Eric Dejager, Inwood, IA area is one of the best people to ask why he uses Bunning.  He’s a custom spreader.  With two Bunning 320 rigs he does upwards of 16,000 acres each ‘spreading season’ – which for him is after harvest through January.  He relates: “I’ve been custom spreading for several years.  I’ve tried different brands of spreaders.  Dale Behring, Bunning dealer at Sioux Falls was always trying to get me to ‘demo’ a Bunning. I said, “You’re crazy.  Your machines are too expensive.”  But one day in the middle of winter we had a breakdown.  It was snowy, temps below 10 degrees.  I called Dale. Within an hour they arrived with a Bunning.  They hooked it up; I never unhooked it.  It was smoother; it pushed manure out faster; it took less power and the spreading pattern was perfect.”

“Yes, I was impressed.  I ordered a new Bunning, model 320 but they let me keep this demo unit until the new spreader came in.  We now run two 320s.”

Efficiency is key to Dejager. “On my previous spreaders I turned the apron up to run 30 percent. My tractors would be working harder.  That just simply burns more fuel. With our other spreaders you could feel when the manure was coming through…you’d bog the tractor down.  With our Bunning’s the manure works so smoothly into the beaters you don’t even sense a power drag.”

Dejager continued, “When you’re in this custom spreading business you want to do the best job so discharge pattern is really important.  My first year with a Bunning we kept ‘Brand X’ as our second rig. A couple guys called me and said, ‘You can’t come back unless you have two Bunnings.  We could see exactly where Brand X spread.’

Manure pack can cause issues with equipment. With the Bunning, you are able to adapt to any manure pack and adjust rates. “I can have the local agronomist give me a jumper drive (USB port) which plugs into my GPS on my tractor.  This prints out a map of the field we are spreading by showing different colors of the soils in that particular field. This data then changes the discharge rate of my spreader on the go as we work across the field.”

This capability allows the spreader to be in clear communication with the farmer and helps ease the reporting on soil health that is increasing for everyone – easing the tension of erosion losses and water quality because farmers are able to see exactly how much went onto each acre.

 “Bottom line: Manure has value.  Farmers know this.  So getting more performance from each ton of manure is important just like squeezing a few more bushels from their fields.  We know how to handle manure.  It’s our living and we do it right.  Yes, since switching to Bunning spreaders we are doing a better job for our customers.  That means building better soil health!”

To learn more about the Bunning spreader or to find a local dealer, please visit NorwoodSales.com