General Information

Serial #

259389

Part Number

1

Total Parts

1

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

metal undercarriage and body, blades, parts/ wood top sides with metal edging/ rubber? and metal conveyor/ rubber hoses and tires/ synthetic pipe/ synthetic rope

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

725.0 cm

Width

244.0 cm

Height

164.0 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Agriculture

Category

Land improvement

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

AGCO

Country

United States of America

State/Province

Georgia

City

Norcross

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

Circa 1993 +

Canada

The manure spreader has been used since new by the Schmidt family on their dairy farm in Perth Township East, in southwestern Ontario. It was purchased from D&S Downham Equipment which is the Agco/New Idea dealership in Stratford, Ontario.

Function

A tractor-drawn implement used to transport manure to a farm field and distribute it evenly over the land to fertilize it. This specimen was used to distribute dry manure and chopped straw on fallow pasture fields.

Technical

A manure spreader representing the emergence of spreaders with PTO and pneumatic tires. The pneumatic tires on this spreader provide a significant amount of additional floatation over earlier models with metal wheels. The tandem axle in conjunction with pneumatic tires allows for a greater hauling and field floatation. This machine has a 320 bushel capacity. Finally the use of PTO to operate the unloading and spreading mechanism means the clogging problems associated with ground drive spreaders were alleviated. Unlike its competitors, since the 1980s New Idea has built manure spreaders with heavy gauge formed galvanized boxes. Although this technological innovation adds to the initial cost of the unit, many manure spreaders go out of service well before the mechanism has failed because the floor or corners of the box has been rotted through by manure. New Idea has been in existence since the late 1890s and since that time has been most associated with the manufacture of manure spreaders. Unlike John Deere and International Harvester, New Idea made no attempt to become a full-line company, furthermore they set up their manufacturing facility in Coldwater, Ohio well away from the centre of agricultural equipment manufacturing in the American mid-west. This machine was manufactured after the company had been purchased by Agco and production had been moved to Hesston, Kansas where other Agco products such as Hesston haying equipment is built. American collectors incorrectly give the company's two founders Henry Synck and Joseph Oppenheim credit for the invention of the first practical manure spreader. The innovation, (New Idea) for which they do deserve credit was the introduction of paddles on the manure spreader beater bar. Their early 20th century competitors used a spiked beater bar very similar in appearance to the concave on a threshing machine, these spikes had a tendency to become wrapped in straw eventually leading to the mechanism plugging. The paddles on the New Idea have a tendency to cut through this straw and the angle of trajectory of the manure they produce spreads a wider swath than with that of a spike spreader. Today all dry manure spreaders use some variant of this paddle design. The credit for the invention of the manure spreader goes to a Canadian, Joseph Kemp of the Stratford, Ontario area.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

Plate on front reads 'AGCO/ NORCROSS, GA 90092 U.S.A./ 3632/ 259389'/ black lettering on each side reads 'NEW IDEA'/ yellow and black warning stickers/ cast lettering on side reads 'NI/ NEW IDEA'

Missing

unknown

Finish

Medium grey painted undercarriage and parts/ galvanized metal body/ remnants of light grey paint on wood/ grey and black painted parts/ black rubber/ remnants of yellow paint on conveyor bars/ yellow and white synthetic/ glossy off-white painted wheel hubs/ yellow rope

Decoration

Logo consisting of red stripe with lettering 'NI'