JBS Equipment launches manure spreaders in Australia

It was this demand that led JBS Equipment to launch a series of the Canadian manufactured manure spreaders in Australia at Henty Machinery Field Days.

Distribution manager for Atlas Ag, Jeff Saunders, Brisbane, said Australian farmers are beginning to follow the same trend seen in Europe and North America.

"There is this movement back to the conditioning of soil and utilising manure as a conditioner of soil rather than just reliant on chemical fertilisers," he said.

"We're seeing that more and more manure is going to have a much bigger place in Australia."

Mr Saunders said they were getting strong interest while at Henty.

"Interestingly I've had a few contractors come on site and their biggest issue is not being able to get enough manure so it's clear the market is starting to get ahead," he said.

"The bigger feedlots and dairies are realising the value of what they've got sitting in piles and they're turning that into a commodity."

Mr Saunders said the spreaders had the main benefit of versatility, as well as dynamic rate control.

"These machines you can take the beaters off and swap them around and the same unit does several jobs. These do anything from very light materials like gypsum and lime to they're spreading clay over in WA on sand soils."

Meanwhile on the home front for Australian made Landaco Equipment, Wagga Wagga, Matt Connor said there was always demand for local products but it was increasing.

"We have seen a huge demand uplift in people looking for the right solution, especially for granular products now that a lot more people are going over the wider width," he said.

"They're looking for that next level of accuracy."

Mr Connor said with the improvements in electronics they had many existing customers upgrade their machines, as well as farmers switching to granular fertilisers rather than liquid applications with boom sprayers.

"There's always people that weigh up the difference," he said.

"The conversation is that now we've got that extra bit of control particularly with that variable rate a lot of people are jumping away from that liquid application to something granular," he said.

"It also gives that capability to do other products like lime, gypsum and manures. It adds that versatility to the farm, so a lot of people are jumping over to that."

Mr Connor said there was also huge demand for muck spreaders, particularly from contractors using chicken manure as a source of urea.