore Steam Show.

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I zoomed in on the inside picture so that you can see there are two reels with spikes on them, one above the other. These tear the clumps of manure apart as the web drives the pile towards them. Because straw was typically used as bedding, the straw would hold the animal waste together in big clumps. These reels tore them into many small clumps. The beater at the end of the spreader with the big blades at different angles would then throw the small clumps at different angles to spread them across the field.

Curtis Gage posted
Looking for help from the Massey experts! I recently picked up and old manure spreader at an auction. Someone did some repairs to it so amazingly it does still work! However, some of the wood was replaced and given a rough paint job with John Deere green. Many of the castings have <MH> on them leading me to thinking its a Massey Harris and the design and range of part numbers make me think it's maybe a No. 8? If anyone knows about these spreaders I would love any info or source of info. Masseys are a bit more rare especially in functioning condition so I would like to find original color scheme and get it restored for parades. Thanks for any help

Kevin Norwood posted
I doubt it will spread any more BS.

Sharon McDow Howser posted
1942 John Deere Manure spreader nonrestored. Selling for $400. Maryville, Tn.

Kolton Olson posted
[Has a lot of other old stuff such as straight hay rakes, header, seed drills.]

Andrew Motley posted

A video showing the ground-driven beaters in action

I came across a collection of colored pictures in the McCormick-International Harvester Collection in the Wisconsin Historical Society, and I started noting each advertisement for a manure spreader. I soon began to regret the project because there are so many of the advertisements!

1912 Corn King
1913 Steel Corn King
1913 Low 20th Century
1913 Low Spread
1914 Low Spread
1914 Low Lift
1914 Cloverleaf
1915 Low Corn King
1915 Low Cloverleaf
1916 Low Corn King
1916 Deering
1916 Deering, lighter green
1917 Low 20th Century
1917 Low Cloverleaf
1917 Low Cloverleaf, painted in action
1919 Low Cloverleaf, #8
1919 Low Corn King
1919 Low Corn King, #8
1920 International
1923 McCormick-Deering
1926 McCormick-Deering
1928 McCormick-Deering
1930 McCormick-Deering
1930 McCormick-Deering
1932 McCormick-Deering
1956 McCormick Spreader and Farmall Tractor

To put this in perspective, I don't remember seeing any for IHC plows. Notice how they emphasize being low. It then occurred to me that this time period is long before front loader attachments and skid loaders were invented. (Horses did not have hydraulic pumps!) Back then the spreader was loaded manually with a pitch fork. So the less height you had to lift the "stuff" to get it into the spreader, the better.

One of the reason for so much advertisement is that IHC had retooled their Plano Works by 1907 to get into the manure spreader market.

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Jeff Kiefer posted two photos with the comment: "Do any of you guys know if I can get a whole new apron for my 281 spreader? Broke last night and I think it's just getting too worn." It appears that what I have been calling a "web" should have been called the "apron." The signal lever controls how quickly the apron is advanced to shove the manure into the beaters. The terms "apron" and "web" are both used to refer to the the two chains going around the floor on either side that moves the bars between the chains that I showed in some pictures above.

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Big Tractor Power posted
International 575 spreader making a pit stop
[This is the first time I have seen a 2+2 in a turned position. I confirmed in the 2+2 group that such a big tractor was used for this job because of the flotation. That is having four big tires reduced sinking into mud fields and compacting the soil of no-till fields.]

Big Tractor Power posted
International 1486 tractor with a 2450 loader filling up an IH spreader.

Big Tractor Power posted
John Deere 680 spreader pulled by a 4440 tractor. 

Joseph Ventnor commented on the above posting, cropped
4430 and 780

This video shows why Ryan did a test run with a partial load to check the muddiness of the field. Skip to about -0:53. Soon we see that the spreader was empty. Then as he drives back I see why it was empty --- he ran the PTO to empty it where he was stuck. This video also shows why you see a bigger tractor in most photos with these big spreaders.

Flail type spreader

Big Tractor Power posted
International 725 spreader.

Screenshot

The spreaders above handle the type of solid waste that cattle (dairy, feed) produce. It is a solid waste because it has bedding and the cow paddies are rather big. Raising hogs creates liquid waste. Here is a video of the type of spreaders used for liquid manure spreading. The emphasis on the tires near the end reminds me that pigs don't quit pooping just because it is rainy outside. The reason the spreader has lots of fat tires is probably to try to stay on top of the field when it is muddy.

