Filling fertiliser spreader with one tractor.

JackoTS90

Member
Livestock Farmer
Anyone on here have any genius ideas to efficiently fill a spreader with only one tractor? Have one tractor with a loader and nothing else. Thought about a platform that we could sit a bag on, which seems like a good idea. Or use a bag lifter, but tractor is only 90hp and a wee bit light by the time the spreader is full and sat further back because of the lifter.
so basically just needing some ideas, using the collective of the forum may think of something I haven’t? Have about 160 tonne to spread over the whole season so not just a few bags here and there.
cheers
 

DrDunc

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Dunsyre
I've seen a contractor who uses a low loader trailer which has a "hiab" crane from a lorry mounted on the back over the trailer axles. It's an old plant trailer where you'd ordinarily hook off then drive your digger/dumper etc on from the front over the drawbar.

The hi-ab plugs into the tractor hydraulics and he can either load his 3 tonne spreader directly, or load bags onto the trailer for transport to the field for refilling.

Low loader drawbar is long and low enough that it can be hooked on with the spreader still on the tractor. He can also bring another implement to wherever he's working on the trailer.

This is the type of trailer he has the hiab attached to (though not with such nice new paintwork🤣)

s-l400.jpg
 

adam_farming

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Suffolk
Watching this with interest. I'm in similar position, 1x 68hp with loader, which will pull the drill. Fert spreader is a vicon wagtail but we do also have a 35x that could maybe go on, if it would lift and carry a 600kg bag in the hopper? As regards the drill, maybe we put the seed bag in a trailer without the back on the just handball into the drill with buckets/bags? Only 2t of seed for the whole area so might not be the worst idea.
 

Horn&corn

Member
I've got a bag lifter no longer used.
Front weight would be required though.
No front weight required. Just put a bucket on loader. I’ve seen pictures of a contractor adapt a bag lifter to sit on the linkage and therefore spreader didn’t sit any further back. Basically no top link just mounted directly. Other options are some sort of gantry you can fill up and use, buy second small tractor and use rear end loader on linkage or find a strong tree to hang 160t from
 

Badshot

Member
Location
Kent
I've seen a contractor who uses a low loader trailer which has a "hiab" crane from a lorry mounted on the back over the trailer axles. It's an old plant trailer where you'd ordinarily hook off then drive your digger/dumper etc on from the front over the drawbar.

The hi-ab plugs into the tractor hydraulics and he can either load his 3 tonne spreader directly, or load bags onto the trailer for transport to the field for refilling.

Low loader drawbar is long and low enough that it can be hooked on with the spreader still on the tractor. He can also bring another implement to wherever he's working on the trailer.

This is the type of trailer he has the hiab attached to (though not with such nice new paintwork🤣)

View attachment 978101
I've a hiab on a trailer now.
That's why I don't use the bag lifter anymore.
 

JackoTS90

Member
Livestock Farmer
We managed to sweet-talk the local PowerNet lads into putting a couple of poles in for us about 4.8 apart, then they went back up with a bit of I-beam we supplied (with several rows of hooks on it)
Cost us $200 toward their social club and 3 boxes of beer, and was a very solid hanger-of-bags
This is a great 💡
 

JackoTS90

Member
Livestock Farmer
I’m all for thinking outside the box and for 16t of fertiliser I too would make do…
But 160! That’s £48k and 10% of that would probably find a RTF capable of loading that in the yard
I know. Fertiliser is only on the up too. Just gets dearer and dearer. Not really interested in buying another machine for one job. The reason we went with this is because of the rising cost of fertiliser and needing to use it more effectively to try and grow more grass. As you mine the soil, you have to put it back. Usually get a truck in to spread but have been unsatisfied with the quality of the work, hence doing it ourselves.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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