I’m looking for a manure spreader that is ground-driven, not PTO. Something that can be pulled behind my commercial-grade riding lawn mower. I’ve found a lot on a google search, but the price varies considerably and they all seem to have a fair amount of negative reviews.
Does anyone here have one that they like and would recommend?
Been very happy with a used Newer spreader we picked up off FB marketplace. Clean directly into it, haul it behind a UTV to spread.
We had a Millcreek that was easy to move around by hand and pull with most anything.
A friend borrowed and kept it, she loved it.
Then we bought an ABI, a better made, stronger but heavier to move around by hand, still easy to pull.
Both worked just fine for us.
OP, are you in a non-freezing location? Any of the ground drive machines won’t work dispensing frozen manure if you leave it sit overnight. Warm manure will freeze together into a big lump stuck to the machine. Ground drive usually is not up to breaking the lump loose. Chains will break, wheels won’t turn on Newer types.
My son left a load sit overnight, took him several hours to break the frozen manure load apart in the Millcreek spreader to get it out with a fork and shovel. Temps had been below zero and we did not know he had not dumped the load!! Frozen manure stuck to walls, floor, chains is hard to get out! He NEVER did that again. This can happen in both the Millcreek and Newer spreaders.
If you load them, then spread right away the unloading works fine. Not sure how the Newer spreader would do spreading frozen poop balls, with the smaller slotted opening on the bottom. You could just tip it backwards to dump the load out, not spread it when poop freezes in stalls. It had no problem with fresh, unfrozen manure, but not everyone can get stalls cleaned right after horses go out. Millcreek had no problems with frozen poop balls when spreading them.
I found the Newer spreader to run small in poop volume when cleaning our stalls. It was supposed to hold 8 stalls worth I think. I could only get 3-4 stalls worth in and they were TIE stalls that use half the bedding of a box stall. Tie stalls are cleaned to the floor daily, there is always a quantity of wet sawdust bedding in them, along with poops. So it was a surprise at how little it held. I ALWAYS had to make two trips or more, to get our 8-9 stalls cleaned. I sold it on. I loved the Millcreek but it got hit by a speeding truck, looked like a pretzel! Son was uninjured by a miracle, tractor stayed upright, though it hopped into the shallow ditch.
We found a nice, elderly, PTO driven spreader after the Millcreek was killed. We are on the third one after wearing out 2 over the years. Could no longer be repaired. I love the PTO which lets me spread or dump the load in a pile if ground is too muddy for spreading. Husband keeps it going by replacing the floor boards, chains and spreader bars as needed. Prices for this size older spreader have gone up incredibly over the last few years!
I have a 25 bushel ABI that I pull with my JD lawn tractor. Anything bigger was PTO-driven (and way more than I needed) and I"m not unhooking and re-attaching my shredder every time! It’s great for my 2 horses who live outside most of the time and easy to use. I live in TX so don’t usually have to worry about freezing. I ordered it directly from ABI and they shipped it to TX. The hardest part was getting it out of the crate! I would look for sales in Dec./Jan.—that’s when I got this. I guess they don’t sell a lot that time of year in IN!
Thank you, I hadn’t thought about frozen poop. I’m near Seattle, so freezing weather is rare, and when it does get that cold it’s usually not for that long.
My actual use case, rather than mucking stalls directly into it, was spreading semi-composted manure from a big pile, which I could do any time. I mean, if it was frozen I’d just wait until it was unfrozen.
I can’t remember the brand; it wasn’t this one, but it was similar 28.6 Cu Ft Pull Type Manure Spreader | Agri Supply I bought it used and it worked with both fresh and composted stall cleanings. I will have to see if I can figure out which brand.
only two things that I had to watch for:
Large amounts of hay would usually clog up the beaters (the beaters on mine were different than the link, so not sure if it was just that brand or if that happens to all spreaders). I wasn’t always the one filling it, so it did get clogged up sometimes. I can understand why, it wasn’t really built to shred hay. It was easy enough to unclog and spread out the clump of hay though.
I admit it took me a while to figure this one out, but if the tire pressure was at all low, it wouldn’t work as well or wouldn’t engage at all. Once I realized this and kept an eye on tire pressure until I could replace the tires, all was fine. I have a feeling the previous owner didn’t figure this out and that’s why it was sold. The tires looked good, but they didn’t keep air in them very well.
I know there were at least two owners before I got it. I have no idea how old it was when I bought it, but I’m guessing it had some years on it. It was in good shape though. It spread well and I really liked it.
We have a small Millcreek that I use to spread composted manure. Fill it with the tractor bucket, then use a mower to pull it. I bought the spreader used off craigslist several years ago and it has worked well for us, but I only use it a couple times a year when we have cooked compost to spread.
I also have a small Newer Spreader. Hooks to zero turn, clean stalls right into it (it would even go through the 4’ stall doors if I wanted), spread in my forest area.
I have a Titan I got this Summer. Holds 4 dirty stall’s worth. Simple and I’m happy with it.
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