Thursday, 12 December 2019 10:54

Dual-purpose Keenan Orbital spreads muck up to 20m

Written by  Mark Daniel
The Keenan Orbital spreader. The Keenan Orbital spreader.

With travelling irrigators being the preferred choice for dealing with dairy farm effluent in New Zealand, the sight of effluent tankers or manure spreaders is a relatively rare one.

However, the problem of repeated applications to the same area is, in many cases, causing problems with high levels of potassium. Additionally, the move by some forward-thinking farmers to feedpads is resulting in the need to deal with some drier manures.

The Irish company Keenan, known for its high-capacity mixer/feeders, also makes an interesting dual-purpose machine -- the Keenan Orbital spreader, centred on a semi-cylindrical tank. 

A rear mounted pushing door delivers the material to a large flywheel mounted at the front of the machine. That flywheel, a solid 1.8m diameter disc, carries six paddles and rotates at 170 rpm. 

In operation, the material hitting the flywheel and the paddles is shredded then passes out for spreading through a side opening. It will spread material -- depending on its makeup -- up to 20m.

During loading and transportation, a hydraulically actuated slurry door seperates the chamber and flywheel, allowing the machine to handle both liquid and drier manures and ensuring low start-up torque.

The machine has only four key moving parts and is solidly built, so Keenan claims excellent reliability and low maintenance costs. The set-up also benefits from one main drive chain and all bearings being located outside of the main body of the spreader.

A variable rate control system for the rear door/pusher arm allows precise adjustment of material arriving at the rotor, to achieve typical spreading times of 1.5 to 5 minutes per load.

Additionally, as the load moves forward, weight is transferred to the tractor’s rear axle, for positive traction in poor ground conditions.

The Orbital has a tare weight of 5.5 tonnes and a minimum power requirement of 120hp.

More like this

Irish, NZ connection showcased

The Irish Minister of State for Rural Communities says his country and New Zealand face very similar challenges on a range of issues related to agriculture, including climate change, biodiversity and rural depopulation.

Effluent is 'rocket fuel' for grass

Precision Slurry says they are effluent application specialists who pride themselves on leading the way in cleaning out any system - fully utilising the nutrients often seen as a problem on farms.

Featured

Australia develops first local mRNA FMD vaccine

Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks could have a detrimental impact on any country's rural sector, as seen in the United Kingdom's 2000 outbreak that saw the compulsory slaughter of over six million animals.

NZ household food waste falls again

Kiwis are wasting less of their food than they were two years ago, and this has been enough to push New Zealand’s total household food waste bill lower, the 2025 Rabobank KiwiHarvest Food Waste survey has found.

Editorial: No joking matter

OPINION: Sir Lockwood Smith has clearly and succinctly defined what academic freedom is all about, the boundaries around it and the responsibility that goes with this privilege.

National

All eyes on NZ milk supply

All eyes are on milk production in New Zealand and its impact on global dairy prices in the coming months.

Machinery & Products

Leader balers arrive in NZ

Officially launched at the National Fieldays event in June, the Leader in-line conventional PRO 1900 balers are imported and distributed…

JDLink Boost for NZ farms

Connectivity is widely recognised as one of the biggest challenges facing farmers, but it is now being overcome through the…

New generation Defender HD11

The all-new 2026 Can-Am Defender HD11 looks likely to raise the bar in the highly competitive side-by-side category.

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Full cabinet

OPINION: Legislation being drafted to bring back the controversial trade of live animal exports by sea is getting stuck in the…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter