I just saw this. Sharing. You could pull this behind an old beater car! In your field.
Newer has been around for years.
Check reviews.
I was interested when I first got my farmette (5ac), thinking I could pull one with my riding mower.
But the reviews weren’t great.
This was nearly 20yrs ago, they might have addressed the problems since.
I looked into get one that style a few years ago. I don’t know if this is true, but a lot of reviews mentioned the vertical style spreaders don’t work well for horse manure in bedding because they jam up. They said the design was originally for wetter cow manure.
But take this with a grain of salt. It was enough to deter me from buying one.
I’ve seen those smaller round balers also…
I have one - haven’t used it recently but it worked great for me as long as there wasn’t a ton of hay trashed in with the bedding and manure.
I had a friend with a Newer Spreader. She said she could not put trashed hay in it because it clogged up. So she went out of town and the farm sitter broke the spreader doing just that and it could not be fixed. So she bought another kind of spreader to replace it.
I bought one 20 years ago and it just died about a year ago. I bought another one. The truck is don’t leave manure sitting it, don’t let it get rained on and don’t put hay in it. As long as you don’t do those things they won’t bind up.
And yes you can pull them with just about anything, so you don’t need a tractor. A lawn tractor works fine
That won’t break it. It just binds up and you have to dig it or knock it out.
If you make a manure pile and let it compost for a few months, this spreader doesn’t work. It clogs up. Rain is part of the issue, as someone said earlier. You need dry manure and shavings… Plus bits of hay or leaves mixed in? The spreader clogs.
Anyway… it’s a temperamental little thing. Requires the operator to stop regularly and break up whatever is clogging it.
I had one and sold it to a guy who wanted it to spread thin layers of sand as part of big backyard soccer pitch project. He thinks it’s perfect for his uses. So alls well that ends well.
Personally, I think the compact spreaders from Pequea are where it’s at for a small horse farm. Can tow with a tiny tractor or utility vehicle. Totally does the job of spreading wet, partially composted manure, that has hay and leaves mixed in.
No. Somehow she broke it and my friend said it was unfixable. I do not know what the farm worker did but my friend said that she told the worker not to put hay in it and to just put the spreader aside if it clogged. But the worker did not heed her advice and it was broken when she got home. It is a pretty simple design so I have no idea how you tear one up so bad that it can’t be fixed, but apparently it is possible.
That’s certainly very odd. But yes you cant’ just toss it all in there like a regular spreader because they aren’t PTO driven. Occasionally some hay gets in mine despite my best efforts so I just run over a big root and knock it loose. But i can totally see it being stuck if a large amount of hay was tossed in it like a big spreader.
I have one that has been sitting unused in my barn for about 10 years.
Why?
I pick my pastures at least every other day. I had planned to rotate pastures and to use the Newer spreader to distribute all the manure on one. But my pastures also have some pine trees. And there is no way to pick the piles without also getting some pine straw along for the ride. The Newer spreader just cannot handle manure mixed with even small amounts of pine needles.
I picked up a very well used original model for $300 for my new farm and it’s been a lifesaver. Original plan was to pick into FEL and drive that to a pile. That immediately didn’t work due to mud, and I physically struggled to lift a muck tub if doing the pens or something the tractor couldn’t get to. Plus dinged shins on the FEL, hate starting that thing up 3-4 times down the aisle… AND that bucket didn’t hold nearly as much as I thought it would. The small spreader hooked to my riding mower has been priceless!
I had a small spreader like that from Mill Spring when I had my farm. It worked great, it was larger than that one but I pulled it with my riding mower and had no problems.
Yep. Probably very similar.
They make 2 more sizes that are SLIGHTLY larger. All can be pulled by small machines though - lawn tractor, atv, etc. Just great for small farms. I haven’t had to have manure hauled away in years. And haven’t paid for any fertilizer in years either. But have crazy thick and lush pasture… I just compost my manure piles onsite. Let each pike build up over 3 months. Then turn it with a bucket. Let it sit another month. Turn it all again. Then it’s pretty much ready to spread.
We could simply put manure straight in the spreader and use on paddocks that are resting. But… composting for a few months first works great as well.
Sell it on Marketplace. They really are awesome for yard maintenance, and I had a ton of inquiries on mine when I sold it, all from people who wanted to use it for landscaping/yard maintenance tasks.
I an holding on to the Newer spreader for now. My farm is in an HOA controlled horse farm development and every year at dues assessment time there is a push to eliminate our central manure disposal facility. It is just a concrete pad for drop off where an HOA employee loads it into dumpsters to be hauled away.
You can imagine the arguments ranging from “I don’t use it so why should I pay for it?” To “she has more horses than me so she should pay more than I do.” Someday I expect the disposal facility to be voted out. I already have contingency plans for building a three bin composting structure and using the spreader.
The Newer spreaders don’t do well with frozen poop balls. You need to clean and spread immediately, before things can freeze. The sizes recommended for holding quantity were not good, too small. Supposed to hold 6-8 stalls worth, but could only get 4 TIE stalls worth in it. Then spread and come back for the other stalls’ bedding.
I bought it to resell, friend got out of horses, got it cheap. It is a nice machine, takes up little space with the tongue up, easy to move by hand. But not up to frozen poop! However you CAN unhitch the tongue and flip Newer spreader over, dump the whole load at once, drag over it later. We only used it a couple times when the big spreader was broken. Great to spread sawdust bedding and poop in warm weather. Made a nice pattern on the field emptying it. Adjustable slot for thick or thin spreading, no-flat tires.
Resold it and lady was real happy with it.
We had a little Millcreek when they were first made. Did a nice job. It was ground-drive so you had to keep driving until it fully emptied. We had to spread daily to prevent poop freezing chain and bars to the floor!! Load would NOT break loose with ground drive! Might break the chain under a big load!! Then it is hand shoveling to get the load out to fix the chain! No fun at all.
With more horses now, we have a bigger spreader, tractor and use the PTO to empty it.
All spreaders have plus and minus points to consider when looking to buy one. I also found the FEL doesn’t hold nearly as much as I thought it would!! Would not want to clean our barn using the FEL very many days.
I bought one of the ABI ground driven spreaders last year and its AMAZING. Was it cheap? No. Is it built incredibly well? Absolutely. I can pull this with my gator, and I either muck directly into it (holds about 10 stalls worth), or I compost and then load it with my tractor.
I have a small used Millcreek, and it really does the trick. I wish it were bigger, it holds about 2 buckets worth, but being able to move it around by hand is really valuable to me when it’s stored in the barn.