Once upon a time

AMAZONE manure spreader 

Many people are surprised to learn that AMAZONE used to manufacture manure spreaders once upon a time. Production started in 1949 and continued until the 1970s. They started with conventional single-axle models with hydraulic or rack and pinion unloading, to which a spreading unit could be attached at the rear for spreading manure.

Over time, however, experience showed that very few farmers had tractors powerful enough to spread manure. Heinrich Dreyer therefore soon developed smaller spreaders for tractors from 15 to 18 hp, which were later joined by models with a hydraulic unloading mechanism, larger vehicles with a sliding floor and even a twin-axle spreader.

AMAZONE successfully offered an auger spreading roller as a spreading unit, which performed very well. The negative aspect of this system was the narrow working widths of 2.5 metres.

To counter this disadvantage, Dr Heinz Dreyer developed a special wide spreading unit in 1962 with a straight base spreading roller and an angled spreading roller above it. Due to this innovation, the unit was able to spread the manure over 3.5 to 4 metres. The spreading result was very good, but the technical expenditure was considerable and the price correspondingly high. 

For these reasons, the wide spreader unit unfortunately had little success on the market and was soon discontinued.