How Muck And Manure Spreaders Work
For generations, manure and manure spreaders have remained a great way to supply crops and pastures with fertilizer and organic growing matter. This article will go over how these machines work and the different types of manure spreaders available. When properly handled a small or mid-size farmer or large-scale gardener can use manure to quickly recycle valuable organic nutrients back into the plant lifecycle and improve soil quality.
The History of Manure Spreaders
It wasn’t until 1891, during the extended wave of the Industrial Revolution that inventors Joseph Oppenheim and Henry Synck from the United States developed the first working mechanical manure spreaders or muck spreaders. These units were so popular that Oppenheim’s son-in-law, Synck built a manufacturing company around it called the New Idea Spreader Works. Later this successful manure spreader business was renamed the New Idea Farm Machinery Company, which celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 1999 as division of the AGCO Corporation.
How Spreaders Work
Basically there are two types of manure or muck spreaders: ones that hold either solid waste or liquid-based or slurry wastes. These antique manure spreaders were pulled by horses and were designed to put down a thin layer of dried or semi-dried manure into growing fields. Later livestock stockmen such as swine and dairy farmers began to use water to wash down wastes and muck into slatted floor pits.
The slurry or muck was then drained from the pits and pumped into tankers with liquid manure spreader nozzles on back. Ironically called a “honey wagon” by friends and foes alike, these liquid spreaders are still being used for medium and large scale commercial farming operations.
Solid waste spreaders are still very popular with smaller farms, landscapers and serious gardeners or horse breeders-owners. These small manure spreader units can be easily pulled behind an all-terrain-vehicle, compact tractor or a 4-wheel drive truck.
Solid manure spreaders can use either conventional side discharge or rear-discharge bins or wagons. The actual spreader mechanism comes in two options: ground driven or PTO (power-take-off).
All PTO units must be used with a tractor that has a PTO driveshaft to run the shredder-spreader. A PTO tractor uses a specially designed driveshaft to provide mechanical power for an attachment or separate farm machine. Ground-driven units use a beater-driver that rolls along the surface of the ground and uses the momentum of the ATV or tractor to distribute the dried or partially dried manure.
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Manure Spreading
First you need to be aware that unlike composting, by using a manure spreader, you will not be killing any harmful germs or parasites in the waste. So you need to be careful of inter-species transfer, say from horse to horse or cow to cow.
But to the benefits of manure spreading it provide a safe, economical and environmentally-friendly way to dispose of manure. And it also acts as both a source of nutrients and conditioners for poor soils. It balances out the water levels in soil.
Heavy clay soils become lighter and drains better so that plants and grass don’t suffer from root rot. At the same time sandy soils become more absorbent and prevent plants from drying out too quickly. In the end manure spreaders have more pros than they do cons in the farming community.