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Things come in bunches. A video shows a Balzer 12000 with the discs on the end folded up for transport. It also shows the hog house along with its two feeder bins.

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This video shows the Balser 12000 in the field with the discs down. Note that there is a hose for each disc feeding liquid into the grove in the ground made by the disc. This helps bury the liquid, which probably helps reduce the downwind odor of the field after the manure has been spread on it. And it gets the manure down in the ground where the roots more easily access it.

(Update: it is a good thing I made screenshots because I see Facebook broke a video link again. Here is a June 5, 2017 link.)

I hadn't seen pictures of liquid spreaders since I started this blog over two years ago, and then I see two different designs in one day.

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Evidently some dairy farms also use liquid manure. A video of a couple of tractor/pump combos agitating a manure lagoon. (I saw a third unit in the background, but it wasn't running.) I don't know if there is bacteria in that lagoon that will eat the manure. If not, then why not use all of that horsepower to spread the liquid on a field rather than aerate the pond? Or are they trying to keep the smell down until crops are harvested and their are empty fields to spread on?

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I got the link to the video below from Facebook which had the text: "Nuhn Fiberglass Spreader Line. Video footage of our new fiberglass spreader designed specifically around Wisconsin’s IoH laws." It took a couple of Google searches before I found Wisconsin’s IoH laws. IoH stands for Implements of Husbandry; freely translated, farm equipment. The law basically says there is no limit on width if you stay off interstate highways. (Since interstate highways have a minimum speed limit around 40mph and 20mph is a fast speed for self-propelled farm equipment, it should not be on an interstate anyhow.) There is no limit on height as long as you don't bang into any overhead obstructions. The limit on length is a lot more than the max for an 18-wheeler. The limit on weight per axle of 23,000 pounds is what this spreader is addressing. As a good neighbor, it is nice to see some modern farm equipment designed to fit within one lane of a country road.

The main point of this video is that the tire pressure can be lowered when going slow over the field to improve flotation and then reinflated for road speeds.


Placing the liquid below the ground in the root zone is not just a "smell prevention" issue. It avoids a tillage pass to move the nutrients from the surface to the root zone.
 

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Video of Courtland Waste Handling solutions for liquid waste handling solutions.


The following about Jaylor spreaders was interesting because it also shows a little of the milking of the cows. It is the second time in just a couple of weeks that I have seen a Jaylor mixer. The first time was in a barn design video.


I was going to skip yet another modern spreader until I noticed it was by "The Farming Life." That is the one of two farming channels that I keep an eye on. They probably used their skid loader to fill it.





And they just keep getting bigger.





They use a long hose instead of a tank that has to be continually refilled. The manure is injected underground so that the smell is buried and so that the nutrients are down in the root zone. (I'm impressed that CaseIH sponsors a video that has a Cat.)




More examples of dragline operation.

Screenshot from video
[Before this screenshot, the narrator observed that there is a leak in the hose.
The tractor is a CaseIH 350. (The claimed PTO horsepower is 290, but it tested as 346.42. So its drive train is very efficient.)
The comments indicate this spreading of manure is a custom operation. That is, they go from farm to farm to empty the lagoon. That makes sense because this equipment would be expensive. Note that they had quite a bit of equipment back at the lagoon to not only pump the stuff, but to aerate the lagoon. The spreading does need to turn off when the unit is raised off the ground. If you read all of the comments, it sounds like the narrator knows more about what is happening than the bad language people. There should also be a walkie-talkie between the tractor operator and the pump operator so the flow can be stopped when the hose breaks. The Chicago Tribune did a series of articles on the evils of big pig-farm operations. I've saved them, but haven't taken the time to read and post the info.]

This video shows a hybrid solution of using trucks between the farm and the field and a dragline across the field. The solution includes another truck with a buffer tank near the truck that pumps the slurry through the dragline. I'm trying to figure out if the thing on the front of the Challenger is a booster pump or just the hose windlass. This unit does stop the flow when it is lifted out of the ground.



And tank spreaders keep on growing.

Screenshot @ -1:42
Check out this video showcasing GT Custom Work Ltd and their six Nuhn 15,000 Quad-Steers!

GT Custom Work Ltd has been a Nuhn customer since 1997. They started with 4000 gallon tanks and in 2005 bought their first 10,000 Quad Train. They quickly grew to owning nine 10,000 gallon tankers. Two years ago they decided to "downsize" to six 15,000 gallon tanks in order to increase efficiencies. Their new setup easily outperforms the old setup, all while using the same amount of fuel and with less labour. 

