Russ' Vintage Iron

The last several weeks my main focus has been on manure (insert your own joke here). I am writing a series about manure and it has been on my mind quite a bit recently.

Combine this with the fact we are also currently spreading manure on our own family farm and it is only natural that I write about vintage manure spreaders in this month's edition of Russ' Vintage Iron.

My family has had both dairy and beef cattle for multiple generations and at other times also had hogs, sheep, chickens and even turkeys. Needless to say, we have had owned a few manure spreaders.

About the first manure spreader my dad remembers my grandpa having was a steel-wheeled New Idea. He said he didn't remember the model number but it had four wheels. I believe this old spreader was one I played on as a kid in the trees, where the old equipment went to die.

Grandpa then had a newer New Idea spreader which had rubber-tires. Then around 1960 he bought a slightly used John Deere 620 tractor (which we will still have) and also bought a John Deere combination manure spreader/feed wagon.

Dad said removable sides converted it from a spreader to feed wagon but he said his dad had all sorts of problems with it and returned the implement to the local dealer. He continued to use this second New Idea spreader as he cleaned up after his herd of Guernsey dairy cows.

Obviously this idea didn't catch on with John Deere because searching the internet I could not find a single reference about this combo implement. If you know what it was called or remembered this piece of vintage iron, please let me know it would make for an interesting column.

Anyway, in the mid-1960s my dad joined his dad on the farm milking cows and shortly after they purchased a used Case spreader from a neighbor. After a few years of using the Case spreader, they purchased another New Idea spreader.

I am fairly certain one (if not both) were in the trees. After looking at photos of Case and New Idea spreaders online, I know there was at least one wooden spreader painted that light orange color in the trees.

His next spreader was International manure spreader, which was metal instead wood. I vaguely recall him spreading just north of the place with the 620 and this had to be late 1970s/early 1980s.

My dad used the International until the mid-1980s when he bought a used Hampton manure spreader on a farm equipment auction. Hampton was a local, farm equipment manufacturer so this name may not register with some of you reading this.

This was the spreader he was using when I first starting helping him with tractor chores in the late 1980s.

He usually used the John Deere 4010 on this spreader since it was larger and he would load the spreader and I would take it out to the fields around the farm place. That Hampton spread much manure for us for about 20 years on two different farms.

It starting showing its age and we broke a shaft one spring. The next winter we bought a used Kelly Ryan (another regional farm equipment company which is still in business) manure spreader on a farm machinery auction. This was roughly 10 years ago and we are stilling using this dependable implement.

All the old spreaders in the trees where hauled to the metal recycler a good 20 years ago. After buying this Kelly Ryan spreader, we consigned the old Hampton to a local consignment equipment auction thinking we would get maybe a couple hundred bucks out of it.

Clearly the well-used machine was going to need major work but it still brought like $750, which amazed us. My dad had only paid $400 for it many years ago.

I gave an even $1,000 for the Kelly Ryan spreader, which after attending several auctions that winter with spreaders on the sale bills, was a pretty good deal. So in the end to upgrade from an older, broken spreader to a newer, working spreader it only cost us $250.

Too bad not every equipment buying and trading deal was that good. Tell me about your experiences with vintage manure spreaders.

Russ Quinn can be reached at russ.quinn@dtn.com

Follow Russ Quinn on Twitter @RussQuinnDTN

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