Looking to buy a manure spreader. How much $$

I am wanting to buy a small manure spreader. PTO or ground driven doesnt matter to me. I have 2 horses and 2 calves and when I clean the barn out I throw it out the door around the corner. Its starting to pile up and I thought a spreader would work better. Plus my hay field would like it! I Found a couple that would need minor work and they are around 600-700 bucks. Is that a little high??

I have 2 JD model L spreaders they both need work and there is parts from a 3rd spreader you could make 2 complete spreaders pretty simple the wood is all gone though is that something u would be interested in? I am in south west MN

I've bought and sold 3 or 4 trying to find one that fit what I'm doing and the tractors I have to do it with. Never paid more than $300 for any one of them. Currently running an IH 540. Haul 12-18 loads a year with it. I have good luck going to Richard Realty's consignment auctions. No one really wants to buy the small PTO machines so they sell fairly cheap.
AaronSEIA

dont think you will find anyone to stand behind their manure spreader, even if it is john deere. lol.

Man, do I know how hard it is to find a GOOD used spreader. After I started into the beef business, I discovered the need for a spreader. It was getting kind of deep around here. So I found an old NI pto spreader a neighbor had and bought it. It was OK for a year or so until part of the frame rusted off and one wheel kind of started sagging and dragging. So I borrowed a little IH from a neighbor to finish up with that year. Then I found a big JD that had been on a dairy farm for $500. It had a logging chain setup for the feed apron and lasted for several years with little maintenance. But one day as I was going oout across a field with a load on, I got to wondering why the beater seemed to be missing. It was still there, but kind of skimming the grass tops. The frame had rotted through and allowed the whole back end of the machine to kind of sag past the axles. Didn't do a great job of spreding, either. Then I bought a nice looking tandem NI. It broke the rear table shaft just outside the gearbox after the first year. Seems manure had rusted it nearly through, and it didn't last long. Trying to get the old shaft out of the gear in a ress was more than it could handle and a new gear and shaft was almost twice the cost of what I paid for the spreader. So, it was off to the auctions, where I found a really nice lookin Oliver for $300. Beaters looked good, the boards looked great, tires looked usable and the frame didn't appear to be rusted all over. At last- a creampuff. Loaded it up halfway and tried it out. Not a problem. So, i put a full load on it, started to spread and went about 100' when the feed chain broke. This spreder had been taken care of. But it had also been used. Almost every link was close to paper thin and may have been ok for stall straw, but not for pen packed manure. I finally brole down and bought a new one. I take care of it, and it's lasted about fifteen years now, and is still near new. But look at EVERYTHING on one before you buy one. It may look real nice, but S--- happens, and not many are real good after a few years on the farm.

Remember, these are the toughest machines on the farm- they kick the crap out of themselves--

My bil bought the spreader ( old ground drive New Idea) I have worked on it at least 30 hrs and never got to use it one load. Just can't fill it with our tractor the bucket holds to much, it just can't handle it. If you fill it with a pitch-fork will work ok. I'm hoping he will buy a new one. Vic

My bil bought the spreader ( old ground drive New Idea) I have worked on it at least 30 hrs and never got to use it one load. Just can't fill it with our tractor the bucket holds to much, it just can't handle it. If you fill it with a pitch-fork will work ok. I'm hoping he will buy a new one. Vic

Bought a ground driven New Idea at auction about 4 years ago. At the time it just needed a little minor work plus the spreaders were all jammed up with twine. Paid $550 for it and have had no problem since then. We clean 3 horse stalls daily and can go about a week before we have to empty it.

I've got a IHC spreader that needs nothing except a new owner. Shoot me an email, and I'll send you a picture.

We have a little hobby horse place and after a tractor the spreader was at the top of the list. Plenty of small ones at auction, but always seemed to bring $1000+. I guess due to demand of other small horsey places. Finally found a NI #19 PTO driven spreader for $500 advertised locally. Had it hitched to a sweet sounding Farmall H which I wish I had picked up as well. Best $500 ever spent, saves so much labor. I wanted PTO drive so I could off load to a pile when the fields are too soft to drive on.

Good Luck on your search,

Kirk

Don't leave a load in it in cold weather! You'll break the apron chain
in short order.

Price a new spreader, and then make a judgement about how overpriced the used ones are.

I bought two JD model "L" spreaders out of a neighbor's fenceline 3-4 years ago. Paid $30 for both of them. Neither had any wood, but the rest was there. Axles were frozen solid. Drug them home (literally), and set to work making one go. Spent a couple days tear down, and 2-3 more build-up. Cost about $20 more in bolts. I used wood from a packing crate. Sealed it up and it's still working great.

I brought an old I-H ground driven spreader about 10 years ago at an auction. Sent my wife and brought over the cell phone when it sold. Sight unseen other than a picture and her answering my questions over the phone. Best 500 bucks I've spent. She said the previous owner couldn't figure out why it brought more than the tan tum axle New Idea that sat next to it. I broke the apron chain once so I just take it easy on the o'l girl when loading it. I always dump the load from the front end loader when loading gradually. Rather then just dumping it on and leaving the bucket load still packed as to make it harder on the spreader when spreading. I also dump about a gallon of used oil on the wood bed a couple of times a year. Other wise I baby it but its worked good for me. I spread about 30 loads a year of steer manure with it. From what I have seen at auctions lately you won't get much on a spreader that is ready to work for under 750 bucks. There is alot of small timers like you and I that just want something small for a few animals.