I went down the YouTube rabbit hole because there are several dragline videos offered. (I resisted doing them all :-) The comment on one indicated that their lagoon is emptied twice a year --- in the Spring and the Fall.

This one does turn off the flow of slurry when the injectors are lifted out of the ground. Not only does it need horsepower for pulling all of those chisels; but pulling a long, loaded hose can't be easy either. Note the Dutch windmill in the background of some of the shots.

This one starts with mixing up the contents of the "pond." I wonder what kind of stink that creates and how far it can be smelled if a wind is blowing.


Cadman unwinds and then rewinds the hose to the tractor for each pass so that it can be used on growing crops as well as empty field application.

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This probably maximizes the smell produced afterwards by the field. The comments explain it is done when the fields are too muddy to drive one.

Mark Farley posted
[This shows the manure in the "box" as dug out of the shed is in clumps but the beater chops it into little pieces and throws them on the field. Note the sides are low so a man with a pitchfork did not have to lift as far. More modern spreaders have higher walls and the beaters spread a wider footprint on the field.]

Josh Jones posted, cropped
[Just the next day a picture of a more modern spreader that is expected to be loaded by something other than a pitchfork. Many farms have moved from a front loader on a tractor to a skid loader.]

Jon Fiedler posted three photos with the comment: "How about some manure handling pics."

[Several comments provide additional photos and some videos.]

David Gjermo: That was the good old days, now you even need a permit to spread manure Still warmer than today.

Eileen Grunewald: David Gjermo Your not talking about the same manure,today they are hauling millions of gallons of liquid manure on a field, Then ruining everyone's wells.

1:00 YouTube of a Case SC pulling a PTO spreader At 0:20, note how he pulls up his hoodie when the poop starts flying, literally.

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Don Livingston commented on Jon's post
Now they self load.

Sheldon Richardson posted two photos with the comment: "2+2 ran the spreader pretty good. Got a lot of thumbs up and waves while on the road."

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Note at the end of this video that longitudinal augers, instead of a web, is used to feed the "product" into the beaters. (Both the tractor and the spreader are on loan from a dealer for evaluation before purchase.)




Not all big spreaders have converted to longitudinal auger designs. This one still uses a web.


Another video demonstrating of the "toughness" of a spreader. I'll bet they removed the engine from the car before they put it in the spreader.



These bigger spreaders need something bigger than a skid loader and something smaller than a construction front loader. It is time to reinvent the front loader on a tractor.

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[This shows why bedding is so important. It soaks up the urine and "hides" the solid matter. It looks like it is about one or two feet thick. Note the vapor in the background where the loader has been tearing the pile apart.]

At least this manure-tank race is spreading water instead of slurry! Notice that the first heat is on a field of sod.



Note not only how big the manure pile is, but the size of the tire covered silage pile in the background. I checked their You Tube site to see if the comments indicated the farm and/or number of head milked. It didn't.    This is the first time I have seen a spreader eject to the side and from the front. I finally saw at 14:26 that it is a Kuhn Knight side-discharge spreader. I wonder if the side eject from the front is so the driver can better see how it is covering. For a video that is over 20 minutes, there is frustrating little info in it. Note the old windmill at 11:03 is working. I don't think this is Fair Oaks Farms. I saw at least two red, a yellow and a green tractor, so there are at least four hauling to cover the distance to the fields. I assume this is a custom operator hired by the farm to get rid of their pile. At 19:00 you see that it does turn a big field black. They will then have to do a tillage pass to get it under the soil.





The first part of this video shows the outside part of a barn cleaner in action. At 6:60, it shows the web pushing the material towards the beaters (sped up).


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A reminder that a livestock farm has to do "spring cleaning" every year.
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A video of a Ford pulling a red New Holland  It doesn't show spreading until 7:17.  Spreading on the snow

A video of a John Deere 7600 pulling a double-axle New Idea spreader

A video of a IH 3588 pulling a double-axle spreader. Unfortunately, it is a profile video.

0:19 video of a McCormick 100 spreading

Dennis DeBruler: Loading the spreaders has also changed a lot. My Grandfather used a Ford with a front loader and a barn cleaner to handle the dairy operation, but the chicken buildings were still cleaned out with hired hands and pitchforks.