Just in case anyone is out there on the fence about the Newer Spreader … I finally broke down and bought the 200-series model. Assembled this morning, mucked three stalls into it (plenty of room for three more), hitched it up and went out to field to spread. Oh my gosh – soooo quick and easy!
This is the first time I’ve had a manure spreader and I looked at all sort of them, up to $5,000. This one was just $1,495 and for my three guys, it will be plenty big. I am just so happy to think of all the time I will save … and sort of kicking myself for not doing this sooner!
:encouragement:
Good info.
I’ve been coveting one of those since they first came out.
Just need to win a lottery…:rolleyes:
Price is really reasonable, but lately it’s One Thing or Another here, no $$ to spare :no:
That said, IIRC, you are in KS, right?
I think you need to road-test the spreader on my IN farm.
Ya know, just to make sure it works on all soils, and various terrain
Let me know when to be ready for your arrival :winkgrin:
I have had the same spreader for four years and I love it. I even pick up manure in my pastures with it, and then spread it back out. I find it works better than dragging, which leaves big clumps of smeared manure. The Newer Spreader chops up the manure so it spreads nicely.
I also recently went to flax bedding in my stalls, so now I can spread stall cleanings over my grass without worrying about the effects of wood shavings leaching nitrogen from the grass.
Mine is going on 5 years old and it still looks new, granted I never let manure sit in it and I clean it out as soon as I spread manure. The manufacturer recommended spraying the spindle with WD40 after use/cleaning and I keep one of those large spray cans right next to where it gets parked so I’m dedicated about that as well.
This year I also started adding lime and fescue seed to the spreader and when my pastures aren’t under water (sigh…) they look great
My good friend got one of the same spreaders a couple of years ago. She LOVES it and how even and small the material comes out.
It’s on the list of things for me…But I’d need a covered place to store it first…The shop/storage building will have to come before one of those spreaders.
DMK – do you wash it out EVERY time after you spread and then spray with WD-40? Seems like that would turn an easy job into a hassle … at least in the winter time? I was hoping I could get by spraying it out maybe once a month! I am not letting manure set in it either. It’s muck, spread, store.
I spray mine out with the hose every time I use it. It’s not a big deal - takes a minute or two at most. Even though I sprung for the upgraded spindle thingy I feel like it will last longer if corrosive urine and manure are not allowed to sit in it. I have never sprayed with WD-40, though.
every time! OK, maybe there have been a few times I haven’t, but I’m pretty good about it. BUT I have about 9 muck buckets that I can fill up so I only need to spread about once a week in the summer and do a double run about every week in the winter. It really only takes a few minutes and I drive right past the sprayer, so no big deal. Then I spray the spindle with WD40 when it is still wet because I will never remember it later.
Also for the person who is waiting for covered storage, mine is not under cover. But in addition to keeping it clean, I have 3 boards that I put over the top (they were laying around from I don’t know what project, fit perfectly and that was just a happy accident, otherwise I would have cut a piece of plywood to fit!), then a folded over small tarp with two bungie cords in the grommets. I put the tarp over the boards, that keeps the rain from pooling on the tarp and I just wrap the bungie cords around the excess tarp/outside top edge of the spreader. Works like a charm even though the bungies are on their last legs these days. I’m less dedicated about that, If I know it isn’t going to rain for a few days then I might not bother, but it still has a cover 80% of the time.
Just a note here, shavings do not leach out Nitrogen from the soil. Shavings do “tie up” Nitrogen in breaking woody fibers down over long time periods. So your grassy places might need additional Nitrogen and the lime to help the plants use the Nitrogen.
I got our fields soil tested. Results showed there being plenty of Nitrogen in the soil. Fertilizer agent said that spreading wood product bedding had probably tied up that Nitrogen because wood takes longer to break down than cut plants take. He adjusted our fertilizer “recipe” to have more Nitrogen for the plants, with the heavier lime application to aid plants in using the Nitrogen. Kind of a helping mineral action. It works well for me, we usually have great pastures unless drought strikes.
He emphasized that with spreading woody bedding, grazing and mowing pastures returning minerals, that the Nitrogen never really “leaves or gets used up”. Just know that the Nitrogen may not be as available to the plants without the help of added lime and more Nitrogen. We actually don’t use a lot of added Nitrogen in our fertilizer recipe these days. I still get the soil tested every third year to know exactly what our soil needs.
You remove Nitrogen from the land by taking crops off the land, like haying or harvesting grain. Just mowing alone, lets cut leaves return minerals to the soil. Our soil is heavy clay, so the use of wood products is very helpful in adding long lasting organic material. The fibers help retain air, water, keep the soil granules seperate instead of packing tight as clay will. Fibers allowi microbial life, root spreading of plants to protect the soil from erosion, help absorb rain better. When we bedded with straw it seemed to dry up, be gone very quickly, not very helpful to the land itself. Grass production was not very good. I see a vast improvement with spreading wood product bedding.
Sandy soil is another type that needs large applications of organic matter to be very productive soils. Sand alone drains so fast, plants have no water, no minerals or microbial life to break things down to hold water. Any minerals may wash out with no organic things in the soil to hold them.
Mine has been in use for 8 years, has never been stored covered, gets used every 4-5 days. We store manure in tubs (not spreader) until it’s time to spread. We don’t hose it out. The pop-out things on the wheel hubs have broken occasionally so we keep a back-up around. Other than that, have never had a problem until a month ago when the rotator froze up after years of use. Friend fixed it and now I know to WD-40 it occasionally. But this thing is hardy and doesn’t need babying that takes a lot of time, if it did I wouldn’t like it quite as much as I do.
Badger, glad to hear you don’t hose yours out! That just wouldn’t work for us here in Colorado – darn thing would freeze solid for sure! I’ve been using mine every day since we got it. Absolutely LOVE it.
Huge, big, wonderful fan of mine and glad to be reminded that it needs some grease love.
I will say that it won’t work for hay/straw. I found myself pulling out clumps from a minor amount of hay waste that I threw in there yesterday. Shame one me. I had done it once before and decided to try it again. That’s my own fault!
I have a technique question: I was spreading pure, but not fresh manure with a friend’s, pulled by her riding mower. Some of it got stuck on the sides and didn’t fall through the blades. Do you guys think I was driving too fast and not letting gravity keep the manure falling through?
Actually, you are supposed to drive fast when you are spreading. Had the manure been sitting in the spreader for any length of time? Possible it just sort of dried and stuck to the sides. I do sometimes have a small bit stick in mine. Probably has something to do with poop consistency. I just blast it with the hose when I am through.
Maybe. I must confess that I owned my spreader for several years before I found out that you are supposed to go fast when spreading. I use a golf cart to spread and I go as fast as the cart will go. I would bet that is faster than your lawnmower at max speed.
I find that sometimes a well-timed bumpy patch is needed to get things falling out again. That’s typically the case when I have some pretty dense manure packed in there, or it just gets a little bound up. YMMV
