Has anyone tried spreading straw in cattle yards using a rear rotor muckspreader?. There seems to be a few gadgets on the market at eyewatering prices that fit on the front of a loader such a the 'spread-a -bale' which looks to me like a muckspreader in reverse ( moving floor to rotary rotors). I'm guessing a muckspreader wouldn't spread far sideways but you could probably load 2 big bales and  just drive round the yard until it was empty.

How big are your sheds ???

180'x40' & 120'x40', plenty of room to turn, at the moment we put 2 bales on the back of  a 2 wheel trailer, cut the strings and drive round forking the straw off the back but this is a 2 man job, I thought I could do the same with a muckspreader and make it a one man job, but I wasn't sure whether the dry straw would go through the rotors. I seems simple in theory but if so why aren't people already doing it?.

Only one way to find out !

Might be best to try just one bale to start with, you don't want to be forking all that straw out eh ?

 not sure a rota spreader would work but maybe a rear discharge would work

When I first started composting water waste I tried spreading Hesstons and mini-Hesstons with a 10 ton Ktwo rear discharge muckspreader. Putting bales in whole just broke shearbolts, no matter how slow the trace was: it would snatch wads off the bale and jam up. I did a lot better by breaking the bales up a bit with the grapple before I dropped the straw in, but the throw wasn't very great. The straw was lovely and fluffy, but I found the only way was to leave the spreader stationary and scoop it away from the back with the fork and grapple.

Years ago I used to put boardy round bales of straw (we all bale a bit damp sometimes!) into a Howard rotaspreader, and it made a lovely job of spreading it. Knocked hell out of the spreader, and took an age to start, but a good throw of loose straw!

Are the cattle in the yard when you spread the straw ?

We have a spread-a-bale and I think the reason it works so well is the variable floor speed.  It needs to be really slow or you just throw wads out.  Because the floor on the muck spreader moves faster and the bale holds together more than muck you might just snap the gearing in the augers.....seen it done before.

Guess it's either back to the pitchfork or off to see the bank manager then.

Strawchoppers are very expensive, but I don't think you'll ever regret buying one. Best labour saving device ever invented. Also much safer than spreading straw by hand amongst playfull bullocks and what's more, you save on straw.....but not a hell of a lot.