Stoltzfus is pleased to announce the launch of our new line of large capacity, single axle row crop lime and fertilizer spreaders. These machines are designed for large growers who need wide swath spreading of lime or fertilizer. They ship ‘variable rate ready’, meaning they are ready to be connected to your precision ag computer for variable rate spreading. The Row Crop spreaders come standard with an adjustable wheel track that can vary between 90” and 152”, giving you the flexibility to top-dress standing crops planted on different row spacings. Choose between the RC-1516, designed to hold 15 tons of lime, and the RC-1520, designed to hold 15 tons of fertilizer. The spreaders are outfitted with your choice of flotation or row crop tires. All RC spreaders come standard with Cor-Ten HSLA weathering steel hoppers, 24” slat style drag chains, plug to tractor hydraulics, top-driven dual hydraulic spinners, sight window, open/closed center hydraulic valve, electronic gate actuator and CAT IV hitch.

See the brochures for more information:

RC-1516
RC-1520

We recently had a customer pose a great question and thought we would post it and the answer here for others to see.

Question:  I have viewed your website and am not clear on the primary difference between your Wet Lime Spreader and your Redhawk ground driven lime & fertilizer spreader. Both units will handle wet lime, correct? Can you highlight the advantages of one over the other as it relates to what I’m trying to accomplish? I want to make sure I make the right purchasing decision.

Answer:  Yes, both spreaders will spread wet lime. The main difference between the Wet Lime Spreader (WLS) series and the Redhawk series is that the WLS is all power take-off (PTO) driven (both the conveyor and the spinners) while the Redhawk has a ground driven conveyor with the spinners driven by the tractor’s hydraulics (13-15 gpm). The Redhawk also has a hydraulic cylinder to control the press wheel, so the tractor needs to have 2 sets of hydraulic remotes and 13-15 gpm hydraulic flow available, whereas there are no hydraulic requirements for the WLS spreader.

Both machines can spread lime and fertilizer with the same spread pattern. The advantage of the Redhawk ground drive spreader is that the conveyor speed is correlated to your driving speed. This means that if you slow down the spreader will discharge less and your spread rate per acre will remain constant. With the WLS spreader you need to drive at a constant speed to maintain a constant spread rate as the conveyor goes at a fixed speed. Generally people are more concerned about over applying fertilizer and not as much concerned with potentially over applying lime. So it really comes down to personal preference (unless your tractor doesn’t have sufficient hydraulics to run the Redhawk), but normally people who are mainly spreading lime opt for the Wet Lime Spreader as it costs a little less and people spreading more fertilizer opt for the Redhawk spreader.

We are pleased to announce that we have added videos to our website. This is intended to give potential customers and interested persons a better idea of what we do and how the equipment performs. The videos can be found under the Resources section of the website or at this link: http://www.stoltzfusspreaders.com/resources/video-gallery.php.

Thanks to Barry in NSW, Australia for this kind testimonial about his new BMS 1516 Bulk Material Spreader:

“I imported my Stoltzfus BMS into Australia as I could not find a heavy duty spreader that ranged from single super going out at 125kgs/ha [112lbs/acre] to bulkier organic materials spread at 7-8cum/ha [100-114 cubic feet per acre].  After I had 25t of lime sitting in a wet heap for two years with no one within Cooee able to spread heavy wet lime, what finally sold me was the machine’s capability to spread wet lime.  I have only been using the machine for 6 weeks but it has done a heap of work spreading anything from DAP and sulphate of potash at 125kgs/ha [112lbs/acre] to aglime at 3t/ha [1.3 tons/acre] to chicken litter and composted municipal waste at 7cum/ha [100 cubic feet per acre].  With the Raven rate controller I can go from spreading compost at 5t/ha [2.2 tons per acre] back to single super next load at 125kgs/ha [112lbs/acre] simply by closing down the gate on the rear of the spreader.  This flexibility raises our productivity.  I am happy with my Stoltzfus and expect it to be working hard for a long time to come”

Stoltzfus Spreaders has sold its signature “WChain” boom spreader to a prawn farm on the Red Sea coast. Dry lime is applied before each pond is restocked for another cycle.

Lime Spreader

The other day we had a chance to visit a local farmer to watch him run his 8 ton Stoltzfus ag lime spreader. He was spreading 2-1/2 ton per acre at 5 mph. The lime was from a local power plant and was fairly dusty.  Here is a video of the spreader in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heKEcms8z_k&feature=plcp

After several calls from customers who have misplaced their manuals, we have now posted the rate charts for the most common lime spreader models in the Resources section of the website.  They can be found here: http://www.stoltzfusspreaders.com/resources/science-best-practices.php.  These documents also include improved instructions on how to change the body chain gearing.