Ideas for home made compost chopper

gmol · May 4, 2006

I have around 100 yards of seasoned manure /bedding compost that I would like to chop. Has anyone made a chopper? I was thinking there has to be a way to make one from a manure spreader,flail mower, or even a tiller. Any thoughts are welcome. I am looking to make something that would have a hopper for 1/2 yard capacity or greater . Thanks, G

Taylortractornut · May 5, 2006

I saw a pic in the farm show online one of the first ones was a flail type manure chopper and spreader made out of an old fuel tanke had a shaft down the center with chains and weights on it. 1/4 of the top was removed to top load and discharge. Ive seen them work on manure packed straw and they work good as a spreader. They make a hing like a tiller and a flail mower that chops and aerates the packed litter in a chicken house. It turns at a tillers speev but has an under cut blade that lifts the crap and the flails chop it up.

gmol · May 5, 2006

Where are those pictures ? This is the type of thing I am looking for. I have an old trailer with sides that could be the container for the flails.

Renze · May 5, 2006

Why dont you just have it run through an old manure spreader ? saves you the work of building a chopper. I suppose there is enough cheap old and useful stuff to find around farms when you keep your eyes open.

gmol · May 5, 2006

Would a manure spreader declump it ? I was thinking of hooking a honda motor up to a spreader and negate the ground activation. What do you think ?

drmiller100 · May 6, 2006

go find a used hay chopper or corn chopper.

if you are near idaho, i have a slightly used cement mixer drum with all the hydraulics to mix it yourself.

L3650 · May 11, 2006

How about this?

<<Compost windrow turners for compost producers in yard-waste, manure, food-waste, bio-solids and MSW residue.url>>

http://www.frontierindustrial.net/mm.htm

gmol · May 13, 2006

That windrow turner is the ultimate tool but $11,000.00 is a lot of poo.

RonR · May 13, 2006

I don't know how well they would hold up, or chop stuff up, and it is too big for a compact tractor, but an old round bale tub grinder would be an easy/cheaper way to mix stuff up.

You'd need a tractor to power it, and an FEL that could dump stuff into it. My guess is a small one would hold 800#s of stuff.

I think it would churn the stuff up and would allow you to spread it out to cure.

Thoughts??????????????