Do like I did and you will sooner or later find what you want for the price you want. I did that a few years back and saw them sell at auction at prices all over the place. I ended up buying one that is a PTO drive type and I payed $5 for it. Yep $5 and it was full of roofing tin and a few other things. Needed 2 or 3 cross bar but other then that it worked just fine after I oil up the chains etc. Oh and ya it took me a year or so but hey I was not in a hurry

Sounds about right to maybe a little low if it's decent.

Area is going to make a big difference on price. Got a lot of "hobby" farms here so small older spreaders are in demand. I shopped for almost a year to find a decent one for under 1K.

Rick

Its probably a reasonable price, but you don't say what you were looking at.

In this area, every so often I see New Idea, and or New Holland PTO models up for sale around $1000-$1500, in field ready shape, or with some work needed. You find one complete that is not a basket case or rotted out, its a good buy even a tad over $1500.

We got 2 used N.I. models, flail type, in '09 for $1000 or so, one needed a floor, did that, has an apron for holding back the manure, the other was basically in real nice shape, greased it up and observed the works, worked out nice, but you don't see these every day. Its 10 ply tires are dry rotted but it was a great find. We used to sell them at our dealership, NI's from the early 70's and up were a pretty good spreader, we've had 3 of them so far.

I keep after the maintenance on them, sometimes it really pi$$es me off about maintenance on these, as when I am not working at the place, no one does it, you absolutely have to take good care of them, open that cover and check on things, and grease those high speed components often at minimum, oil the roller chains, and check for things loosening up etc. It sucks to have a beat up spreader, missing bars on the apron chain, rusted out, these are not often found used and cheap like the ones we have, you just have to look everyday until you find one up for sale.

High end of used,(not sure if this is a decent price but it looks clean) someone may go for it, maybe not, but the lower priced ones I mentioned below don't last long, I saw one NI, a match to one of ours with out the beater on the end, just open, which you could possibly find an reinstall, it had a complete apron chain and could have been used for a firewood trailer that will unload, it was a couple hundred.
NH spreader

Heres one of ours, its a little cleaner than the other one, was around a $1000, its age might have kept the price down, but it sure was in similar condition, was well taken care of, even kept painted.

End of last winter, had to back out of this field and drop at the pile, still too much snow, these sure handle a load though, just keep the apron chain speed slow when filling up, I like the flail type, never had one before these.

Previous owner must have been a decent sort, under that coating of manure on the flail housing are the painted words "Big Stinker" and and a painting of a skunk, really kind of funny someone did that.

Older smaller sized (under 100 bushel) PTO spreaders go for $700 to $1500 depending on condition and wood. I paid $1000 for a MF and $700 for a backup NI#19 that is pretty rough but works. Would not sell either for that price because I could not replace them.

Son bought one just like that, although not so well cared for for $500. We'll make some minor repairs and see what happens this spring. Never had a flail type either, and hope it doesn't throw out lumps like conventional units do.

I've hauled quite a few loads with both of them, granted they do toss small stones if in the bedding, our stalls are bottomed out and the sub base gets in the bedding, however, they rarely if ever come back at you maybe more so dumping into a pile and you let it accumulate too much before creeping ahead, never had that happen when doing fields though. When twine wraps on the shaft (and I still can't figure how it gets in there) the bale twine easily unravels from the flail so does long strands of hay. If you stand aside and set the apron chain on slow, you can watch how it gradually eats away at the load, it does a really nice job, some of the smaller frozen bits from a pile of manure was no issue at all, just don't put a large chunk in there like one of the help did, I heard that clear across the field and said you break it doing stupid things, you'll fix it, lucky you don't work for me, I'd have your check and fire you, for being ignorant and reckless with hard to replace equipment that we cannot be without, (is why we have 2) he thought you could put a big frozen chunk in there, idiot. He broke it up with hammer and bar. But same dumb@ss let a bearing go so far it wallowed a nice hole around the race, some people... They will take one heck of a wad of hay too, but I do not like doing that, it will shake and flex a bit, even a pile of pads of hay will do that. When I mix in bad hay, I fluff and spread it out, set the apron chain on slow when there is a lot of it.

Auger or similar type beater does toss things from my experiences when dumping in piles, we get some nice help at our place, they think manure is garbage, and there are cans, a dumpster etc., someone tossed scissors and assorted junk in there, this was on an old beat up allis chalmers spreader with a regular beater, had to duck and I went off the handle on these people about it, problem is I don't hire em, but get stuck with them and pay for it sometimes, I used to get too heated when people act stupid I suppose, but when you have things like that in manure, justifiably so.

The other thing I used this for is mulching, not like a machine meant to do that, but you can load em up with loose hay, straw, set the apron chain on the slowest speed and have at it, just you need that hay nearby, and a helper to make time, I did an entire paddock with it when over seeding, worked quite well.

There is one sealed bearing on the flail shaft and one that you can grease you definitely want to check on that and for loose parts, one of the flush type head, allen screws/bolts holding a gear or sprocket almost came apart, caught it because I open the side cover and check, oil, grease things. Before my leg got screwed up, there was a complaint about bees stinging horses near the manure ramp, ground hornets they say, I can't find em, went to service that spreader cause they don't when I am not around as usual, and low and behold, no one had opened up that cover all summer huge nest of yellow jackets, telling you to grease/oil that darned spreader !!! LOL

Do inspect those flail weights on the flail ends, you don't want one of those flying off.

Side Console where in Sw MN are you I need an old Deere Spreader myself. From South Central MN here. Email me at [email protected]