Our new useful farm tool: manure spreader!
One year ago, Justin and I loaded our little Nissan pick-up truck with compost and drove back and forth across our pasture. In first gear and riding the clutch I crept across that 6 acres, Justin balancing on top of the hot pile of compost with shovel in hand, unloading the stuff one shovelful at a time. He shoveled as fast as he could while I rolled as slowly and steadily as I could, and about every other truckload we would switch places, though I would get worn out far faster than him.
It took us about 50 truck loads and 4 full days of this grueling work to get even coverage of compost across our bare, raw field that we were about to begin growing on. Dedication, baby!
This year though, will be different. This year we have a manure spreader!
1950s John Deere manure spreader in beautiful condition with it’s green and pale yellow paint. If we didn’t snatch up this incredibly useful implement, it would end up as yard art at some farm wife’s front yard, it’s really that cute.
As y’all know, compost and manure are crucial sources of nutrition in organic food production. This is going to help us increase our fertility with way less labor. Using the bucket on the tractor, we will load it with composted manure and hitch it up to the pick-up truck.
This cool contraption is ground-drive which means it doesn’t require additional petroleum to run. When the wheels are turning and the gear is engaged, it starts running and the teeth grab bits of compost and toss it out the back end, spreading it evenly in a 10 foot wide strip. Glory!
I’ll try to get a video of it in action for y’all once we are ready to spread our compost!
Jess and Justin
I’m sure that your new spreader will make your job a lot easier. My grandpa wants to get one of these for his small farm. I think it would help him get his chores done a lot faster! How much did you pay for your new machine?