Manure spreader

A manure spreader or muck spreader or honey wagon is an agricultural machine used to distribute manure over a field as a fertilizer. A typical (modern) manure spreader consists of a trailer towed behind a tractor with a rotating mechanism driven by the tractor's power take off (PTO). Truck mounted manure spreaders are also common in North America.

Manure spreaders began as ground-driven units which could be pulled by a horse or team of horses. Many of these ground-driven spreaders are still produced today, mostly in the form of small units that can be pulled behind a larger garden tractor or an all terrain vehicle (ATV). In recent years hydraulic and PTO driven units have been developed to offer variable application rates. Several models are also designed with removable rotating mechanisms (beaters), attachable side extensions, and tailgates for hauling chopped forages, cereal grains, and other crops. A typical (modern) manure spreader consists of a trailer towed behind a tractor with a rotating mechanism driven by the tractor's power take off (PTO).

The first successful automated manure spreader was designed by Joseph Kemp in 1875. Manure spreaders began as ground-driven units which could be pulled by a horse or team of horses. At the time of his invention, he was living in Waterloo, Canada, but thereafter, he moved to Newark Valley, NY and formed the J.S. Kemp Manufacturing Co. to manufacture and market his current and subsequent designs. In 1903, he expanded the company to Waterloo, Iowa before selling the design to International Harvester, in 1906.

Joseph Oppenheim of Maria Stein, Ohio was the inventor of the first modern 'widespreading' manure spreader and is honored as such in the Ohio Agricultural Hall of Fame. Originally manure was thrown from a wagon. Later, “manure unloaders” used a drag chain at the bottom of the wagon to pull the load of manure to the rear where it was shredded by a pair of beaters. Because the unloaders deposited manure directly behind the wagon but with very little spreading to the sides, farmers still had to take the time-consuming step of heading into the fields with peg-tooth drags or similar implements to spread the manure in order to prevent burning the soil.

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